Liberal Democrats demand emergency NHS funding in Autumn Statement
23 Nov 2016
The Liberal Democrats have released a set of demands for tomorrow's Autumn Statement, including an urgeng £4bn injection of funding into the NHS, to avert a winter crisis and prevent declining performance and longer waiting lists next year.
The £4bn demand breaks down as follows:
- £1.3bn additional funding for social care
- £1.8bn additional transformation funding, to deliver modernisation and improve efficiency in the NHS
- £400m additional dedicated funding for mental health
- £500m additional emergency funding to plug gaps across services
You can find more detail on the party's website here, alongside demands for a commitment to the Single Market, housebuilding, a public sector pay rise and support for small business.
It will be instructive to see whether the chancellor can continue to put off the so-called "punishment budget" - the Leave campaign's name for George Osborne's observation that he would have less money to spend in a damaged post-Brexit economy. Much will hinge on the state of economic forecasts, which themselves are clouded by political uncertainty.