LABOUR will never privatise the NHS, Anas Sarwar has pledged as he said electing Keir Starmer as Prime Minister is the first step to 'saving' the NHS.  

Speaking today in Edinburgh, Sarwar will say Labour has a plan to modernise the health service.

Sarwar said the party’s plan for investment in the NHS in England, which will be funded by closing nom-dom tax loopholes, will deliver annual funding for the NHS in Scotland.

Labour says it will fund an extra 160,000 evening and weekend appointments a year in Scotland to help cut wait lists and clear the backlog.

Ahead of his speech, Sarwar said: “In 1945, a Labour government founded our National Health Service on principles that have stood the test of time.

“The Labour Party will always defend the NHS – it is in our very DNA. We have saved the NHS before, and we will do so again.”

Labour said it would work to end what it said was a two-tier health system with hundreds of millions of pounds in contracts handed to private companies.

Sarwar added: “The day after the general election will be the NHS’s 76th birthday, and a Labour government will begin the process of rescuing it again.

“After 17 years of the SNP, the NHS in Scotland is at breaking point. Scottish Labour is committed to protecting the NHS in Scotland for the generations to come and making sure it is fit for the future.

 

“To achieve this we must value our dedicated NHS workforce and improve access to care, as well as deliver long-term reforms to modernise services and bring care closer to communities.”