EXCL Jon Ashworth: Conservative claim they set up NHS is 'laughable'
2 min read
Jeremy Hunt has sparked a fresh row after insisting it was the Conservatives and not the Labour party who set up the NHS.
The Health Secretary said former Tory minister Sir Henry Willink had published the white paper announcing the creation of the health service in 1944.
However, it was not founded until four years later by Labour's Nye Bevan.
In his speech to the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mr Hunt said the NHS should not be "a political football (or) a weapon to win votes".
He said: "When Labour question our commitment to the NHS, just tell them that no party has a monopoly on compassion.
"It’s not a Labour Health Service or a Conservative Health Service but a National Health Service that we built and are building together - as I’ve said many times.
"And the next time they question our record, tell them we’ve given our NHS more doctors, more nurses and more funding than ever before in its history."
But Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth immediately hit back at his opposite number, telling PoliticsHome: "Jeremy Hunt's claim the Tories created the NHS is laughable. The Tories fought it tooth and nail all the way through Parliament on a three line whip. In fact they voted against the creation of the NHS 22 times including at Third Reading.
"Over the last 70 years, the Tories have under-funded and tried to sell off the NHS. Labour governments have always stepped in to fully fund and rebuild the NHS. And so it will again fall to the next Labour government to give the NHS the funding it needs and rebuild it to deliver the quality world class health service every patient deserves."
NURSES
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Hunt confirmed the Government was creating 5,000 new degree places for nurses and funding for 5,500 new apprentice nurses.
He also said nurses will be prioritised for affordable housing built on surplus NHS land.
The minister also said he was "confident" that the 150,000 EU workers in the NHS will be allowed to stay in the UK with the same rights they currently enjoy after Brexit.
But Labour MP Chris Bryant said: "The Health Secretary’s warm words cannot make up for the fact that, nearly 18 months after the referendum, the Government have still failed to guarantee the rights of EU nationals living in our country.
"This shameful game-playing with peoples’ lives is putting our NHS in jeopardy, as the number of EU nationals coming to work here as nurses and midwives has already fallen by a shocking 96% since the referendum."
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