Labour pledges to tackle cancer and A&E waiting times

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Sir Keir Starmer will pledge to get the NHS “off its knees” by tackling waiting lists and deaths from heart disease and stroke. We will get the NHS back on its feet.” If we go down the path of prevention, that actually will not only be a lot better for people’s lives and their health, but also in the long run actually cost a lot less Sir Keir Starmer Sir Keir will use his speech to say he will hit all NHS cancer targets so patients are diagnosed and treated earlier, and he is expected to touch on vaping and sugary food advertising to children. Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether he was officially pledging to meet targets on “the four-hour waiting time for A&E, ambulance response times, hospital treatment” by 2030, he said: “Yes, that is a pledge and that is within the first term.” Sir Keir also appeared to commit to more funding for the NHS, saying: “Money is part of the answer and the NHS is always better funded under Labour.” The Labour leader also told BBC Breakfast the NHS needed to change and he would be focusing on a “prevention model”, which would end up costing much less than the current system. Sir Keir said: “We don’t want to go down the road of making food more expensive in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, which is why today we’ll focus on advertising rather than increasing the cost to food, because I think for many families who are already struggling, the idea that food prices would go up again is something which simply wouldn’t be tolerable from their point of view.” In his speech, Sir Keir will also pledge that Labour’s mission “must be and will be” to reverse the rising number of deaths from suicide.