Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, Heidi Alexander, will today (Wednesday) warn that a vote to leave the European Union is a “very real threat to the NHS”.

The warning comes as new analysis by the House of Commons’ Library, commissioned by the Labour Party, reveals the scale of potential cuts to the Department of Health’s budget if Britain were to leave the European Union.

The analysis shows that, under the worst-case scenario for the public finances as set out by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Conservatives would have to cut the Department of Health’s budget by up to £10.5 billion in 2019/20 simply to balance the books by the end of the Parliament. If the Tories were to continue to pursue their overall surplus target the potential cuts would be even more severe.

If cuts of this size (£10.5 billion) were made today that would be the equivalent of every hospital trust in England cutting 1,000 nurses and 155 doctors.

Labour will also warn about the uncertainty of Brexit on the NHS’s ability to recruit and retain people from Europe at a time when hospitals are already dangerously understaffed. 52,000 people from EU countries work in the NHS – that’s equivalent to filling St James’ Park, Anfield or Stamford Bridge football stadiums.

Commenting ahead of her speech to UNISON later this morning, Heidi Alexander said:

“A vote to leave the EU is a very real threat to the NHS.

“The NHS cash crisis is already the worst in its history. But, if we vote to leave Europe in two weeks’ time we risk plunging the health service into an even deeper crisis.

“In the worst case scenario, the Tories would have to cut the Department of Health’s budget by £10 billion to meet their promise of balancing the books by the end of the decade. These are cuts that would be bad for staff and bad for patient care.

“There are also huge unknowns about what would happen to the tens of thousands of staff from the EU who are working in hospitals up and down the country helping to deliver excellent care to patients.

“The leave camps’ promises of extra money to the NHS are complete and utter nonsense. These are people who don’t believe in the NHS and would put it at risk if they had the chance.”

ENDS