Jamie Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said in response to the CQC’s report which has labelled more than one in four hospitals as poor performing:

“David Cameron should be ashamed that he’s put so many of England’s hospitals in this position.

"He siphoned £3 billion out of the NHS front-line to blow on a back-office re-organisation nobody voted for. Hospitals were left on a financial knife-edge and they are clearly struggling to maintain standards of patient care after more than three years of chaos. Almost 6000 nursing jobs have been axed since the election and David Cameron presided over the first summer A&E crisis in living memory.

"The NHS is on the brink of a very dangerous winter. David Cameron cannot continue to ignore the warnings.

"This is further proof that you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.”