The Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, has recently proclaimed himself the champion of our NHS. He told the Tory Party Conference last month:
... as we get Brexit done, so we will re-energise and unite our country. If there is one great British institution that has the emotional force to bring our country together, it is our NHS. It is sacred in our nation precisely because at its heart is the simple beauty of the principle that whoever you are, no matter where you come from, if you fall sick the whole country gathers figuratively at your bedside.
And the prime minister repeated this statement word for word in his introduction to last week’s Queen’s Speech.
So can we believe these claims? Is there really a u-turn on a decade of Conservative attacks on the NHS? An end to PFI, an end to NHS privatisation more generally, proper funding for our healthcare services, an end to the hostile environment in our hospitals, and an end to Boris Johnson’s long history of racist and discriminatory comments?
