Toby Perkins MP visited the Alzheimer’s Society stand at Labour Party Conference and gave his backing to the pledge by Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth that a future Labour government would doubling funding for dementia research.

At the stand, Toby met team members from the Alzheimer’s Society and played their interesting “Cure the Care System” game – which posed questions to MPs and Peers about the care system and existing funding structures.

During the conference, Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth committed Labour to increasing investment in research into the condition from £80m to £160m a year if the Party was successful at the next General Election.

In his speech, Jon Ashworth made the point that the Conservatives have broken the pledge they made in their manifesto to put “an additional £83m a year” into research on potential treatments for dementia as part of a plan to invest £1.6bn over 10 years.

Toby said “The Labour Party is clear that we support those with Dementia and Alzheimer’s, and I am delighted that our Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth announced that the next Labour government would be committed to doubling funding for dementia research. I enjoyed playing the  Alzheimer’s Society ‘Cure the Care System’ game which was a great, interactive way to spark a discussion about the care system”.

Commenting on Jon Ashworth’s policy announcement, Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘We are delighted to see the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care make dementia care and research so central to his keynote speech at the Labour conference”.