Hunt criticises Tory record on NHS as he fights to save seat

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has launched an extraordinary attack on his own party, including Rishi Sunak, for its treatment of the NHS.

He likened the targets imposed on the NHS to Stalinistic quotas, and accused the Prime Minister of holding back efforts to cut waiting lists.

He also suggested the Tory leadership rules should be changed so that MPs only pick a new Prime Minister when they are in government, rather than members.

He was speaking at a question and answer event in Godalming and Ash, the constituency he is fighting to be returned as an MP.

Hunt faces being the first Chancellor in history to lose his seat at an election after boundary changes left him fighting against the Lib Dems for his political life in the Surrey seat

He has admitted that he could be just 1,500 votes away from an historic loss. While he has complained about excessive micromanagement and quotas in the NHS before, his predicament could explain his unusually candid answer to voters at a series of Q&A sessions.

He said failures to recruit doctors and nurses to tackle waiting lists had been blocked by Sunak when he was Chancellor.

“When I was chairing the health and social care select committee I lobbied in parliament to have a long-term workforce plan for the NHS that was scientifically saying how many doctors we’ll need in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and said let’s start training them now,” Mr Hunt said.

“And I tried to persuade the chancellor, who was Rishi Sunak, and he said ‘no’ and then I became chancellor and he then said ‘yes’.”

This was greeted with a ripple of laughter, as Hunt indicated the Prime Minister was happy to leave him to deal with the cost as the new chancellor.

Hunt, making clear he was moving away from Tory policy, later suggested that he wished he had scrapped NHS targets when he had the opportunity.

“The thing that I didn’t do is scrap all the national targets that we have, which are a bureacratic nightmare,” he said, adding: “I should say this is not the policy of the government – this is what I happen to believe.

“Stalin would frankly be proud of the number of the targets we have in the NHS and I think it is really holding us back.”

Hunt, who has admitted he faces a battle to stap the Liberal Democrtas winning the Godalming and Ash constituency in Surry and ending his time as an MP, also criticised the Treasury, his own department.

He said it was too focused on balancing the books at the expense of growth and had been “for many years”.

Hunt also suggested Tory leadership contests should bypass members and be decided only by MPs when the party is in government.

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The system was heavily criticised after the membership chose Liz Truss, who went on to deliver a disastrous tax-cutting mini-budget which spooked the markets and resulted in higher interest rates.

Asked whether the public was effectively disenfranchised by these rules, Hunt said it was difficult for him to “answer effectively” given he was beaten by Boris Johnson in 2019 under the same system.

He went on: “But I do think the Conservative Party should look at the way elect our leaders and particularly when we are in government, because I think at the time you’re in government, there is an argument that it should be decided by elected politicians who are accountable to their own electorates.

“It’s slightly different when you are a political movement because I think political movements can make their own choices. But in government, I’m not convinced we have the best system.”

A source close to Jeremy Hunt’s local campaign said: “It’s not new information that the previous Conservative administration did not introduce a long term workforce plan for the NHS, but as the Chancellor has noted many times, it is to this Prime Minister’s great credit that the government he led was the first in modern history to do so.

“As for the other comments, the Chancellor was simply reflecting honestly and openly with his constituents.”

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.

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