Lib Dems criticise GP funding cuts in bid to win over Jeremy Hunt’s seat

The Liberal Democrats are making a play for former health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s parliamentary seat by highlighting cuts to GP funding. 

Today, Lib Dems leader Ed Davey is visiting a GP practice in the chancellor’s Godalming and Ash constituency in Surrey, demanding he cancels ‘his planned £1.3bn in real-terms cuts to NHS spending’ ahead of the Budget announcement tomorrow. 

Recent polling has shown that the seat could fall to the Lib Dems at this year’s general election, and also that constituents put the NHS as the top issue in determining their vote. 

Just under 60% of voters in the constituency said they had close friends or family that had struggled to get a GP appointment. 

Ahead of Mr Davey’s visit, the Lib Dems have also highlighted that GP funding in Surrey fell by 5.3% in real terms over the five years between 2018/19 and 2022/23, which equates to a £9.2m cut when accounting for inflation. 

Over the same period, GP funding per patient was cut by 8.6% in real terms, meaning practices received £14 less per patient. 

The Lib Dems leader will call on Mr Hunt to reverse planned NHS spending cuts so that some of this money can ‘increase investment in local GP services’. 

Mr Davey said it is ‘no wonder’ Conservative voters across Surrey are switching to the Lib Dems ‘in droves’, and that his MPs ‘will stand up for local health services’.

He added: ‘Jeremy Hunt is totally out of touch with patients across the country, including those in his own seat who are struggling to see a GP when they need to.

‘The chancellor must urgently change course and reverse his planned health service spending cuts at the Budget.’

In January, the Lib Dems released figures which showed that GP funding across the country had been cut by almost £350m in real terms since 2019. 

The party has also highlighted that rural parts of England face ‘significantly longer waits’ for their GP than those living in urban areas.

As part of the latest GP contract imposition, the Government has increased general practice funding by 2.23%, which renders the GP business model ‘non-viable’, according to the BMA.

NHS England’s national director of primary care admitted that the contract changes will ‘only make a tiny difference to practices’, and cast the blame on the Department of Health and Social Care, whose financial allocation gave NHS England ‘no power’ to improve GP financial conditions. 

Mr Hunt was the longest-serving health secretary from 2012 to 2018, and following that he chaired the House of Commons health and care committee until being named chancellor.