Politics

Boris Johnson edits speech video to remove his first broken promise


Boris Johnson appears to have edited footage of his first speech as Prime Minister – removing a reference to his first ‘broken promise’.

The PM said the new video was his “vision for Britain”, but the footage has been doctored to remove two important words from his NHS funding pledge.

In the new version, Johnson says: “My job is to make sure you don’t have to wait three weeks to see your GP.

“And we start work …with 20 new hospital upgrades and ensuring that the money for the NHS really does get to the frontline.”

But in his speech, delivered on the steps of Number 10, he made a further promise which has been sent down the memory hole.


 

He said: “My job is to make sure you don’t have to wait three weeks to see your GP.

“And we start work this week with 20 new hospital upgrades and ensuring that the money for the NHS really does get to the frontline.”

Mr Johnson delivered the speech on July 24.

Many Brits were eagerly anticipating details of the PM’s plan for their local hospitals – but they did not materialise within the week.

In fact, it was almost three weeks before the first details of his plan emerged on August 4.

And even then, it quickly emerged much of his plan for hospital upgrades was not new money.

Johnson was accused of “misleading the public” over the pledge.


 

He said the cash would mean “more beds, new wards, and extra life-saving equipment”.

But of the £1.8 billion package announced by the PM, at least £1bn of it is not new money – but cash hospitals had already saved but were forbidden to spend.

They earned it last year in incentive payments for cutting costs.

Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth said the PM was “trying to take the British people for fools”.

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He added: “You cannot trust a word he says and his claims are unravelling.

“It is now clear this is not new money, but funds already earmarked for hospitals which ministers previously blocked. 

“With 4.4 million patients waiting for operations and over 20,000 cancer patients waiting longer for treatment it is a disgrace that Johnson is trying to treat people like fools.

“After years of smash and grab cuts of £4 billion to NHS budgets it is now clearer than ever that, as Johnson’s top adviser says, the Tories don’t care about our NHS.”

Earlier in the same speech, Boris Johnson promised to “restore trust in our democracy.”





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