Tories are planning £274m in new cuts to the West Midlands before next election, thanks to hidden Government mistake

New House of Commons research released today by the Labour Party shows that the Tories will raid £274m from the West Midlands’ budget over two years (2019/20 and 2020/21) to help pay for a Government mistake. This is the equivalent of the salaries of 6,191 nurses. Across England and Wales the Conservatives will take £2.7bn from the NHS because of this enormous miscalculation.

The Government quietly announced that they would be implementing £4bn in new cuts late on a Thursday – and during Parliament’s recess, when MPs are not in Westminster and cannot hold the government to account. This latest round of austerity measures will be applied on top of nearly £4bn of cuts that government departments including health were forced to make in the 2016 Budget, when the Government made the same mistake.

Debbie Bannigan, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Rugby and Bulkington said:

 “The Tories’ promises on the NHS are a sham. The Government made a mistake, but it’s the ordinary people of Rugby who’ll pay the price, as usual. 

“Through this Government’s disastrous economic mismanagement, billions of pounds are being quietly cut from our NHS – the equivalent of paying the salary of over 6,000 nurses a year. Nurses we desperately need after eight years of cruel austerity in our NHS.”

“Mark Pawsey must immediately condemn his Government’s failure. If he cares about this impact on his constituents, he must insist that the Government commits to meeting these extra costs. Our struggling public services can’t bear the burden of this horrific error.”

“All this just goes to show, you can’t trust the Tories with our NHS.”

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