LABOUR are urging Rishi Sunak to use private clinics to ease pressure on the crumbling NHS.

Sir Keir Starmer said it would slash waiting times as they lay bare the crisis facing the health service saying it needs “urgent action.”

The opposition claim there are 7.2 million people waiting for treatment and currently, four in ten people attending A&E wait more than four hours to be seen.

They say a quarter of all patients admitted currently wait more than four hours to get onto a ward and more than 1.3 million people are currently waiting more than a month to see their GP.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “People waiting for a doctors appointment, test results, and terrifyingly, an ambulance need urgent action.

“Labour has a bold plan to slash waiting times by temporarily ramping up partnerships with private providers.

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"I’m urging the Prime Minister to use it.”

He added the private help would be “just a short reprieve” saying he would prioritise “renewal and reform” vowing: “No more sticking plaster politics.”

But earlier this week Rosena Allin-Khan, his shadow mental health minister, refused three times to back the use of private care in the NHS, saying it “often lets people down.”

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