Many thanks to everyone attending today. I am sorry that I cannot be here in person, but I am with you in spirit and pledge my full support to the campaign to save our NHS.

In 2010, after over a decade of a Labour Government who made record levels of investment in our NHS – the health service was delivering its best-ever performance and was globally recognised as the most efficient health service in the world.

That investment went on increased numbers of staff, including nurses and doctors, better pay, better training and a huge uplift in hospital building and NHS facilities. Waiting lists were at record lows and patient satisfaction at an all-time high.

But after more than a decade of austerity – despite heroic efforts by staff – the NHS is at breaking point. Record numbers of people are waiting for care and they are waiting longer than ever before, often left for months on end in pain and distress. And delays to cancer treatment are not just a case of inconvenience, but a matter of life and death. There are families in Chesterfield who have lost loved ones who may have survived if only they had been seen sooner.

The Government will try to blame all this on the pandemic – but the truth is the NHS went into the pandemic with record waiting lists, 100,000 NHS vacancies and 17,000 fewer beds.

The austerity agenda was an act of vandalism against the NHS and all of our public services – an act of vandalism that has resulted us all being expected to pay more in tax but waiting longer for care and treatment.

To improve health services we need to invest. And the main investment needs to be in staff. The NHS can’t tackle the growing waiting list without more workers. We need more nurses, more doctors and more support staff.

The Government needs to be investing in training and providing bursaries, as well as investing in the current workforce. We need proper pay rises and improved conditions to ensure we can recruit and retain the staff needed to address the NHS crisis.

We need to recognise the value of our country’s army of carers. Properly funded care will reduce the strain on the NHS; and we need a strategy to address the mental health crisis too.

I would like to thanks every single one of you who is fighting for our NHS at this time, I am sorry I can’t be with you but I will keep fighting and voting for a publicly run NHS with the investment that our army of NHS workers and our people deserve.

The Government clapped for NHS workers during the pandemic, but they clearly do not value them. With rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, NHS workers now face a real-terms wage cut whilst also being hit by an increase in taxes. This is a slap in the face to NHS staff who have put their lives on the line during the pandemic and helped protect all of us.

Alongside the funding failures which are leaving staff exhausted and demoralised, the rampant privatisation baked in by Lansley’s Health and Care bill is undermining the financial strength of the NHS. A future Labour government will put the NHS not city financiers in charge of healthcare in this country as well as provide the resources we need to get back to providing the quality of care our country needs.

This government have betrayed our NHS and once again it will take a Labour government to provide the NHS our country needs.