Lib Dems demand extra NHS funding in the Autumn Budget

With their party conference in Brighton in full swing, the Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to give emergency funding to the NHS in the Autumn Budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has previously warned that the Autumn Budget “will require difficult decisions on tax, on spending, and on welfare”.

This demand comes as NHS data reveals that there have been 10.3 million waits of four weeks or more for a GP appointment in the last year, up from 8.6 million in the previous 12 month period.

Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey said the data revealed “just how badly the Conservative Party broke our NHS” and that the Autumn Budget should have the NHS as its “top priority.”

I spoke to Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper earlier today, and she credited the party’s election success to putting “the NHS and care front and centre” of their campaign. At a policy motion this morning, she told members that “developing our health and care policy have been at the heart of our conferences for a while now, and when you look at our election result, it shows”.

The Lib Dems are clearly trying to frame themselves as the strongest party on healthcare, and Cooper told members that the party will pressure Labour “to fix our crumbling hospitals and to end the crisis in social care”.

Following the publication of the Darzi report, which said that the NHS was in “critical condition”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the NHS must “reform or die”. Contrary to these Lib Dem demands, Starmer also said there would be “no more money without reform”.

Ed Davey clearly disagreed, telling the Lib Dem conference during a Q&A session this afternoon that Starmer is wrong to wait to reform the NHS before investing, arguing that “we have to do both together”.

The Lib Dems have maintained their election manifesto pledge to give everyone the right to see a GP within 7 days, or 24 hours in urgent cases. To achieve this, they argue that the government should boost GP numbers and introduce a universal 24/7 appointments booking system.

Davey also said that “fixing the GP crisis is critical to saving our NHS. If people can get seen quicker, fewer will end up in hospital in the first place. That’s better for them, better for the NHS and better for taxpayers.”

Daisy Cooper appeared in the party conference’s media room earlier today, and was asked about the Liberal Democrats’ responsibility for the state of the NHS, given that they served under the coalition government from 2010 to 2015. In defence, she suggested that when the Conservatives were “left to their own devices”, when David Cameron formed a majority government following the 2015 election, “everything fell off a cliff”. She further suggested that successive governments have focused on top-down organisation rather than health outcomes, and hopes that Labour will adopt their ideas on the NHS.

With Chancellor Rachel Reeves warning of “difficult decisions” at the Autumn Budget, the Lib Dems may find more success in persuading the government to reform than getting them to invest in the NHS.