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The last thing you need when you’ve been diagnosed with cancer is to have to wait months for treatment.

Yet that is exactly what is happening on today’s NHS. One in four cancer patients is now waiting more than two months.

That’s not the fault of doctors, nurses and staff – they’re stretching every sinew and pulling out every stop to get patients their treatment in time. But the Tory Government is letting patients down.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Twenty years ago as a junior Labour health minister I worked on the National Cancer Plan.

We invested in more doctors, nurses, new drugs and treatment, and we set ambitious targets for people to start treatment quickly.

(Image: Getty)

But after 10 years of the Tories things have gone backwards. The number of people waiting longer for urgent cancer treatment has tripled – 30,000 people are waiting beyond two months.

At the same time, waits in A&E are at their highest-ever level. That’s people waiting longer in pain and discomfort.

Tory Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that “in many ways the NHS is performing better than it ever has”. What planet is he on?

He should tell that to mums in Pontefract who were planning to give birth at the local maternity unit but it has now closed due to a national shortage of midwives.

This is a direct result of Tory cuts and the decision to abolish the student bursary. I had my three kids in Pontefract, but now local mums won’t get that choice. They’ll have to travel further away to other hospitals that are already overstretched.

He should tell that to people across the country who are waiting weeks for a GP appointment because, despite Tory promises to increase the number of GPs, they’ve been cut by 1,700 instead.

Under the last Labour Government, people could see a GP within 48 hours.

And he should tell that to the NHS staff who are working a million hours of unpaid overtime every week. They’re doing an incredible job but are struggling to cope.

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Hospital staff in our area have told me it’s harder now than it was under Thatcher. And I’m really worried that Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage want to do a dodgy deal with Donald Trump that will put our NHS at risk from big American drug companies.

Our NHS is too important to us to carry on like this. Labour created the NHS and we’ll always look after it. Only Labour will give the NHS the funding it needs, and end privatisation and rebuild our services.