Labour promises ‘biggest ever’ strategy to improve child health

Shaun Linterns listens in as shadow health secretary says Labour will double funding for dementia research to help find cure

Labour’s shadow health secretary speaking at the Labour Party Conference on Tuesday ( )

Labour will prioritise the health and wellbeing of children to tackle longer term sickness and inequality that blights the UK, the shadow health secretary said on Tuesday.

In a keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, Jonathan Ashworth told delegates the party under Keir Starmer would set out the “biggest children’s health and wellbeing strategy ever seen”.

Highlighting the crisis facing the health of the nation, the Leicester South MP told the conference: “After a decade of the Tories, life expectancy has gone backwards. I say to these Tories: don’t lecture us about levelling up when you’ve spent 10 years smashing down.