Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, commenting on a report from the Nuffield Trust, which warns of the pressure on beds in the NHS during winter, said:

“Yet again, more worrying reports of increased pressures on hospitals as we head into winter.

“Labour has been warning for some time that the failure to tackle the crisis in social care has huge knock-on implications for bed availability and patient care. It is therefore all the more astonishing that Theresa May continues to bury her head in the sand refusing to find a single penny of extra cash for the NHS or social care this winter.  

“The announcement this week allowing councils to raise council tax is a sticking plaster that will go nowhere to alleviating the crisis the sector faces this winter.

“The conclusions of this report warning that over the coming weeks patient care is bound to suffer should set alarm bells ringing in Downing Street.”