NHS report live: Keir Starmer warns no more money without reform and says changes won’t be universally popular

Sir Keir Starmer is confident he can reform the NHS because reforming organisations has been a “common theme” throughout his career.

He said: “I reformed when I was heading up the Crown Prosecution Service. I wanted to change it, to make it much more victim oriented, and we faced a huge challenge. We took it on. We changed it.

“I wanted to drive up conviction rates for violence against women and girls. We faced resistance about how we were doing it. We burst through that and made the change.

“So I could give any number of examples. I’ve worked in Northern Ireland where we had to create a new police service. In Northern Ireland there was resistance, but we pressed on and did it.

“When I arrived as leader of Labour party, I knew we had to change it. There was a lot of resistance, but we pressed on and did it.”

Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins has said it is puzzling that Lord Darzi described the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 as a “calamity”.

Lord Darzi criticised political decision-making under the Conservatives and the coalition government in his report, including the impact of austerity and the reorganisation of the NHS under Andrew Lansley in 2012.

The peer called the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 “a calamity without international precedent”.

Ms Atkins told Sky News: “The puzzlement of that is that I’m told – I wasn’t in parliament at the time – but I’m told that Lord Darzi supported those reforms at the time.”

She said she was “surprised” that the Labour government had put together its report on the NHS “so quickly” and said she would examine the data and sources in the report.

Sir Keir Starmer was asked why the Labour government has been “dragging its feet” over compensation payments for victims of the Horizon IT scandal.

The prime minister replied: “Everything, pretty well, has been broken by the last government so we are getting on with this as quickly as we can. I did make that commitment, I stick by that commitment.”

Sir Keir Starmer has been asked what he would tell to a patient waiting for treatment about how he plans to improve the NHS in the short-term.

He said: “I am going to say we are going to fix this with the first steps but we are going to do the long-term change.”

The prime minister added: “I accept the challenge to me which is it is going to take a long time. It is going to be measured in years, not months. And we need to have something to say to someone who is ill now which is getting the NHS back on its feet.

“But we can’t duck the long term change. That is the problem.”

Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions from reporters at the King’s Fund conference in London.

A member of the press asked the prime minister whether he will be able to deliver on his promises when “other reform plans did not work”.

Sir Keir responded that past governments have not used mission-driven approaches.

Ending his speech, Sir Keir Starmer declared the NHS is going through the “worst crisis in its history”.

He vowed to reverse the failings in the NHS by delivering a 10-year-plan for reform.

The prime minister said: “This 10 year plan has to be the moment that we change that, the moment we begin to turn our National Health Service into a neighbourhood health service.

“That means more tests, scans, healthcare offered on high streets and town centres, improved GP access, bringing back the family doctor, offering digital consultations for those that want them.”

The prime minister has declared the NHS is broken but can still be fixed as he outlines his plan for reforming the service.

He said: “As the report says, the NHS may be in a critical condition but its vital signs are strong and we need to have the courage to deliver long-term reform. Major surgery not sticking plasters.

“We have got to face up to the challenges.”

He added: “The NHS is at a fork in the road and we have a choice about how it should meet those demands. Don’t act and leave it to die, raise taxes on working people or reform to secure its future.

“Working people can’t afford to pay more so it is reform or die.”

Keir Starmer has warned the NHS it will get no more money from ministers “without reform”, Kate Devlin writes.

In a major speech on the issue he said “we have to fix the plumbing before turning on the taps”.

He added: “Hear me when I say this: ‘No more money without reform.’”

A landmark report into the NHS has described the health service as “in serious trouble” as Labour vows to act on its findings. The review by Lord Darzi says honesty is needed if healthcare in the UK is to be improved, highlighting many issues.

The rapid review, completed in nine weeks, diagnoses the problems in the NHS in England and sets out themes for the government to incorporate into a 10-year plan for reforming the health service.

Read the full report below:

Sir Keir Starmer has said the 2010s represented a “lost decade for the NHS” under the Conservative government.

The prime minister said: “Covid hit our NHS harder than healthcare systems in other countries and why? Because our NHS went into the pandemic in a much more fragile state.”