1. Johnson’s briefed papers today about his Queens Speech.

But anxious patients are waiting longer for treatment including cancer & mental health because ten years of underfunding, cuts and understaffing left us exposed when the pandemic hit. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-queens-speech-nhs-b1844296.html

2. These years of underfunding and bed cuts meant when COVID hit elective operations had to be cancelled, beds emptied, life saving treatments delayed & crucial scans for cancer postponed.

As a result those now waiting over 12 months for treatment rocketed to close to 400,000.

3. The Queens Speech should put in statue a rescue plan to give the NHS the resources it needs, pay staff a fair pay rise, bring back a proper training bursary and reforms that actually end NHS privatisation not ones that makes privatisation easier.

4. But if Johnson really was committed to ‘levelling up’ he would bring forward a plan to fix social care.

He famously promised it on the steps of Downing Street in summer 2019. We are all still waiting.

Lack of meaningful action on social care is the biggest test of his QS.