Desperate Keir Starmer tries to stabilise Labour by vowing to make NHS a six-day service… but what happens if you get sick on Sunday?
In what has swiftly become the PM's worst week in office so far - after he was forced to shelve key welfare reforms - Sir Keir will outline a major health shake-up.
The Government is promising to deliver 'a brand-new era for the NHS' and 'one of the most seismic shifts in care in the history of the health service'.
The '10 Year Health Plan' includes plans for the creation of a 'neighbourhood health service' to ease the strain on hospitals.
New neighbourhood health services will be rolled out across the country to bring tests, post-op care, nursing and mental health teams closer to people's homes.
The aim is to give people access to a full range of services, leaving hospitals to focus on the sickest, with neighbourhood health centres opening at evenings and weekends.
Labour is promising new health centres to house the neighbourhood teams, which will eventually be open 12 hours a day, six days a week within local communities.
But the plans appear to be less ambitious than pledges by previous governments to make the NHS a seven-day service, which were left unmet.
Jeremy Hunt, the former Tory health secretary, saw doctors begin the first all-out strike in NHS history in 2016 as he tried to introduce a seven-day health service.
Ex-Labour PM Gordon Brown also promised new health centres that would open seven days a week for 12 hours a day, but saw his plans resisted by unions.
Sir Keir will use a major speech on Thursday to unveil his vision for the NHS, as he seeks to shift focus away from several chaotic days in Westminster.
This saw him U-turn on welfare cuts amid the threat of a major revolt by Labour MPs, as well as scenes of Chancellor Rachel Reeves crying in the House of Commons.
Writing for broadcaster LBC ahead of the speech, the PM said the Government is now moving to its 'next phase'.
'A major programme of renewal and rebuilding that will transform the entire country,' he added.
'Once again making Britain a nation where you work hard and reap the rewards. A Britain you feel proud to live in once again.'
The new health plan sets out how the NHS will move from analogue to digital, treatment to prevention, and from hospital to more community care.
The 'status quo of hospital by default will end', according to the Government, with care shifted into neighbourhoods and people's homes.
By 2035, the intention is that the majority of outpatient care will happen outside of hospitals, with less need for hospital-based appointments for things like eye care, cardiology, respiratory medicine and mental health.
New services will also include debt advice, employment support and stop smoking or obesity services – all of which affect people's health.
Community outreach, with people going door to door, could also reduce pressure on GPs and A&E, the Government said.
Ahead of the speech, Sir Keir said it was time for the health service to 'reform or die'.
'Our 10-year health plan will fundamentally rewire and future-proof our NHS so that it puts care on people's doorsteps, harnesses game-changing tech and prevents illness in the first place,' he added.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the plan would deliver 'one of the most fundamental changes in the way we receive our healthcare in history'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Rachel Reeves says ‘I was upset but today's a new day' after Commons tears
Chancellor Rachel Reeves was visibly upset during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, stating the next day it was a "personal issue" she would not elaborate on. Despite the emotional moment, Ms Reeves insisted she was "cracking on with the job" when she appeared publicly on Thursday to launch the NHS 10-year plan. 'People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday. Today's a new day,' she said. Keir Starmer publicly defended Ms Reeves, acknowledging he had not fully appreciated her distress during the fast-paced PMQs. The chancellor's emotional display, alongside a £5 billion deficit in spending plans, initially unsettled financial markets, though government bonds rallied and the pound steadied after reassurances about her position. While Labour colleagues defended her, some Conservatives criticised her public show of emotion, suggesting it was inappropriate for a senior leader.
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Every Labour U-turn after PM reverses welfare cuts
Sir Keir Starmer has announced his latest U-turn: a £5bn change of course over his flagship welfare bill. With just minutes to go before MPs were set to vote on an already watered down welfare bill, he confirmed plans abandon a key plank of the reforms in order to get them through parliament and avoid a mass rebellion from his own MPs. The U-turn left the prime minister's authority battered and left the chancellor with a gaping hole in the public finances. As Sir Keir marks one year in office, The Independent looks at all the times he has U-turned on his promises or let voters down. Sir Keir suffered the biggest blow to his leadership since coming into power a year ago after he was forced to abandon a key plank of his controversial benefit cuts in order to get them through parliament. Just 90 minutes before voting began, ministers announced that plans to restrict eligibility for personal independence payments (PIP) – which had been the central pillar of the government's reforms – were being dropped. Sir Keir had already been forced into a U-turn the week before when more than 130 Labour MPs signed an amendment that would have effectively killed the bill off. Among the concessions announced then was a plan to impose tougher eligibility rules only on future PIP claimants, leaving existing recipients unaffected. Winter fuel payments In July, the chancellor announced that pensioners not in receipt of pension credits or other means-tested benefits would no longer receive winter fuel payments - a £300 payment to help with energy costs in the colder months. After spending months ruling out a U-turn, the prime minister in May told MPs he now wants to ensure more pensioners are eligible for the payment – something he claimed has come as a result of an improving economic picture. After weeks of speculation over what the changes would look like, it has now been confirmed that 9 million pensioners will be eligible for the payment - a huge uplift from the 1.5 million pensioners who received the payment in winter 2024-25. Grooming gangs Sir Keir spent months brushing off calls for a national inquiry with statutory powers into grooming gangs as unnecessary. As Elon Musk launched himself headlong into the debate, calling for a fresh probe into the scandal, Labour's refusal looked increasingly unlikely to hold. But Sir Keir stood firm, and even accused those calling for an inquiry, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, of ' jumping on the bandwagon of the far-Right '. But in yet another screeching U-turn, after months of holding out, Sir Keir in June accepted the recommendation of Baroness Casey to hold an inquiry. In a 2022 interview, Sir Keir said: 'All your working life you've got in mind the date on which you can retire and get your pension, and just as you get towards it, the goalposts are moved and you don't get it, and it's a real injustice. 'We need to do something about it. That wasn't the basis on which you paid in or the basis on which you were working.' But, in a familiar change of tune since becoming prime minister, Sir Keir last year sent his work and pensions secretary out to tell Women Against State Pension Inequality, Waspi women, they would not be getting any compensation. National insurance Labour's pre-election manifesto promised not to increase national insurance. It stated: 'Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.' But, Sir Keir and Chancellor Ms Reeves used the ambiguity around whether they meant employer or employee national insurance contributions to steamroll the pledge at Labour's first Budget in power. The pair argue that they only promised to keep employee contributions frozen and instead landed firms with a 2 per cent increase to employer national insurance contributions. Tractor tax Farmers have also said they feel betrayed by the PM, after a 2023 National Farmers Union (NFU) speech in which he promised to have 'a new relationship with the countryside and farmers'. Sir Keir claimed to be concerned that 'each day brings a new existential risk to British farming. He added: 'Losing a farm is not like losing any other business, it can't come back.' Going even further, then shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said it was 'desperate nonsense' to suggest he would scrap tax breaks for farmers, just weeks before the July 4 poll. But, in another hugely unpopular Budget bombshell, Sir Keir slashed agricultural property relief, meaning previously exempt farms will be his with a 20 per cent levy on farming assets worth more than £1m. Critics have said it will see family farmers forced to sell up, ripping the heart out of countryside communities. And other times the PM has rowed back on his words... Two-child benefit cap Promising in 2020 to create a social security system fit for the 21st century, Sir Keir said: 'We must scrap the inhuman Work Capability Assessments and private provision of disability assessments... scrap punitive sanctions, two-child limit and benefits cap.' But before the election, Sir Keir said Labour was 'not changing' the Tory policy if Labour were to win power. He has stuck to his guns, even suspending seven Labour MPs for rebelling against his King's Speech in a bid to have the policy scrapped. And now, it looks like the prime minister is gearing up to row back on the position. While nothing has been announced, the prime minister is privately said to be in favour of lifting the cap. He has refused to commit to anything until the child poverty strategy is published in the autumn but has insisted he is 'absolutely determined' to 'drive down' child poverty and has repeatedly sidestepped questions on the issue when pressed on it. £28bn green investment pledge As shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced the party's plans for an extra £28bn a year in green investment at Labour's conference in September 2021. But before the election, Sir Keir ditched the £28bn a year target and said instead that he would spend a far smaller sum on Great British Energy, a national wealth fund for clean investment and pledges on energy efficiency. Bankers' bonuses Strict regulations on bonuses, which limit annual payouts to twice a banker's salary, were introduced by the EU in 2014 in a bid to avoid excessive risk-taking after the 2008 financial crisis. Former prime minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng scrapped the cap in 2022, in a bid to encourage more investment in the UK. Sir Keir had previously vowed to reinstate the cap, saying in 2022 that lifting it 'shows the Tories are absolutely tone deaf to what so many people are going through'. But in another major U-turn, Ms Reeves announced before the election that the party 'does not have any intention of bringing that back'.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
I asked Glasgow locals for their verdict on Labour's one year in power
Keir Starmer's party won a huge majority – 411 out of the 650 seats in the Commons – but this was deemed a shallow victory as they managed just 33.7% of the vote. Since then, their fortunes have collapsed, according to polling expert Professor John Curtice, more rapidly than any other UK government in history. READ MORE: Scots back independence as Keir Starmer's popularity at record low – poll An Ipsos poll published to mark the one-year anniversary of Labour entering power found that just 25% of UK voters expect Starmer to win a second term in Downing Street. The most recent polling from YouGov, Find Out Now, More in Common, Opinium, Techne, and BMG Research have all projected that Nigel Farage's Reform UK are set to beat Labour at the next Westminster election. On the streets of Glasgow one year on from Labour's victory, the prevailing feeling among people The National spoke to was one of disappointment. Numerous people said they had voted Labour in the hope of change, only to be let down by the reality. 'They are literally just acting like Tories,' one person said. 'They're doing the same sh**, they're cutting benefits, they are acting horrifically towards disabled people, elderly people, and poor people – the exact demographics who had already been treated horrifically.' Two policy decisions which have marred the Labour Government's first year in office came up time and time again: the cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment, and the cuts to disability benefits. READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: A progressive Scotland can win out. Zohran Mamdani is showing how Of course, Labour have since U-turned on those policies, withdrawing the cuts to disability from their welfare reforms entirely at the last minute, and reinstating Winter Fuel Payments for pension-age people with an annual income below £35,000. However, Starmer's Government have only closed the barn doors long after the horse bolted. The damage – caused by their decision to look to the elderly and the disabled to make 'savings' – has been done. 'They can cut welfare, but they've got billions for the f***ing arms industry,' one Glasgow local said. 'It's f***ing atrocious.' UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has seen his polling fortunes collapseI talked to literally dozens of people on the streets of Scotland's biggest city on Thursday – and not one expressed support for Labour. In a city that saw every one of its constituencies turn red just 12 months ago, that was a genuine surprise. One lady did say: 'I don't think there's any government will get us out of the mess we're in. I don't care who it is … The previous have left too much mess. They're playing catch-up constant.' That was as close as anyone came to expressing even an understanding as to why Labour's first year in Government has not been what many may have hoped. Unless Starmer can inspire a lot more than that, his odds of holding on to power in four years' time seem vanishingly slim.
