Boris Johnson has set out plans for 40 new hospitals as the Tories prepare to make the NHS a key battleground in the next general election.
The prime minister heads into a Conservative party conference fighting battles on several fronts, including more claims about his association with businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri. On Saturday, Labour’s Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, accused him of whipping up fears of rioting and deaths on the streets if Brexit is not delivered by 31 October so he could seek to invoke emergency powers and avoid extending the UK’s EU membership beyond that date.
With the conference opening in Manchester on Sunday, Johnson said the government was embarking on “the biggest hospital building programme in a generation”.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he said spending on the NHS was “absolutely central” to his vision of a “united society and a united country”.
Under the plans drawn up by health secretary Matt Hancock, he said they would be spending £13bn on what officials described as “new” hospitals; either with entirely new buildings or gutting existing structures to create state-of-the-art facilities.
Taken alongside the extra £33.9bn the government has committed to the NHS each year by 2023, he claimed it was “the largest sum that has ever been invested in the NHS”.
“We’re launching the biggest hospital building programme in a generation. You will have seen that on the steps of Downing Street I announced 20 new hospital upgrades.
“We’re now following that up with 40 new hospitals we’re going to be doing across the country. It’s the biggest programme of hospital building in a generation.”
On Friday, the prime minister was referred to the police complaints body to assess whether he should face a criminal investigation over his links to entrepreneur Arcuri.
Arcuri loaned more than £700,000 to her own fledgling technology company shortly before it won a £100,000 government grant. It is unclear where the money channelled to Hacker House, a start-up with hardly any income, came from.
Johnson has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to his links to Arcuri.
Announcing his hospitals plan, Johnson said it would begin with a £2.7bn cash injection for six hospitals over the next five years. The remaining projects, including up to a dozen smaller rural hospitals, would be completed over the second half of the next decade.
Ministers are also providing £100m in “seed funding” to help 21 trusts develop plans to rebuild or construct 34 hospitals, including up to a dozen community hospitals in Dorset.
Following the supreme court ruling his suspension of Parliament was unlawful, the prime minister offered support for a suggestion by attorney general Geoffrey Cox that in future justices may need to undergo a US-style vetting by politicians.
“I think, if judges are to pronounce on political questions in this way, then there is at least an argument that there should be some form of accountability,” he said. “The lessons of America are relevant.”
Johnson arrived in Manchester for a conference which faces being overshadowed by moves to oust him at Westminster. He refused to answer questions about his political and personal battles as he arrived with girlfriend Carrie Symonds at the Midland Hotel.
A small group of protesters gathered outside the ring of steel that surrounds the conference venue, and their anti-Brexit cries could be heard as Johnson got out of his ministerial Jaguar. “Boris is a liar” and “get your Johnson out of our democracy” were among the slogans chanted by the demonstrators.
A senior SNP MP said the opposition parties could stage a vote of no-confidence in the government as early as next week in a bid to install a caretaker leader who would secure an extension to the Brexit deadline.
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn is expected to convene another meeting of opposition leaders in Westminster on Monday aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit on 31 October. Speaking to reporters at a rally in Chingford, Essex, Corbyn said he stood ready to lead an interim government if Johnson was forced from No 10.
Press Association contributed to this report
