General election: PM seeks to return to Brexit message but Labour pile on pressure over NHS

Boris Johnson will warn of the “danger” of a hung parliament on the penultimate day of general election campaigning – but Labour have stepped up their attack on the Conservatives over the NHS.

With just two days to go until polling day, the prime minister will use a campaign visit to Staffordshire to urge voters to hand him a House of Commons majority.

He will warn of “sophisticated and well-financed attempts” to prevent the Tories forming a majority government through the encouragement of tactical voting in some constituencies.

Mr Johnson has sought to strengthen his message with a parody of Love Actually, in which he recreated one of the film’s more famous scenes.

However, having endured a difficult day of campaigning on Monday, Mr Johnson could yet face further questions over the NHS as Labour seeks to put increased pressure on the Conservatives.

Jeremy Corbyn’s party claimed their analysis of more than 120 NHS trust board papers had identified hundreds of risks to patient safety classed as “catastrophic” or “extreme”.

The majority are linked to lack of spending, staffing shortages or the failures of privatisation, Labour said.

The party are pledging a “relentless focus” on the NHS in the first 100 days of a Labour government, which would include a full audit of the risks revealed by their research.

Labour said that its research showed last year there were 15,844 patient incidents “directly” related to estates and facilities services and 4,810 clinical incidents caused by estate and infrastructure failure.

It said there were also 1,541 fires recorded by NHS trusts in 2018-19, with 34 people suffering injuries as a result.

The party said the cost of eliminating the backlog of maintenance repairs in NHS trust was £6.5bn, of which £1.1bn was for “high-risk” maintenance and repairs.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “These shocking reports reveal an NHS in crisis and on the brink.

“It is one thing for clinicians and managers to say what needs fixing, but we need a Labour government that will crack on and do it.

“We pledge that within the first 100 days of a Labour government we will get on top of this to ensure the extra funding we’ve promised is prioritised to keep patients and staff safe.

“The choice at this election is clear: five more years of the Tories running our health service into the ground – with more patients waiting longer for cancer treatment and operations, and more young people denied mental health care – or a Labour government on the side of patients and staff, with a rescue plan for our NHS.”

Written by BayRadio