Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

There isn’t as much consensus on NHS funding as you might think

Is there really a cross-party consensus on tax rises for the health and social care system? A group of MPs from across Parliament has written to Theresa May calling for a year-long parliamentary commission on funding for all branches of the health system. Meanwhile Jeremy Hunt is calling for a ten-year settlement for the NHS, attacking a ‘feast or famine’ approach to funding it. ‘There’s no doubt that NHS staff right now are working unbelievably hard and they need to have some hope for the future, but their real concern is this rather crazy way that we have been funding the NHS over the last 20 years,’ he told ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

As I’ve written before, Hunt has been making the case in Cabinet over the past few months that Conservative voters are less bothered about low taxes than they are about a safe and secure old age, one in which they can be confident they will have good quality healthcare, whether they find themselves suffering from dementia or cancer.

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