Keir Starmer channels Tony Blair with chilling warning that the NHS ‘won’t survive’ a Tory election victory – as he vows to bring back top-down targets

• Labour leader claims NHS is ‘broken’ after ‘cycle of decline’ under Conservatives 

Sir Keir Starmer has warned the NHS ‘can’t survive’ a Tory victory at the next general election as he attempted to pile the pressure on the Government over waiting times.

The Labour leader claimed the health service was ‘broken’ and accused the Conservatives of overseeing a ‘cycle of decline’ during their 13 years in power.

He also channelled the party’s former leader Sir Tony Blair by promising to bring back NHS targets to ensure patients are treated promptly.

New research by Labour suggested around 4.5million patients in England went to A&E last year because they could not get a GP appointment. 

The party has also pointed to ‘terrifying’ data showing people calling 999 for an ambulance endured waits of more than 90 minutes before calls were picked up in December.

Sir Keir Starmer claimed the health service was ‘broken’ and accused the Conservatives of overseeing a ‘cycle of decline’

Sir Keir also channelled the party’s former leader Sir Tony Blair by promising to bring back NHS targets to ensure patients are treated promptly

Sir Keir warned the future of the NHS would be in peril if the Conservatives continued in power.

‘I think the NHS is broken,’ he told the Telegraph. ‘There’s been one way of doing things for the last 13 years, and this is where we’ve ended up now with the NHS.’

The Labour leader added: ‘If they carry on like this, it can’t survive – the biggest risk to the NHS is another Tory government.’ 

The Tories hit back by claiming Labour’s controversial plan to effectively nationalise GPs would cost £15billion.  

Rishi Sunak has vowed to cut NHS waiting lists as one of his five immediate priorities as Prime Minister.

In another interview with the i newspaper, Sir Keir stressed he would want to ‘see a difference straight away’ in NHS waiting times and patient care if his party won power.

He suggested he would use the same model as Sir Tony, one of his Labour predecessors, to impose targets for NHS performance.

‘The last Labour government did put targets around it, so there is a model we know can work,’ Sir Keir said.

‘They drove the waiting lists down dramatically over two or three years.’

Sir Keir acknowledged that improving NHS performance would ‘take time’ should he become PM after the next general election.

‘I would like to begin to see a difference straight away,’ he added.

‘But it will take time because reforming public services always does. There are things that can be done in the immediate here and now in terms of the ambulances, nurses, junior doctors, waiting lists, not being able to see a GP – they are all the immediate problems.

‘So longer-term change and reform will obviously take longer.’ 

A recent Government-commissioned review by former Labour health secretary Patricia Hewitt found that the NHS should abolish a raft of national targets while shifting its focus towards preventing ill health.

Ms Hewitt said ministers should consider significantly reducing the number of national targets, with no more than 10 national priorities.  

Health minister Will Quince said: ‘If Labour were serious about supporting the NHS, they’d scrap their idea for an unfunded £15 billion top-down restructuring of GPs that’s opposed by both patients and doctors.

‘It’s sad they have decided to play puerile political games rather than come forward with a serious plan for building a stronger NHS.

‘Our priority is to cut waiting lists – that’s why we are getting hundreds more doctors in general practice than last year and record numbers in training, helping patients to see their GP more quickly.’

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