• NHS waiting lists: Sunak must reverse cuts to spending
• OECD Report: UK set for highest inflation levels in G7
• PopCon event: Blue Wall voters will look on with horror
• Sunak’s broken promise: NHS waiting lists won’t fall back to pre-pandemic levels until 2030
• Keegan gives government “good” Ofsted while children taught in crumbling classrooms

NHS waiting lists: Sunak must reverse cuts to spending

Responding to Piers Morgan’s interview with Rishi Sunak, where he admits he has failed to cut NHS waiting lists, the Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said:

Finally Rishi Sunak has admitted he has failed to cut NHS waiting lists, leaving millions of people waiting for appointments they desperately need.

For years this Conservative Government has driven our NHS services into the ground, leaving local health services struggling to cope. Enough is enough, Sunak needs to reverse his planned real-terms cuts to NHS spending.

OECD Report: UK set for highest inflation levels in G7

Responding to the latest OECD report which has revealed that the UK will have the highest inflation rate among G7 nations in 2024, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

Yet again the Conservative Government is at the top of the table for price rises and near the bottom for economic growth.

Conservative ministers trashed our economy and left families to clear up their mess. This verdict on their economic performance is yet more proof the Prime Minister and his Chancellor aren’t fit to hold the key to the Treasury.

Months and months of Conservative economic mismanagement are squandering the UK’s potential and leaving us lagging behind our peers.

PopCon event: Blue Wall voters will look on with horror

Ahead of Conservative MPs and Nigel Farage appearing at the launch of the latest Conservative movement, PopCon, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper MP said:

Lifelong Conservative voters in the Blue Wall will look on at this carry-on with horror.

The Conservative party has given up on governing and is acting like fighting school children. They are a national embarrassment who would rather shout about the National Trust than cut hospital waiting times.

Conservative MPs have become a pathetic Donald Trump tribute act. It’s time for a General Election to boot them out of office.

Sunak’s broken promise: NHS waiting lists won’t fall back to pre-pandemic levels until 2030

• On current trends, it will take until the end of the decade for NHS waiting lists to fall back to pre-pandemic levels

• Rishi Sunak admitted today that he has failed to keep his promise to cut NHS waiting lists

• Lib Dems call for the government to reverse planned spending cuts for NHS day-to-day spending

NHS waiting lists won’t fall back to pre-pandemic levels until the end of the decade if current trends continue, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

It comes as Rishi Sunak has finally admitted he has failed to deliver his pledge to cut them.

Waiting lists have fallen by just 135,000 from their record 7.7 million peak in August 2023, at an average of just 45,000 a month. It means that they are only on course to fall back to pre-pandemic levels at the very end of the decade in November 2029.

The Prime Minister’s pledge to cut them formed one of his “5 priorities” where he promised the British people that his government would cut waiting lists. Sunak has failed to live up to his word.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the government to cancel their planned £1.6 billion real terms cut to NHS day-to-day spending at the upcoming Budget.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:

Rishi Sunak’s failure to keep his promise to the British people is having devastating consequences for patients across the country. Many are left languishing in pain, unable to get the treatment they deserve as they are forced to worry if they will be seen in time.

You cannot trust this Conservative government with our NHS. The Conservative party has shown time and again that fixing the crisis in our health service is not truly their priority and this neglect has left millions waiting in discomfort for far too long.

What is even more staggering than Rishi Sunak’s failure to cut waiting lists, is that the Conservative party is still planning to cut NHS spending. These absurd and dangerous cuts must be reversed.

Our NHS and patients will never get the support that they deserve while this Conservative government is in office. The country is crying out for a general election. Rishi Sunak should call one now.

Keegan gives government “good” Ofsted while children taught in crumbling classrooms

Responding to the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan on LBC saying she’d give the government’s performance an Ofsted rating of “good”, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson:

If it was up to parents and pupils, this government’s record on education would be rated as completely inadequate.

Children are being taught in crumbling classrooms while ministers refuse to stump up the catch up funding needed. If this Conservative government was a school it would have been placed in special measures long ago.