'Brexit' cash and taxpayer wallets to fund NHS cash boost

The five-year budget will see a cash pot allocated to the NHS, but Labour claims the funding is "based on wishful thinking".

By Sanya Burgess, news reporter

Sunday 17 June 2018 11:44, UK

A NHS (National Health Service) sign is pictured outside St Thomas' Hospital, near the Houses of Parliament, in central London on March 8, 2017. Britain's economy will grow by 2.0 percent this year, sharply up on a previous forecast of 1.4 percent, finance minister Philip Hammond said Wednesday in his budget statement. Hammond also announced a two billion pound increase in spending for social care, over the next three years, in an effort to tackle pressure on the NHS.
Image: The NHS is to turn 70 in a few weeks
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The NHS will receive an extra £20bn a year in real terms funding by 2024, Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed.

Mrs May is setting out the five-year budget to mark the 70th anniversary of the health service and says the extra money will come from what is being termed a "Brexit dividend".

She will announce that money that no longer needs to be sent to the EU after Britain leaves the bloc will help fund the increase.

Taxpayers will also be asked to contribute more for the NHS and the government will be forced to borrow money.

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Image: Campaigners have pushed for more cash to support the NHS

A long-term plan will be drawn up with help from doctors to set out how the resources should be allocated.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mrs May said: "Now, as we leave the European Union and stop paying significant annual subscriptions to Brussels, we will have more money to spend on priorities such as the NHS.

"But to give the NHS the funding it needs for the future, this Brexit dividend will not be enough.

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"As a country, we need to contribute a bit more in a fair and balanced way. We will listen to views about how we do this and the Chancellor will set out the detail in due course. To deliver, this plan must be about more than money. "

The move comes as Mrs May faces another difficult week in Parliament with Tory rebels again threatening to defy her over how much influence MPs will have over any EU withdrawal deal.

"As the prime minister announces a historic long-term funding boost and 10-year plan for the health service, we are backing the NHS to show the world what a cutting-edge 21st century healthcare system can look like too," said Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

STAFFORD, ENGLAND - MAY 17: Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave, Brexit Battle Bus tour on May 17, 20016 in Stafford, England. Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave campaign are touring the UK in their Brexit Battle Bus. The campaign is hoping to persuade voters to back leaving the European Union in the Referendum on the 23rd June 2016. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Image: Brexit campaigners suggested that money not sent to the EU could be spent on the NHS

"This long-term plan and historic funding boost is a fitting birthday present for our most loved institution.

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"Like no other organisation could ever hope to be, the NHS is there for every family at the best and worst of times, from the wonder of birth to the devastation of death, living and breathing those very British values of decency, fairness and compassion."

Mr Hunt added that the money will create an opportunity for the NHS "to write an entirely new chapter in its history".

Newcastle, UK - February 10, 2016: The NHS (National Health Service) logo on an entrance sign for the Royal Victoria Infirmary, a teaching hospital which includes an accident and emergency department...Part of an NHS hospital entrance sign in Newcastle, England.
Image: The health service is to receive a funding boost

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Hunt said: "The debate over Brexit can be divisive, but that famous campaign promise can now unite us all: the British public voted for £350m a week for the NHS, and that - and more - is exactly what this Government will deliver."

Sustainable long-term funding for the NHS could cost £2,000 for every household in Britain, or the equivalent of 9p on income tax, two respected think tanks previously told Sky News.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: "As the NHS turns 70, we can now face the next five years with renewed certainty.

"This multi-year settlement provides the funding we need to shape a long-term plan for key improvements in cancer, mental health and other critical services."

British Medical Association (BMA) chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul welcomed the funding boost, saying: "Patients, doctors and healthcare staff have been united in calling for an urgent and substantial increase in funding as the NHS struggles under unprecedented pressures that have driven waiting times and delays to historic highs.

"It is refreshing that the government has finally conceded that our health service needs extra resources, with BMA analysis showing a significant funding gap compared to other leading European countries.

"However, we will be scrutinising the detail of this new package of funding to assess the degree to which it will make a real difference in both the short and long term to frontline patient care."

But Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said much of the funding is "based on wishful thinking".

"Labour would have invested nearly £9bn extra this year in the NHS and social care, while asking the wealthiest and big corporations to pay their fair share of tax.

"Theresa May could have announced this but chose not to. She won't stand up to vested interests and is instead asking patients to rely on a hypothetical Brexit dividend."

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