Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the Government’s announcement that they will impose funding cuts on community pharmacies, said:

“These extreme Tory cuts to community pharmacies are as short-sighted now as they were when 2.2 million people signed a petition against them earlier this year.

“They will deprive communities of vital local assets when as many as one in four local pharmacies close and they will increase pressure on already overstretched GPs and A&E departments.

“It is clear the Government failed to engage constructively with the PSNC in these negotiations and their failure to release an impact assessment up until now is evidence that these cuts are driven entirely by cost and not by concerns about care.

“These plans are a false-economy that will hit the deprived, elderly and long-term sick hardest and Labour will not stand for them.”