What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jeremy Corbyn is looking to pump an extra £22.4billion into the NHS by 2023 to keep it marching on.

The huge injection of cash would top the amount pledged by Theresa May’s Tories by nearly £2billion.

And today, in a speech marking the this week’s 70th anniversary of the launch of the health service, the Labour leader will say it is “essential” to give it a bigger share of the national income.

The Labour leader will give the health service five per cent extra if he becomes PM compared to the Tories 3.4 per cent.

And he will fund it with extra tax on business and a five per cent levy on income earners making more than £80,000 a year.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS Mr Corbyn will today (Sun) say: “Under Labour, the share of national income going into the NHS will rise.

“That is essential if we are going to meet the health needs of our people, from cancer care to heart disease.”

Mr Corbyn will be speaking in Tredegar, Wales, the birthplace of the health service’s Labour founder, Aneurin Bevan.

Mr Corbyn will be able to pump in the extra money in the first full financial year after the scheduled 2022 General Election.

And he will also announce a war on health inequality today if Labour gets into power.

(Image: Reuters)

He will say: “We cannot tolerate a situation where one citizen or one community is denied the chance of life and health of another. That can and must change.

“There is clear and mounting evidence that austerity and inequality are killing people.

“For years people were living longer and life expectancy was increasing. That has now ground to a halt and in some parts of the country life expectancy is falling.”

In deprived parts of the nation men will have 20 fewer years of good health than those living in prosperous areas.

People are five times more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease and 70 per cent more lung and cervical cancers are diagnosed.

Mr Corbyn will add: “This isn’t about rich London and the South East versus the rest of Britain.”

Even in London’s wealthy Kensington and Chelsea, the site of the Grenfell Tower tragedy a year ago, life expectancy is 14 years lower for the poorest residents.

Mr Corbyn will pledge: “Labour will take action across government and the public services to halt the fall in life expectancy and narrow the shocking inequality gap in health

“It’s a long accepted truth that prevention is better than cure. The NHS treats illness but the growing inequalities in our society cause so much of it.

“There is clear and mounting evidence that austerity and inequality are killing people.”

Tory spending on health will hit nearly £125billion this year rising to more than £145billion by 2023.

Labour’s extra money would add another £2.4billion - or even more if there is an election before 2022.

Yesterday Mr Corbyn joined an estimated 50,000 people who flocked from all over Britain to central London to demand more recognition and cash for the hard-pressed NHS.

Coachloads of demonstrators had set off at dawn from Newcastle to the Isle of Wight, all heading to the capital.

Buses poured in from places as varied as Birmingham and Cambridge, Nuneaton and Southampton, Kidderminster and Sheffield.

Despite temperatures nudging 30C, the march made for Downing Street to give PM Theresa May a stark message.

They celebrated the achievements of the NHS but demanded its staff be valued and urged an end to under-funding and privatisation.

There was a party atmosphere as the march snaked around London landmarks such as Trafalgar Square and towards Whitehall as thousands of ­sweltering tourists looked on.

(Image: Reuters)

A huge mock birthday cake was held aloft by the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign as the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to the NHS, which began on July 5, 1948.

Banners called for an end to “stealth privatisation” and demanded a living wage for Britain’s care workers.

The PCS trade union’s drumming band lent a carnival air while activists chanted “NHS, not for sale”.

The march ended at a stage on Whitehall where crowds heard from politicians, celebrities, campaigners and front-line staff.

Jeremy Corbyn was given a rapturous reception as he said people had to “go to the ends of the earth” to defend the service, which was being undermined by PFI contacts, private firms providing care and the outsourcing of staff.

(Image: Stan Kujawa)

He said: “Our NHS was founded when people had vision. The creation of the NHS was a coming together and we’ve got to do it all over again.

“I want the NHS to be funded and operated by the public, for the public and in public hands.”

The Mirror-backed march comes after a decade-long NHS funding squeeze, the worst in history, with annual increases of around one per cent compared to the four per cent historic average.

Daily Mirror Editor Alison Phillips quoted from a 1948 copy of the paper which told readers back then: “No-one in the world has such a powerful force on his side as you have now.”

(Image: Stan Kujawa)

She added: “Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine now what that force must have felt like to our readers who previously, if sick or elderly, had been entirely on their own.

“Our letters pages in those first few months were filled with messages from readers overwhelmed almost with a sense of incredulity that this powerful force was there, on their side.”

Former Corrie actress Sally Lindsay, who played Shelley Unwin, took to the stage with her two children wearing “Born in the NHS” t-shirts. She told the crowd: “This is our NHS – let’s fight to save it.”

Actor Ralf Little, from the Royle Family, added: “I’m here because the NHS saved my life when I was a kid.

“Time and time again we have to assemble to remind the Government there is neither the political mandate or popular appeal to underfund it, to privatise it, or to war with the people who run it.”

(Image: PA)

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The only reason the NHS has kept going is because of wonderful staff. Not just doctors and nurses but porters, cleaners and caterers.”

She added: “Don’t let any of those poisonous politicians who want to scapegoat migrant workers divide us. Don’t let any politicians say we can’t afford the NHS. We don’t want Theresa May’s death by a thousand cuts.”

Helen Erasmus, a midwife for 30 years, told the Mirror morale among NHS workers had reached an all-time low.

She said: “Everybody feels at breaking point. We aren’t able to do the best for our patients because of staff shortages and cuts.

“Every day you put in extra hours. Nobody ever clocks off on time.”

But the 55-year-old from Newport, South Wales, added: “I’d go to jail to save the NHS – I care about it that much.”

The march came on the day it was announced that hundreds of thousands of NHS patients will be told they cannot have routine procedures.

Ops from varicose vein surgery to tonsil removal are now deemed “outdated or risky” by NHS England and will be cut to save money.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

Sam Fairbairn, national secretary of march organisers the People’s Assembly, said: “We are now seeing an NHS on its knees due to this Government. It’s a shameful indictment.”

Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn will today give a landmark speech on a visit to Tredegar, south-east Wales, the birthplace of the health service’s Labour founder, the 1940s Minister for Health Aneurin Bevan.

He will say: “Under Labour, the share of national income going into the NHS will rise.

“That is essential if we are going to meet the health needs of our people, from cancer care to heart disease.”

“We cannot tolerate a situation where one citizen or one community is denied the chance of life and health of another. That can and must change.

“There is clear and mounting evidence that austerity and inequality are killing people.”

Mr Corbyn will give the NHS an extra five per cent if he becomes PM, funding it with extra tax on business and a five per cent levy on those earning more than £80,000 a year.

Tory health spending will hit nearly £125billion this year, rising to £145billion by 2023.

Labour’s extra money would add another £2.4billion.

Why they came

Among the multitude who turned out to show support for the NHS yesterday were many who owe it their lives or their eternal gratitude.

Nine-year-old James Williams dressed as a surgeon to show support after docs in Peterborough stitched his finger back on after a bike accident.

Mum Sarah Tomkins, 47, said: “We’ll always be grateful.”

(Image: Stan Kujawa)

Jacky Mckenna, 55, from Aylesbury, Bucks, owes her life to the NHS after she developed sepsis last year when her kidney got blocked.

She had to be resuscitated and spent three months in a coma at Wycombe Hospital.

“Without the NHS I wouldn’t be alive,” she said.

(Image: Stan Kujawa)

Shannon Druif, 18, and sisters Katie, 10, and Rebecca, nine, from north London, were there with dad Brindley who said the NHS has helped his colitis.

He said: “If I didn’t have the NHS I’d be screwed.”

(Image: Stan Kujawa)

Julien FitzGerald, from Aylesbury, Bucks, needs a hip replacement but has been told at 49 he is too young for an NHS op.

“I’m in constant pain,” he said.