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January 26, 2018 at 12:28 AM
Theresa May should introduce an emergency budget to plow more funds into the U.K.’s ailing National Health Service, opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn will say on Thursday evening as he ratchets up pressure on the premier over health care funding.
Speaking at a rally in London alongside his party’s health spokesman, Jonathan Ashworth, Corbyn will draw attention to NHS statistics showing more than 116,000 patients have had to wait in the back of an ambulance for more than half an hour so far this winter.
“The government is failing staff, patients and their families across the whole country,” Corbyn will say, according to a statement emailed by his office. “We simply can’t go on like this. The Government must bring forward an emergency budget for the NHS to give it the money it needs and end this crisis.”
(Related: Health Service Plans Poorly, Raising Costs, U.K. Lawmakers Say)
Emboldened by last year’s general election, in which Labour gained 30 seats and stripped May of her majority, Corbyn is using his strongest suit to gain ground on her: polls consistently show the electorate trust Labour over May’s Conservatives on health care policy. At the three weekly parliamentary sessions of Prime Minister’s Questions held since the Christmas recess ended, 12 of 18 of Corbyn’s questions to May have been about the NHS.
