Chancellor Philip Hammond
leaves Downing Street
Reuters/Toby
Melville
Philip Hammond slaps down Boris Johnson's demand for
more NHS money.
"Mr Johnson is the foreign secretary," Hammond
tells reporters in Brussels.
Johnson set to demand an extra £5 billion a year for
NHS in Cabinet meeting today.
The foreign secretary believes that the Conservatives
must do for the NHS to take on the growing threat of Jeremy
Corbyn's Labour.
May is under pressure from restless Conservative MPs to
be more ambitious.
LONDON — Philip Hammond has slapped down his government colleague
Boris Johnson's demand that the NHS be given an extra £5 billion
a year after Britain leaves the European Union.
Johnson is reportedly set to challenge Prime Minister Theresa May
to give an additional £100 a week to the NHS after Brexit in a
meeting of Cabinet on Tuesday morning.
The foreign secretary will urge May to devote more money to the
under-pressure health service and will not relent until the prime
minister agrees to the policy, The Times reports.
However, speaking in Brussels where is meeting European finance
ministers today, Hammond slapped down Johnson and reminded him of
his role in government.
"Mr Johnson is the foreign secretary," a defiant Hammond
said.
"I gave the health secretary an extra £6bn at the recent budget
and we will look at departmental allocations again at the
spending review when that takes place."
Johnson reportedly believes that the Conservatives must do more
to help the NHS to convince the public that it is serious about
protecting the health service and fight off the threat of Jeremy
Corbyn's Labour Party.
Official figures showed that over 17,000 people waited in the
back of an ambulance for more than hour as they waited for
treatment over Christmas, while 91.7% of hospital beds in Britain
were full.
"Boris believes that if the Tories are going to beat Corbyn at
the next election they must make the NHS a top priority and
deliver new funding," an ally of Johnson told The Times.
"Every poll conducted shows the NHS is top of swing-voter
concerns and every expert says it needs more money. The cabinet
will have to act and the sooner the better."
They insisted that his demand for money has nothing to do with
the Brexit campaign's contentious claim that leaving the European
Union will give Britain an extra £350 million a week to give to
the NHS.
"This isn’t about the referendum — it’s about delivering on the
No 1 concern for the public and beating Corbyn."
Johnson is expected to make the case for more money for the NHS
when Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt updates his Cabinet colleagues
on how the service is coping with the winter crisis.
The foreign secretary's intervention will not be the first time
he has challenged the prime minister on policy.
Johnson was at the eye of a media storm last year when he
penned a 4,000 article for The Daily Telegraph outlining his
personal vision for Brexit just days before May's
highly-anticipated Florence speech.
Downing Street was forced to distance itself from
Johnson last week after the foreign secretary suggested
building a bridge between Britain and France.
He is also set to challenge the prime minister at a time when she
is under pressure from the MPs on the Tory backbenchers to be
bolder in her approach to policy.
Conservative MPs Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen and Nick Boles last
week expressed their "disappointment" in May for not agreeing to
a cross-party demand to take greater action to protect the future
the NHS and social care.
Boles tweeted:
In November 90 MPs, including 33 Tories, signed a letter to the
prime minister suggesting an NHS and Social Care Convention be
created to help establish a "sustainable" model for
healthcare.
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