A CONTROVERSIAL revamp of healthcare in the county will be halted if Labour wins the upcoming General Election.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn made the pledge to halt the Sustainability and Transformation Plan which has been implemented across the county, including in Worcestershire.
Ahead of the formal launch of the party’s General Election campaign on Tuesday, Mr Corbyn visited Worcester on Monday (May 8) to lend his support to the party’s candidate Coun Joy Squires.
The Labour leader joined Coun Squires on a visit to the University of Worcester where he spoke to student nurses about Labour’s commitment to reinstating adequate funds for training.
He took time to listen to their stories and how removal of student bursaries was causing hardship and stress and how the bursary was a decisive factor in attracting mature students into the profession.
Mr Corbyn also shared with the students a tale of his aunt, a former matron and one of the first NHS nurses.
“I am totally passionate about the National Health Service, my auntie qualified straight after the NHS was established,” he told them.
“Whisper it quietly she was a matron but she was so proud of the NHS.
“I’ve never forgotten going to visit her as a little boy in her hospital in her uniform, I was ever so frightened of her!,” he added.
After meeting representatives from the Students Union and Sophie Carrigill, Women’s co-captain of British Wheelchair Basketball, Mr Corbyn then headed into the heart of Worcester for a speech on the High Street outside the Guildhall.
“I’m very proud of the Labour pledge that every child in every school will get a free school meal everyday they are in school,” he told the crowd.
“That way all of our children are properly fed and doing something together which is so important to break down barriers.
“We should look to a society where everyone can achieve the best for themselves, where they aren’t held back by the postcode they were born or the poverty they grew up in. We can do better as a country.
“We have one month until the General Election, Britain doesn’t have to be a country of foodbanks, of homelessness, of children wondering what the future holds for them or people wracked with debt because they went to university.”
“Think differently, of the kind of society we can be. Where we aren’t afraid to invest in good infrastructure, in industries and jobs of the future, we aren’t afraid to say inequality is wrong.
“We’re unleashing the talent that is in all of us, we want to create a society and a community for the many not the few,” he added.
