High price of PFI deal

DOZENS of MPs have urged Rachel Reeves to axe plans to reintroduce private debt deals for the NHS.

- BY MARTIN BAGOT Health Editor

Campaigners confronted MPs outside the conference demanding they stand by the 2024 election vow to keep the NHS “publicly owned and publicly funded”.

Activists confronted MPs with a 5ft board asking if they back the pledge and 27 signed up.

Private finance deals are a way of keeping government debt off the books to meet No10’s fiscal rules but leave NHS trusts paying sky-high interest rates for decades.

Activists said it would be like buying a house with a payday loan.

The protest was just before the Chancellor's speech.