Rachel Reeves will put saving the crisis-hit NHS at the heart of Labour ’s first Budget in over 14 years.
The Chancellor will prioritise putting any spare cash on cutting record waiting lists of over 7 million and repairing the broken health service. A Treasury insider told The Mirror “we know that cutting NHS waiting lists is a priority for people”.
Keir Starmer has made building a health service "fit for the future" and cutting NHS waiting times a key mission for his government. And during her conference speech last week, the Chancellor also made clear she sees the backlog as a key hurdle in getting people back into work.
"Too many people are out of work through chronic illness, waiting for treatment, or without the skills, training and security they need to fulfil their potential," she said.
Estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) last year suggested there were a staggering 2.9 million working-age adults on NHS waiting lists in 2022. This included 650,000 of people who are not in work due to long-term sickness.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, added last week the waiting lists need to be “millions lower” before the next general election in 2029.
It comes as Ms Reeves gears up for her first Budget on October 30 - a major event that will see her set out the new government's plans on tax and spending. It is understood she will receive crucial forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on October 8 - setting out any wriggle room she may have.
Ben Zaranko, a senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told The Mirror: "There's been lots of stories recently about where she is going to change her debt rule which would allow her to borrow lots more for investment purposes.
"But she's also got to promise that she'll meet all day-to-day - non-investment spending - out of tax revenues. So even if she changes the debt rule, she'll still be constrained. She might have an ability to announce lots of transport infrastructure spending but if it's for just cash for the NHS she's going to be struggling a bit."
"That's probably going to hinge more on what tax rises they are willing to do than it will on the state of the economy or the headroom."
He added: "The difficult thing with the NHS is it's such a big budget that even a relatively modest percentage increase to the NHS can cost really quite a lot and you're going to have to do a lot of squeezing elsewhere to make the sums add up."
The PM has previously warned the public of a "painful" Budget next month in order to plug a £22billion blackhole the government says it inherited from the Tories. Speaking in July, Ms Reeves added: "I think we will have to increase taxes in the Budget".
While she has ruled out hikes in VAT, national insurance and income tax, ministers have repeatedly swerved questions on increase to inheritance and capital gains tax.
Last week it was also reported the Chancellor had been given a Budget boost of around £10billion due to tweaks announced by the Bank of England. Some Labour MPs have urged the Chancellor to use the funds to abandon the controversial decision to axe the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners. But the PM and Chancellor are standing firm, insisting there will be no U-turn.
A Government spokesman said: "We don't comment on Budget speculation."
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