THE Tories warned NHS investment would vanish under Jeremy Corbyn in a row over waiting times yesterday.
A&E delays have hit a new high, with one in six patients left longer than four hours to be seen.
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Labour leader Mr Corbyn seized upon the grim figures to bash PM Boris Johnson and accuse the Tories of presiding over an NHS crisis.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a Corbyn government would wreck the economy and risk starving the NHS of cash.
The Tories have pledged to pump £34billion into the health service by 2024, the biggest cash injection it has had.
Just 83.6 per cent of A&E patients are treated within four hours, official figures show. This is the worst since the target was introduced in 2004.
Prof John Appleby, chief economist at the Nuffield Trust health think tank, said whoever wins the election will face a pressing crisis.
‘STRAIN ON NHS’
He said: “These figures show the next government will immediately be faced with one of the bleakest winters in the NHS’s history.”
Mr Corbyn blasted: “It’s disgraceful and it’s a problem with the lack of staff and funding for it.”
Labour’s health boss Jonathan Ashworth accused the Tories of ushering in “the worst NHS crisis on record”.
But Mr Hancock hit back as he warned Labour’s leftie plans to give NHS staff a four-day week risked piling yet more strain on the service.
He said: “These figures show just how important it is that we stop Jeremy Corbyn. We are giving the biggest cash boost ever to our NHS, but Corbyn’s chaotic policies will put that at risk.”
Mr Hancock also wrote to Mr Ashworth demanding answers on the Labour Party’s plans for the NHS.
He warned the four-day week would cost billions that could otherwise be spent on “new hospitals, on cancer scanners, or more care delivered by doctors and nurses”.
And Mr Corbyn’s pledge to kick all private firms out of the NHS would mean hospitals having to take on hundreds of thousands more operations.
