Starmer goes all in on NHS with PM set to hand health service £30bn spending boost at expense of other public services
Sir Keir Starmer will pump money into the NHS at the expense of other public services.
The government is putting all its eggs in one basket as it lines up the Department for Health for a £30billion cash boost at next week's spending review.
However, health chiefs have warned the prime minister's promise to 'turbocharge delivery' could lead to difficult compromises elsewhere in services from the police to councils.
It comes after the party's unexpected victory in the Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse by-election - though as the threat of Nigel Farage 's Reform UK still looms large.
The Department for Health will be handed an increase of around £200billion to its budget by 2028 - a £17billion rise in real terms.
Its day-to-day budget is set to increase by 2.8 per cent in real terms annually over the three-year spending review period.
Sir Keir has also pledged to have 92 per cent of NHS patients treated within 18 weeks by the next election, a target that has remained unmet for a decade.
Currently, under 60 per cent are seen within this time with waiting lists rising to 7.4million last month.
There are even fears NHS bosses may not hit an interim goal of 65 per cent next year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves' prioritisation of health has forced cuts in other departments and prompted protestations from other cabinet members like Yvette Cooper, the home secretary and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary.
Both have warned Ms Reeves the cuts will put some of the government's crime and housing targets at risk amid 'robust negotiations'.
But the chancellor has maintained 'not every department will get everything they want'.
Overall, the health budget, which stood at £178billion as Labour took office, will exceed £230billion by the next election.
The increase means health is set to account for 41 per cent of all day-to-day departmental spending - up from 39 per cent.
Ben Zaranko, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said Ms Reeves's cash boost was 'a serious, meaningful increase in health funding'.
But Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, warned the funding increase 'is not going to enable us to achieve recovery and reform' without big changes to the way the health service treats patients.
He said the government's plan to withhold the budget for infrastructure simultaneously would also make 'combining recovery and reform' impossible.
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