Keir Starmer pledges 2m extra NHS appointments a year

A Labour government would cut NHS waiting lists in England by funding two million more hospital appointments a year, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

On the eve of the party’s conference in Liverpool, he said that £1.1bn per year would be spent to ensure 40,000 out-of-hours appointments each week.

This would be paid for by savings from ending the non-dom tax status, he said.

Labour is also promising to set up specialist further education colleges to tackle local skills shortages.

It says it plans to work with local political leaders and businesses to identify these shortages and focus on fixing them.

Labour has signalled that boosting economic growth will be the central theme of its conference, which is being held in Liverpool this week.

“Everything we do will be about delivering growth,” Sir Keir told the Observer.

He told the newspaper his plans to shake-up skills training were key to his mission of firing up the economy – and he was responding to calls from business leaders who told him they could not find workers trained for their needs.

Sir Keir said that, if Labour won power, it would work with local councils – using money raised from a revamp of the apprenticeship levy – to set up specialist “technical excellence colleges”.

These would equip workers specifically for local industries, with a particular emphasis on sectors such as renewables, nuclear, engineering, computing and modern toolmaking.

Labour has previously said it wants to set up a new expert body, Skills England, to improve skills training, comprising trade associations, companies, trade unions, councils and education leaders.

Under a government scheme, bodies representing employers – mostly chambers of commerce – have drawn up skills “improvement plans” to influence what is taught in their local area.

Under legislation passed last year, the government will be able to intervene at further education colleges that fail to “adequately reflect” the blueprints in what they teach.

Labour’s NHS appointments initiative would involve paying existing staff overtime to increase capacity.

The party says it wants to recruit more staff to the NHS, but that this will take several years to have a significant impact on waiting list numbers.

It says it would spend £1.1bn to cover the extra overtime, which would be paid for by scrapping non-dom tax status for wealthy individuals.

Labour claims scrapping non-dom tax status would save just under £2bn. It would also spend £171m on doubling the number of CT scanners in NHS hospitals and in £111m on improving dentistry out of the planned savings.

The party also plans to use part of the cash to fund breakfast clubs that are run by primary schools, providing £365m so the service will be provided to pupils for free.

Under Labour’s NHS waiting list plan – which the party claims would add 40,000 extra appointments a week – staff would be offered overtime to work evening and weekend shifts, so procedures could be carried out.

Neighbouring hospitals would also be encouraged to pool staff and use shared waiting lists. Patients would be given the option of travelling to a nearby hospital for treatment on an evening or weekend, rather than wait longer.

In June, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to recruit and train thousands more doctors, nurses and support staff in a major NHS England workforce plan.