And the health service could really do with the money to avert a care crisis this winter.
A new poll by BMG for Left Foot Forward finds that almost 9 out of 10 people think Brexiteers should honour their promises and give the NHS an extra £350m a week.
We asked: “During the EU referendum campaign, some members of the Vote Leave campaign including Boris Johnson said that Britain should ‘give our NHS the £350m the EU takes every week.
“Now that the UK has voted to Leave, do you feel the government should find this money for the NHS?”
85 per cent said answered ‘Yes’, whilst 15 per cent said ‘No’.
Interestingly, despite the ‘£350m-a-week to the EU’ figure being roundly proven as incorrect, the public still feel Brexiteers should be held to their promises.
Public opinion may be so strong on the issue given the dire warnings coming out of the NHS in recent weeks.
The NHS is nearing crisis point and may not be able to cope with added pressures this winter, the service’s own monitoring group warned earlier this month.
One of the most shocking examples in the report showed that hospitals are so overburdened that over 10,000 patients had to wait in an ambulance for at least 30 minutes before being admitted to A&E in the first week of December alone.
And why is that? The Tories are failing to properly fund the health service, which is crying out for more money.
It’s been estimated that the NHS needs at least £4bn in extra funding next year just to avoid a crisis, but the Tories have only found an extra £1.6bn, significantly less than what is needed.
As Sara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said of the eye-opening NHS report earlier this month:
“A lack of beds, staff shortages and the funding squeeze are all issues the government should have addressed years ago”
“It’s incredibly difficult for the NHS to plan for a crisis when it is already running at capacity and staff are stretched all year round.”
Public opinion is clear on this one: Brexiteer politicians can’t get away with making false promises, especially on an issue as important as the NHS.
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6 Responses to “Exclusive: 85 per cent think the NHS should get that £350m-a-week promised by Brexiteers”
RobD
In fairness, the bus never “promised” 350M per week to the NHS, it just said “let’s fund the NHS instead” – it didn’t specifically say how much of the 350M it would get.
The real problem is that this government is ideologically opposed to the NHS as they are against any service that is publicly provided. They would rather see the NHS fail than fund it properly, so that they can then propose privatisation as the so-called solution.