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General election: McDonnell says 95% of taxpayers won't face income tax or NI increases under Labour – live news General election: McDonnell says 95% of taxpayers won't face income tax or NI increases under Labour – live news
(32 minutes later)
The prime minister will deliver the first big set-piece speech of the campaign as Labour pledges £26bn extra per year for NHSThe prime minister will deliver the first big set-piece speech of the campaign as Labour pledges £26bn extra per year for NHS
Q: Under the Tories NHS staff have to ask patients at A&E for their passports to check they are entitled to treatment. Would you stop this?
Ashworth says this policy is “obnoxious”. Labour has asked for the impact assessment of this policy, but the government has not published it. He says Labour would suspend those regulations.
Ashworth says Labour would stop hospital staff having to check the nationality of patients to be sure of their entitlement for treatment.
The Q&A is now over.
Ashworth says Labour will introduce plans in its first Queen’s speech to end privatisation in the NHS.
Q: Would you extend the sugar tax?
Ashworth says Labour would expand it to milky drinks, milkshakes.
He says Matt Hancock thinks all you need to improve public health is a smartphone and an app. Ashworth says he does not agree with this.
He says the Future Generations Wellbeing Act would make a big difference. There is something similar in Wales, he says. Legislation like this would force public bodies to get serious about public health.
He says Nye Bevan described the NHS as “socialism in action” when he set it up. But it has never addressed health inequalities. It is not right that people living in the constituencies that he and McDonnell represent will die 10 years on average before people in other places.
Q: Are you happy to have a Labour candidate who posted a picture on social media of a gun being held to Theresa May’s head?
McDonnell says people can make mistakes, and learn from them. He says, as a Catholic, he was brought up to believe in redemption.
Q: Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, used to work for a big US health company. People think he is a privatiser. Would you get rid of him?
Ashworth says Stevens also used to work for Frank Dobson. He says it is not right to comment on civil servants, but he says that he has worked well with Stevens and that he respects him.
Q: Under a Labour Brexit would you allow freedom of movement to continue?
Ashworth says his position is that trusts should be able to continue to recruit internationally.
Q: Will you reform doctors’ pensions? The current rules are forcing doctors to retire early.
Ashworth accepts this is an issue. Labour would review the rules urgently. There must be a fair solution, he says.
Q: What do you think of the Brexit party standing down in Tory-held seats. And what will happen if they stand down in Labour-held seats?
McDonnell says this decision helps Labour, because it shows voters they are up against a Trump/Farage/Johnson alliance to sell off the NHS. He says Nigel Farage was only doing what Donald Trump said he should do in their LBC interview.
He says the public don’t like deals like this anyway.
He says, when people go to vote, he wants them to be aware of the risk to the NHS from this alliance.
Q: Was Ashworth wrong to say the NHS would not be covered by the four-day week?
McDonnell says Ashworth was destroying the “myth” put out by the Conservatives that the NHS would be destroyed by a four-day week coming in from day one.
He repeats the explanation of the Labour policy he went through earlier. (See 11.53am.) He says he wants the economy to grow. That generates more in tax revenue. He says that would mean you could afford to hire more staff to compensate for the shorter hours being worked.
It is a 10-year programme he is proposing, he says. He says he wants to build a consensus and take people with him. That is how Labour introduced the minimum wage. It would introduce a working time commission, he says.
Q: What would you do on social care, and on free movement?
Ashworth says Labour will be making an announcement about social care later in the campaign.
On free movement, he says if an NHS trust thinks a doctor or nurse is qualified enough to care for the sick and elderly, they should be allowed in.
The Tories announced plans for an NHS visa. But that would still amount to a £400 nurses tax, he says.
John McDonnell and Jonathan Ashworth are now taking questions.
Q: Are you worried that you might be raising expectations unreasonably?
Ashworth says this is “substantial investment”, not just for the NHS, but for related services.
He says the Tories last year announced more money for the NHS day-to-day health budget. But other health services, like sexual health services, continued to be cut. He says it has got to the point where maternity units are now finding babies with neo-natal syphilis because sexual health services have been cut back by so much.
Organisations like the Health Foundation are saying this is a big increase, he says.
Q: At Labour conference you said you wanted a four-day working week. You said you it would apply to everyone. But Ashworth said it would not apply to the NHS. Which is it?
McDonnell says he is proposing moving towards a 32-hour working week.
He thinks this should be planned and negotiated over time.
As investment goes into the economy, it should be more productive. That wealth should be shared with workers. It can be shared in two ways: through higher wages, or a shorter working week.
The process of cutting working hours started in the 1860s, he says.
But he says recently that process stalled. He wants further cuts. “We work to live, we don’t live to work,” he says.
He says he wants this process to apply to everyone.
He says what he is proposing would happen over a decade.
He says Ashworth was making the point this would happen gradually.
This will be popular, he says.
He says in his constituency parents work different shifts. Family life breaks down. He says what Labour is trying to do is change that.
Ashworth says he would be a health secretary who cares for NHS staff, not one who picks fights with them.Ashworth says he would be a health secretary who cares for NHS staff, not one who picks fights with them.
Ashworth says addressing vaccination rates will be a particular priority.Ashworth says addressing vaccination rates will be a particular priority.
Ashworth says Labour would address inequality through a Future Generations Wellbeing Act.Ashworth says Labour would address inequality through a Future Generations Wellbeing Act.
Ashworth pays tribute to Frank Dobson, the former Labour health secretary whose death was announced yesterday. He goes on:Ashworth pays tribute to Frank Dobson, the former Labour health secretary whose death was announced yesterday. He goes on:
Ashworth says Labour would prioritise mental health.Ashworth says Labour would prioritise mental health.
Ashworth explains what he expects to happen under the Labour plan.Ashworth explains what he expects to happen under the Labour plan.
Ashworth summarises problems with the NHS.
At the Labour event Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is now speaking. He claims patients face a “winter of misery”.
McDonnell says, unlike the Tories, Labour is explaining how it would fund its proposed NHS spending increase.
McDonnell is now summing up the Labour NHS proposal.
McDonnell says austerity was a political choice. It has left the NHS underfunded, he says.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is speaking at the launch of Labour’s £26bn “rescue plan” for the NHS.
He claims the first week of the election campaign has shown the Conservatives in their true colours.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, has challenged Westminster to “stop obsessing” about nuclear power and “get its act together” on green energy. As the Press Association reports, at a campaign event in Edinburgh she said that a large team of SNP MPs in the House of Commons would push the UK government to act on the climate emergency. She said:
The Scottish government has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2045 - five years ahead of the corresponding UK target.
My colleague Peter Walker says Liberal Democrat HQ is not willing to stand down in High Peak. (See 10.02am.)
When Theresa May announced her plan in 2018 to give the NHS a £20bn, long-term spending increase, she liked to argue that what she was offering was more generous than what Labour was proposing for the NHS in its 2017 election manifesto. There was some dispute about that (Channel 4 News’ FactCheck has a good analysis here), but the Labour manifesto offer two years ago was certainly quite modest compared to what is on the table today. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has just published an analysis of Labour’s plan and here is a chart summing up what’s on offer.
And here is an extract from the IFS analysis. It says Labour’s plans amount to a real-terms increase in health spending worth 4.3% a year.
From YouGov’s Chris Curtis, on the latest YouGov poll out yesterday