Jeremy Corbyn told BBC Breakfast his plan for the NHS is ‘completely credible’ (Picture: BBC)

Jeremy Corbyn has defended using the case of a little boy being treated on a hospital floor to attack the Tories in his election campaign saying ‘it is a political issue’.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, the Labour leader was asked what politics ‘has come to’ when the treatment of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr at Leeds General Infirmary is being used as a political football.

He said: ‘It’s an example of what’s happening in our NHS. And it is obviously awful for that little boy and the family, the way they were treated.

‘But it does say something about our NHS when this happened, and then all research shows there’s a very large number of hospitals where patients are at risk because of staff shortages, because of a lack of equipment, because of poor maintenance of hospital buildings.




‘It is a serious issue. It is a political issue, how we fund the NHS.’

He added: ‘I think it has to be a political decision whether we have an NHS, how it’s funded, and what political parties decide they’re going to do with it if they gain a majority in the next Parliament.

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‘And the NHS has to be properly funded, and at the moment it isn’t.’

The Labour leader defended his own plan for the NHS after the Royal College of Physicians said it was ‘not physically possible’.

President professor Andrew Goddard said he was frustrated ‘by the proposed policies and promises’ by both Labour and the Tories and their ‘relationship to reality and what actually is deliverable’.

Prof Goddard said: ‘The promises that have been made in the manifestos are not physically possible because we don’t have enough people training to fulfil those promises.

‘We need to think about where we want to be in 15 years’ time and plan for it now.’

When his comments were put to the Labour leader, he said: ‘Well, I disagree. Our plans are completely credible.

‘We’ve put forward a spending plan which will, I believe, give sufficient resources to the NHS, will also properly fund the maintenance issues, and of course, on a wider level, the education issues surrounding nurse training, doctor training, and the funding that goes behind that.

Jeremy Corbyn is campaigning in Bolton today (Picture: AFP)

‘Because we have 40,000 nurse vacancies in the NHS, we have buildings crumbling, we have very expensive deals on which some of those places were built, and we have privatisation within the NHS which doesn’t fit in often with the NHS culture.’

Mr Corbyn, 70, also told BBC Breakfast he ‘absolutely’ has the stamina to serve a five-year term as prime minister.

He said: ‘I’m very healthy, very fit and very active and I’ve travelled more than any other party leader in this election.

‘I’ve attended more events than any other party leader in this election, and I’ve still not finished yet – we’ve got another two days to go, and I’ll be out on the road the whole time – right up till 10 o’clock on Thursday night.

‘And I eat porridge every morning – if that’s a help.’

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