Key points
Jeremy Corbyn returned to his favoured winter theme of funding for the NHS and social care, resulting in an exchange with Theresa May of a type that has become wearily familiar in recent months. He began by asking why the government was cutting NHS hospital beds, citing figures from the British Medical Association that said 15,000 beds had been cut in the last six years. May responded that the average length of time patients stayed in hospitals had “virtually halved” since 2000 and dug up a quote from Andy Burnham, the former shadow health secretary, from before the last election that suggested he would have cut hospital beds.
Corbyn then asked why one in six accident and emergency units were set for closure or downgrade. May replied with a slew of figures – 600 more A&E consultants, 2,400 more paramedics – and her ritual taunt that Labour’s plans would bankrupt the economy.
Corbyn mentioned the alleged “deal” with Surrey county council to finance social care that he had revealed via a leaked text message at PMQs a fortnight ago, and asked whether 151 other social services departments in England could expect the same treatment. May said “those claims were utterly destroyed on the same afternoon” and suggested he apologise.
The Labour leader said May’s government was responsible for “nine out of 10” NHS trusts being deemed unsafe, a figure May said he should correct as 54% of hospital trusts were considered “good” or “outstanding”.
Snap verdict
Health should be a winning topic for Labour, and giving the importance of the West Cumberland hospital downgrade plans in the Copeland byelection it is particularly topical this week, but Corbyn never quite got the upper hand in those exchanges. He was just too scattergun, too vague; there was no single, tightly focused question that caused difficulties for May. He was probably unwise to raise Surrey again, without any arguments to rebut the predictable claim from May that his allegations from two weeks ago had not been sustained and, having raised the issue of the abolition of bursaries for nurses, he did not have the convincing arguments he needed to press his case. May seems notably more combative and more confident than she was at PMQs towards the end of last year and you could tell she emerged unscathed because she managed to get through a whole session on the NHS without having to go on about Wales.
Memorable lines
The legacy of her government will blight the NHS for decades. We need a government that puts the NHS first.
Corbyn on funding
Labour have a different sort of phrase now. It’s no longer boom and bust, it’s borrow and bankrupt.
May responds on Labour spending plans
