Keir Starmer said he has “100% confidence in the NHS” – as he explained why he would never use private healthcare.
The Labour leader was asked at last night’s TV debate whether he would use private healthcare if a loved one was on a long waiting list for treatment. He said he would not, because the NHS is in his “DNA”. During a visit to Portsmouth today, he said he would “never use anything else.”
“I fundamentally believe in the NHS,” he told reporters. “My mum was very, very ill for all of her life, I know what acute care looks like because I’ve been there with my mum in high dependency units and I have every faith and confidence in relation to acute care in the NHS.”
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Keir Starmer/Labour Party)
The Mirror asked Mr Starmer whether it was wrong for people to use their wealth to “jump the queue” – either with healthcare or education. “I’m not going to criticise anybody who wants to send their children to private school,” he said. “I understand many families work hard, save hard in order to be able to do so. Equally with private health.”
“I have 100% confidence in the NHS,” he told GB News. “That’s why I would never use anything else.”
Earlier, Mr Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of “deliberately lying” over Labour’s tax plans – and said it was a reflection of the PM’s character.
Mr Starmer said he believed it amounted to a breach of the ministerial code, and would back a probe into the Prime Minister’s behaviour. He said: “What you saw last night was a Prime Minister with his back against the wall, trying desperately to defend an awful record in office, resorting to lies – and deliberately lying.”
Amid D-Day commemorations, Mr Starmer spoke with 99-year-old Len Chivers, a World War II veteran during his visit to Portsmouth. Mr Chivers served on the HMS Queen Elizabeth, and witnessed the 1941 sinking of the HMS Barham in the Mediterranean. They took a brief cruise around Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard on a D-Day-style landing craft before speaking to reporters.