Theresa May and Tom Swarbrick: Full Interview
17 June 2018, 08:13
The Prime Minister explains why the tier two cap on doctors and nurses was lifted, and how the NHS is set to be funded in five years time.
The UK will be able to spend "around £600 million a week" more on the NHS by 2024 in what ministers are calling a "70th birthday present".
The Prime Minister announced the boost in funding, which will see the £114bn-a-year budget rise by an average of over 3% a year for the next five years.
The spending plan means the overall budget will be £20bn more than it is now by 2023 once inflation is taken into consideration.
Speaking to Tom Swarbrick, Theresa May says the plans for the NHS are about "ensuring we can deliver world-class health care into the future."
"People may remember seeing a figure on the side of a bus, £350 million pounds extra a week for the NHS in cash," she said.
"Actually, I'm announcing means that in 2023/24, there will be around £600 million a week in cash more, going into the NHS."
The Prime Minister drew attention to the Chancellor, who she said will "set out in due course how the whole package of funding that we'll be putting", and that the UK will "take advantage that we've got money we're no longer sending to the European Union."
She said: "I think one of the problems we've had for the NHS is that year on, year in, and year out, there have been these pressures for extra money to be spent.
"By setting a 10-year plan, by giving them a 5-year, multi-year funding settlement, what we're doing is giving them stability.
"This money is about transforming patient care."
The Prime Minister also said that the money being given to the NHS will be monitored.
She said: "We will want to se how the money is being spent, and we will want to make sure that it's being spent on patients, on patient care, and improving our NHS for the future."
When asked about the lifting of the tier two cap on doctors and nurses, she told Tom Swarbrick she "recognises the need to have more doctors and nurses", and that "we've got plans in hand to train more doctors and nurses here in the UK."
"But in the interim we need to make sure that the NHS has sufficient numbers."
Tom nipped in: "So it's a short-term, potential cap change in order to get the doctors and nurses..."
"It's recognising there is a need to get more doctors and nurses," she replied.
"I want to make sure that the NHS has the resources it needs," she said.
"That's why we've made this change."
Theresa May told Tom Swarbrick that she would consider herself "clear" about her priorities.
"I'm going to deliver Brexit," she said.
"People voted to leave the European Union, and this government will deliver it.
"Nobody said it was going to be a walk in the park, there's a complicated negotiation so we have to work our way through that."
Listen to the full interview at the top of the page.
