How an NHS crisis could lose the election for Boris Johnson

The poor performance of the NHS relative to government targets is turning into a major headache for the PM.

The point is that Johnson and the Vote Leave team won the EU referendum largely on the basis of their controversial promise to invest £350m a week into the health service. They were acutely aware that money for a public health service matters hugely to poorer people and matters disproportionately more than for those on higher incomes – who have the double benefit of being able to afford both private healthcare and healthier lifestyles.

Johnson’s consigliere and Vote Leave campaign supremo Cummings has often said it was the £350m promise wot won it for Brexit.

So Cummings will now be deeply troubled that the incipient crisis in the NHS could lose the election for Johnson and see the fight for Brexit lost at the last – quite simply because Labour is pledging more generous funding for the health service than the Tories and because historically it has been more trusted than the Tories as stewards of the NHS.