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The futures of the NHS and our schools are at stake in this election – Jeremy Corbyn

At a media launch in London today, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary and Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, turned the spotlight on public services, arguing that this election is vital for the future of the NHS and our schools.

Labour has published research highlighting the threat to our schools and hospitals posed by five more years of the Conservatives and have committed the party to reversing years of Tory neglect.

New analysis of the Tory threat has revealed that if the current rate of deterioration under the Tories continues, by 2022 our health and education services could be facing huge problems. It could mean:

In a Tory NHS and social care system:

  • 5.5 million people on waiting lists in England, 1.8 million more than at present.
  •  Almost 1.5 million older and vulnerable people with unmet social care needs.

In a Tory education system:

  • 650,000 pupils crammed into primary classes of over 30.
  • Families left almost £450 worse off per child as a result of the Tories’ plan to scrap free school meals for 1.7 million children.

The choice at the election is stark. The Tories have no plan to properly fund our public services, pushing them further into crisis. Labour will take a different. approach, we will rebuild our public services for the many by modest tax rises for companies and the richest 5 per cent.

Labour will build an NHS and social care system for the many:

  • Labour will invest £37 billion in our NHS and take one million people off the waiting list by the end of the next Parliament.
  • Labour will invest £8 billion in social care over the course of the next Parliament and lay the foundations of a National Care Service to integrate health and social care.

Labour will build an education system for the many:

  • Labour will cap class sizes at 30 for 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds.
  • Labour will provide free school meals to all primary school children by removing VAT exemption on private school fees.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“The futures of our NHS and schools are at stake in this election.

“Over the last seven years the Tories have starved the public services we rely on of resources, running them down and pushing them into disrepair.

“Patients are suffering ever longer waits and overcrowded wards; those who need care have been left without it. Children are crammed into overcrowded and crumbling classrooms. It has to change.

“Labour will invest in our people, schools and hospitals. We will cut class sizes, take a million people off the NHS waiting list and ensure people get the care they deserve.

“By contrast another five years of the Tories would be disastrous for our public services. At the rate we’re going we could see 5.5 million people on the English waiting list and 1.5 million older people with unmet care needs. And young people and their families face the prospect of more overcrowding in schools and having to pick up the bill for the Tories’ unfair plan to scrap free school meals for hundreds of thousands of children.

“On June 8th there’s only one party that will improve our public services for the many not the few, that’s the Labour Party.”

Notes to editors:

  • Please find link to Labour’s full analysis on threat to our schools and hospitals posed by five more years of the Conservatives: http://www.labour.org.uk/atrisk 
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