Liz Truss would be “robbing Peter to pay Paul” if she diverted £13bn of funding for the NHS to deal with a Covid backlog in social care, experts have said.
The Conservative leadership frontrunner told a hustings on Tuesday night that she would spend the £13bn earmarked for the NHS to catch up on delayed treatment after Covid on social care instead.
She said: “I would spend that money in social care. Quite a lot has gone to the NHS. I would give it to local authorities. We have people in beds in the NHS who would be better off in social care. So put that money into social care.
“We put the extra £13bn in and what people who work in the NHS tell me is the problem is the number of layers in the organisation they have to go through to get things done, the lack of local decision-making. That’s what people are telling me is the problem, rather than a lack of funding.” » | Rowena Mason, Deputy political editor | Wednesday, August 24, 2022
This woman is out of her depth. Further, she is just plain silly. She's making up policy as she goes along, on the hoof. Heaven forfend that she should become prime minister! – © Mark Alexander
