Ed Davey lays out Lib Dem plans to slash 12-hour NHS wait times
The Lib Dem plans would make 6,000 hospital beds available by the end of the year and be paid for by 'scrapping the government's plan to and an extra £3 billion a year to pharmaceutical giants to appease Donald Trump'
"Populists and extremists" will be the winners if politicians do not tackle the crisis in the NHS, Sir Ed Davey has warned.
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The Liberal Democrat leader took aim at Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and US President Donald Trump as he set out his party's plans to end 12-hour A&E waits.
The proposals would make 6,000 hospital beds available by the end of the year, Sir Ed said, adding they would be paid for by "scrapping the Government's plan to hand an extra £3 billion a year to pharmaceutical giants to appease Donald Trump".
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The agreement keeps American imports of UK medicines tariff-free for three years, essentially lowering the price the NHS pays for US drugs, in return for the health service raising its threshold for spending on new treatments by 25%.
The extra £1.5 billion investment would ensure social care beds are available for patients waiting on long-term care decisions, the Lib Dem leader signalled.
Speaking at a central London press conference, Sir Ed said: "Today I'm announcing a new plan to invest in our hospitals, in social care and in supporting family carers, to help get people out of hospital more quickly and help keep them out of hospital safely through a combination of reserving places in care homes, funding more care packages for people after they leave hospital and supporting family carers properly so they can look after their loved ones at home."
He warned: "If we don't show that we can change things, if we can't fix this crisis, that's when the populists and the extremists will take advantage.
"Not because they can fix it, of course they can't.
"They're not even interested in fixing it.
"But because populists feed off disillusionment, they thrive when people simply don't believe that any government or any party can really make their lives better."
The Lib Dem leader argued only his party can offer hope while the Conservatives, who caused the crisis, are unable to and Labour "have shown they can't either".
Mr Farage "doesn't care about the NHS", Sir Ed claimed, adding: "But we know what he wants to do, don't we?
"We know what his plan is, even if he's now too smart to say it out loud.
"He wants to privatise the NHS, replace it with an American-style insurance system, a system where every year in the US almost half a million people go bankrupt because of their medical bills."
Sir Ed later insisted his plan was "fully costed and fully funded" and explained he would pay for it by scrapping the pharmaceuticals deal with the US.
He added: "The Government should finally stand up to Trump, reject his demands and invest that money in hospitals and in care to pull our NHS out of this crisis, and make it the incredible world-beating health service we all know it can be."