• Ed Davey speech: “Make the NHS winterproof”
• Cole-Hamilton comments as Scotland marks ten years since Independence Referendum

Ed Davey speech: “Make the NHS winterproof”

In his speech to Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton today, Leader Ed Davey will call on the Government to set up a new “Winterproof NHS Taskforce” to put an end to the annual winter crises in the health service.

With NHS chiefs warning that “this winter is likely to see urgent and emergency care services come under significant strain”, Ed Davey will urge the Government to “make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS”.

Last winter, ambulances across England collectively spent a total of 112 years waiting outside hospitals to hand patients over, according to official NHS figures. Between November 2023 and March 2024, 732,000 patients faced A&E waits of over 4 hours to be admitted, with 228,000 waiting more than 12 hours.

For the first time, the Taskforce would bring together a team of experts reporting directly to the Health Secretary, responsible for strengthening coordination across the NHS and allocating long-term funding and resources to prevent winter crises.

Over the past seven years, the Government has announced an average of £376 million of emergency funding each year to tackle the NHS winter crisis. Under the Liberal Democrat proposal, the new Taskforce would instead manage a ringfenced fund of £1.5 billion over the next four years, to build resilience in hospital wards, A&E departments, ambulance services and patient discharging.

This would allow integrated care boards and NHS Trusts to plan their budgets more efficiently to prevent winter crises, instead of just receiving emergency funding from the Government at the last minute.

The Liberal Democrats are also calling for a wider funding boost for the NHS in the Budget, including funding to increase the number of GPs, boost the number of NHS dentist appointments and fix crumbling hospitals.

In his speech, Ed is expected to say:

Practically every year I can remember, governments have ended up announcing hundreds of millions of pounds of emergency funding to help the NHS through another winter crisis. To paper over the cracks.

What if – instead of stumbling from crisis to crisis, instead of throwing more and more money at just plugging the gaps – we invested now, to make the NHS winterproof?

The Government could and should make this year the last winter crisis in our NHS.

So I urge Labour: do not make the same mistakes the Conservative Party did. Be more positive. Act now. Show the ambition and urgency this moment demands – and save our NHS now.

Cole-Hamilton comments as Scotland marks ten years since Independence Referendum

Speaking as Scotland marks ten years since it voted to remain within the United Kingdom, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Ten years ago, the Scottish people voted to stay in our family of nations. But for the past decade the SNP has picked at the scab of their defeat.

The General Election was liberating. For the first time in so long, issues that mattered to people held sway in the campaign with the constitution barely a footnote, and I was glad of it.

The results showed that people wanted to move on from the divisions of the past. They wanted their governments to focus on what really matters- fixing the health service, lifting up Scottish education, giving our carers a fair deal and growing Scotland’s economy.

At the next Scottish Parliament election, there will be 16-year-olds casting their ballots for the first time who have only ever known SNP rule. Only ever known the grievance, the division, the political self-interest.

Just like the Conservatives at the last election, the SNP have been in power for too long, breaking rules and taking people for granted. They deserve the same fate.