Keir Starmer has just wrapped up his speech outlining Labour’s plan to supposedly save the health service from the Tories, claiming the “NHS is on the line” and only his party can stop its imminent demise. This is now the eighteenth time in 26 years that a Labour politician has claimed time is running out to rescue the NHS… 

While the bulk of the speech focused on introducing yet more targets and banning pre-watershed junk food advertising, Starmer also vowed to pump more cash into the service to fund “thousands more staff”. 

“On cost, we have set out the costing for our specific proposals in terms. What it will cost, where we will get the money from. Technology, research, development, they will be the game-changers of the future and reduce costs…”

Here is the full briefing for Labour’s NHS “mission”. It contains only one reference to their plans for raising the health service budget: the hiring of more staff will be “fully funded by scrapping the non-dom tax status“. Supposedly they won’t produce a firm figure until the general election. Starmer insisted in his speech it was “just wrong” to challenge him on this – apparently just saying “this is fully funded” is enough, no need for an actual sum…