Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the Health Foundation’s warning that NHS workforce planning is ‘not fit for purpose’, said:

“Theresa May has overseen an unprecedented workforce crisis in the NHS. This latest warning is the culmination of an incompetent strategy, which has left our health service with a shortage of 40,000 nurses, 3,500 midwives and 10,000 GPs.

“For years the Tories have taken NHS staff for granted and asked them to do more for less, resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis which threatens patient care on a daily basis. Evidently the Government’s hope of recruiting 2,000 extra foreign GPs by 2020 looks thoroughly unlikely.

“The public is under no illusions: a repeat of last winter is entirely intolerable. In next month’s Budget the Government must take urgent action to secure a sustainable workforce in our NHS in years to come.”

John McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on analysis published today by the IFS on the public finances ahead of the Budget, said:

“The IFS have today confirmed seven years of Tory austerity policies have failed to drive up investment and productivity, with serious potential consequences for the public finances. Tory economic failure means wages and salaries are lower today than when they came to power, and still falling, whilst their mishandling of Brexit is now also adding to the uncertainty around future borrowing plans.

“Instead of dragging millions of ordinary people through the endless misery of Tory spending cuts, the Chancellor now needs to make a decisive break with past Tory failure and end austerity. If he cannot, Labour stands ready to govern, end the appalling failure of Tory austerity and build an economy that works for the many, not the few.”