Sir Keir Starmer has called on Rishi Sunak to apologise for the “lethal chaos” inflicted on the NHS under the Conservative government.
The Labour leader used a feisty exchange at PMQs to accused the prime minister of seeking to “blame others” for record waiting times for ambulances, emergency and elective care.
“When will he stop the excuses, stop shifting the blame, stop the political games and simply tell us when will he stop the delays and get back to the 18-minute wait?” asked Sir Keir.
The Labour leader added: “If he won’t answer any questions, will he at least apologise for the lethal chaos under his watch?”
Mr Sunak fired back by accusing Sir Keir of playing politics with the NHS – pointing to the government’s plan to enforce minimum cover during future strikes in the health service.
“If he cares about ensuring that patients get access to life-saving emergency care when they need it, why won’t he support our minimum safety legislation?” said the PM.
Sir Keir repeatedly brought up record delays to ambulance call-outs at PMQs as he called on the PM to admit the NHS is “in crisis”.
The Labour pointing to some of the record waiting time figures in some parts of the country, which showed that people suffering from heart attacks were waiting more than two and a half hours to get an ambulance.
“If our heart attack victim had called for an ambulance in Peterborough at 12.03pm it wouldn’t arrive until 2:10pm … if they were in Plymouth it wouldn’t arrive until 2.40pm. So, for one week will he stop blaming others, take some responsibility and just admit under his watch the NHS is in crisis – isn’t it?”
Mr Sunak claimed the Tory government would improve ambulance waiting times because of the “extra funding we are putting in”, referring again to Labour’s opposition to anti-strike legislation.
“He describes the life-saving care that people desperately need, so why when in other countries like France, Spain, Italy and others, why is he depriving people of that care?”
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