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

Boris Johnson has failed to apologise to a 92-year-old RAF hero who spent 12 hours on a trolley on an NHS hospital.

Second World War veteran Stan ­Solomons' "indignity" was raised today in Parliament in a damning swipe at Tory underfunding.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "I want the government to apologise to him and many others.

"But to explain why, despite the extraordinary efforts of NHS staff all over the country, over 2,000 patients had to wait over 12 hours before getting to a hospital bed last month alone."

Quizzed today at Prime Minister's Questions, the Tory leader said the long waits were "unacceptable" - but failed to apologise.

Instead Mr Johnson said: "He’s right to highlight the case of the RAF veteran. And I think everyone in this House will have every sympathy for people who have a bad and unacceptable experience in the NHS. We all share that.

"On the other hand, I will say that most people in this country, most patients of the NHS, have a fantastic experience of our healthcare.

"And we should pay tribute to our nurses and our staff. The hospital he mentions, Leicester, is one of those we are rebuilding."

It came as a top Tory hinted the four-hour A&E waiting time target could be scrapped after the NHS recorded its worst figure on record.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock revived the long-standing threat to rip up the ambition following the election - and 16 years after it was set by Labour .

Mr Hancock told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We will be judged by the right targets.

"Targets have to be clinically appropriate."

Mr Solomons was left waiting for 12 hours, after being admitted to A&E via ambulance at Leicester Royal Infirmary, at the end of last year.

The veteran, who trained at the ­codebreakers’ HQ Bletchley Park during the Second World War and went on to serve with the RAF and later at a ‘listening post’ in Hong Kong, was forced to wait on a trolley during that time.

“I grew up in the years before the NHS was set up, when healthcare was ‘hit and miss’,” Stan told the Mirror's Real Britain columnist Ros Wynne Jones.

“My ­generation built the NHS to take the worry out of being ill, and to make sure that everyone has access to good quality healthcare.”

In December, the number of people waiting four hours or more on hospital trolleys reached 98,452 while 2,347 people waited more than 12 hours. Both figures are the highest on record.

He stressed how “caring the staff are and how hard they work for their patients” but he said they are “overworked and stressed”.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock visited the hospital on December 11 – the day before the general election – to “see the impact that the new A&E has had, just incredible impact”.

But by December 29, when Stan faced his 12-hour ordeal, the election was over and the spotlight had faded.

Election victor Prime Minister Boris Johnson was already on a £20,000-a- week holiday on the private island of Mustique. Some 4,000 miles away back home, Stan lay on a trolley.

On December 29, paramedics rushed Stan to hospital after he became very unwell with a suspected infection.

He was admitted to A&E just before midday. From 4.20pm until 6pm there was a power cut, caused by an underground cable fault, which meant some ambulances were diverted to other hospitals and that some equipment couldn’t be used.

“A&E was packed, with people sitting on the floor,” said Stan’s ­granddaughter Roxanne Ellis, a Labour and Co-operative councillor.

(Image: Newsteam SWNS)

“Staff were having not only to reassure distressed patients and family members but also cope without their usual back up and information."

Speaking during PMQs today, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attacked the Government for NHS A&E waiting times and missed cancer treatment targets.

Mr Corbyn added: "The number of patients waiting more than four hours in A&E is now at its highest on record, for the second month in a row.

"We've had months of promises. People need action.

"There probably isn't a family in the United Kingdom which hadn't been affected in some way by cancer.

"Yet last year we saw one in four patients waiting more than two months for the start of their cancer treatment.

"How many more patients will face what are life-threatening delays because our NHS is under-staffed and under-funded?"

Responding, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said delays in the NHS are "unacceptable", adding that the Government "will get those waiting lists down".

He told MPs: "As the right honourable gentleman knows, there is a massive demand on the NHS, which he also knows is doing a fantastic job, particularly in oncology where tremendous progress has been made.

"He's right to signal the delays that people are facing, and they are indeed unacceptable, and that is why we're investing in 50,000 more nurses, that's why we're investing in 6,000 more GPs and that is why this Government is investing record sums in the NHS.

"We will get those waiting lists down."

(Image: Peter Summers)

Mr Corbyn also asked "what's the hold up?" when it came to Mr Johnson revealing social care reform plans, to which the PM replied: "We do intend to begin with cross-party talks to build a consensus and I think there's a growing consensus in this country on the need to tackle the issue of social care so everybody has dignity and security in their old age, nobody has to sell their home to pay for the cost of their care.

"We can do it and we will do it, with the help and co-operation of the Labour Party and other parties in this House, we will go ahead with a fantastic plan for social care."

Mr Corbyn told Mr Johnson to "fund it properly" when it comes to the NHS, concluding: "The Prime Minister has said many times he's going to put this NHS funding issue into law but all this gimmick means is even longer waiting lists, more delays for cancer patients and more A&E departments bursting at the seams while patients continue to suffer while he continues to provide excuses.

"If he's really committed to fixing the crisis his Government has created over the last decade, he should end the empty rhetoric and back our proposals to give the NHS the funding it needs rather than putting into law an insufficiency of funding."

Mr Johnson joked Mr Corbyn was "still fighting on the manifesto" submitted to the public at the last election, noting: "I think it was pretty clear what they thought of the credibility of the promises that he made - but it was also clear what they thought of what we're going to do as they see we are the party of the NHS."