Sunak’s NHS Failures Crush Tories
A breaking report just blew the lid off the real reason behind Rishi Sunak ‘s embarrassing election loss – his total meltdown with the NHS.
New polls reveal that Sunak’s massive healthcare failures were the main reason for the Conservative Party’s downfall. Voters overwhelmingly saw his broken promises on the NHS as unforgivable.
Sunak’s negligence let waiting lists skyrocket, care standards nosedive, and staff strikes cripple hospitals during his disastrous run. And now, the British people have made him pay the price.
On election day, Sunak’s terrible NHS record came back to haunt him as voters who endured years of Tory healthcare neglect punished his party. His weak excuses couldn’t compete with the frustration of citizens fed up with endless delays, overcrowding, and rationed care.
Bombshell focus groups show that the NHS was the defining issue of this election – with many pointing to Sunak’s failure on healthcare as his biggest mistake.
Even Sunak admitted his huge failure on the NHS. But it was too little, too late after he ignored urgent advice to resolve crippling health worker strikes.
Polls: NHS Drove Election Wipeout
By now, we’ve all seen how the Conservative Party, led by Rishi Sunak, got trounced by Labour in the latest general election. They lost nearly 250 seats in Parliament and gave up their grip on government after 14 years in power. This landslide loss for the Tories can be traced directly back to one key issue: Sunak’s disastrous handling of the NHS crisis on his watch.
Time and time again during Sunak’s time as a Prime Minister, he demonstrated a spectacular failure to get to grips with the rapidly deteriorating state of the National Health Service in England.
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Waiting lists skyrocketed, standards of care plummeted, staff walked out on strike repeatedly, and patients suffered endless delays for urgent treatment under his leadership. Sunak’s broken promises and negligence on NHS reform came back to haunt him and his party in the brutal electoral fashion.
The dismal results for the Conservative Party point clearly to widespread public anger over how Sunak let down patients and the health service. As Luke Tryl, director of the research group More in Common, summarized: “The NHS is undeniably the story of this election. I could have told you that from many focus groups…Everyone had a story about a family member who was struggling on a waiting list.”
He went on: “The most powerful things in politics are things that people can relate to personally, and the NHS is there.” It raises questions about whether Mr Sunak could have prevented the mauling if he’d addressed strikes.
Indeed, when voters were asked about Sunak’s biggest mistakes in government, the number one response was his failure on waiting lists and the NHS, selected by a full 33% of respondents in one post-election poll.
Sunak himself openly admitted his NHS failure, saying in an interview with Piers Morgan that “We have not made enough progress” on waiting lists and declaring bluntly: “Yes, we have” failed.
It did not have to be this way. If Sunak had listened to advice urging him to immediately resolve NHS strikes instead of letting the dispute drag on, some Tory losses may have been mitigated per polling analysis.
As Tryl notes, “When you ask what Rishi Sunak’s biggest mistake, failing on the NHS comes out top. You have to wonder if Sunak followed Dominic Cummings’ advice and settled the NHS strikes on day one whether we’d be in a slightly different situation.”
But Sunak Sunak totally ignored the smart advice he got, and his failure to handle NHS labor disputes showed just how hands-off he was as waiting lists got longer, standards fell, crises overwhelmed hospitals, and patients suffered.
Instead of taking bold steps to reform and properly fund the NHS, Sunak offered half-hearted measures and empty promises. He talked a big game about cutting waiting lists, calling it one of his top priorities when he took office. But under his watch, NHS waiting lists ballooned by 330,000 patients.
Voters were fed up with his broken promises and neglect of healthcare reform. During the campaign, Labour hammered Sunak for his healthcare failures and offered strong investment plans for the NHS.
This strategy worked, attracting 55% of their voters with solid health policies, according to post-election analysis. In contrast, Sunak’s weak NHS agenda failed to reassure an electorate tired of Conservative neglect.
But we’ll see if Labour can actually deliver on their promises, especially with doubts about their ability to make real changes.
Sunak Failed to Reform Healthcare
Sunak confessed he couldn’t deliver on his waiting list pledge, saying he “failed” on this key priority. But his failures on NHS reform go way back before he became Prime Minister and are part of the Tories’ long history of neglect.
Since 2010, healthcare spending under Conservative governments rose just 2.8% annually, far below the historic annual increase of 3.6% over the past 50 years.
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This low-ball funding came even as patient demand surged, British society aged, and costs climbed. Sunak also oversaw the lowest NHS staff pay rises in modern history. Nurses and doctors suffered double-digit real-terms pay cuts, provoking a wave of Strike actions that further damaged care quality.
Even during the pandemic, which caused massive strain on the NHS, annual healthcare budget increases under Tory leadership barely averaged 2.8%. Funding failed to keep pace with historic benchmarks or the new pressures on the system.
The devastating real-world impacts from long-term, chronic Tory underfunding and poor management of the NHS came home to roost for Sunak at the ballot box. Voters faced interminable waits for ambulances, overcrowded A&E wards, cries for help from burned-out staff, and routine operations delayed by years.
As the NHS crumbled, Sunak epitomized the Conservative’s indifference and empty rhetoric. Even Broadcast presenter Piers Morgan relayed how his 79-year old mother faced a horrific 7 hour wait on a trolley in an overwhelmed A&E.
Sunak could only lamely offer the excuse that coronavirus caused NHS backlogs, refusing accountability for failing to correct course. His excuses fall flat given Tory leaders like Boris Johnson found ample funding for pet projects, tax cuts and dysfunctional policies over their 14 years in power.
Ultimately, Sunak prioritized Conservative prestige over fixing the NHS crisis. Now, his reputation and his party lie in tatters while Brits continue to grapple with a public health disaster.
For Sunak’s Conservatives, it was finally time to face the music. The British people sent a loud and clear message: neglecting the NHS wouldn’t be tolerated or forgotten when it came time to vote.
Rishi Sunak left the political scene as a failed Prime Minister who lost the public’s trust on healthcare. His name is now tied to one of the worst defeats in Tory history, thanks to his failure to tackle the NHS crisis.
The voters’ message was clear: Sunak’s mishandling of the NHS doomed his incompetent government. Now, the British people demand urgent action to fix the country’s neglected health system.