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.

“Place of birth should not determine length of life and to change that, we need to start with children. A child born into poverty is too often condemned to a life of ill health. More likely to be admitted to hospital, more likely to leave school obese, more likely to suffer mental ill health.

“Surely it is a scandal that we fail so many children so often even before their life’s journey has begun. So we’ll put in place the biggest children’s health and wellbeing strategy ever seen. We’ll ensure no child is denied the mental health care they need. We’ll strengthen health visiting and improve maternity care. We’ll take bold action on childhood obesity and nutrition.”

Mr Ashworth said the party would draw inspiration from footballer Marcus Rashford to ensure the poorest children get fresh fruit, vegetables and vitamins, adding: “A hungry child cannot be a healthy child.”

In a speech that lacked detail on how the aspirations would be met, Mr Ashworth also pledged that Labour would end the poor treatment of people with learning disabilities and autism detained in NHS hospitals.

He said a situation where people were locked up with only a foam mattress and “food shoved through a hatch in a door” was an “affront to a civilised society, that’s shameful. We’re going to end it.”

The Leicester South MP also promised that social care would be integrated with the NHS and that the part would end zero hour contracts for care workers.

He said funding to cure dementia would be doubled under Labour, which would offer the country hope.

Mr Ashworth told the conference hall the NHS had been weakened by 10 years of Conservative underfunding which meant Covid had hit it hard.

He said: “No one is pretending the NHS hasn’t been impacted by 18 months of Covid. But let’s not pretend, pre-Covid, the NHS wasn’t impacted by 10 years of the Tories. We entered the pandemic with the longest financial squeeze in NHS history, 17,000 beds closed, hospitals crumbling, public health services cut, GP numbers down, services privatised, nurse training cut, children’s mental health budgets raided, thousands waiting longer for cancer treatment, the 18-week target not met for five years and the A&E target not met for six years.

“So the NHS is in crisis not simply because of Covid. The NHS is in crisis because of the Conservatives. And it has the devastating consequence of forcing more and more people in pain and desperation to take out loans and crowdfunding on the internet to pay for an operation because the wait is too much to bear.”

He warned this two-tier health system was privatisation by the backdoor.

“That’s the Tory threat to our NHS.”