BREAKING: Budget 2024: Rachel Reeves announces billions to rescue NHS and cut waiting lists

Rachel Reeves has announced billions of pounds to rescue the crisis-hit .

Delivering her first Budget - with a whopping £40billion in tax rises - the Chancellor said the Tories' austerity broke the health the service.

She said the government would use the tax rises to bring about the largest real terms terms increase outside Covid in day-to-day spending.

"We can now begin to move waiting lists down more quickly," she declared.

Among the funding announced on Wednesday, £1.5billion will be invested in new surgical hubs and scanners to help free up capacity in the NHS. An extra £70million will also be set aside for new radiotherapy machines.

Ahead of the , after the Tories failed to put aside cash for public sector pay hikes.

They had claimed that without the extra cash the funding gap would see millions of appointments, scans and operations cancelled.

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