Politicians are urging the government to give the NHS the extra £350 million a week promised by Brexit campaigners during the EU referendum.
A group of 40 MPs wrote to the Philip Hammond to try and persuade him to include the money in his first autumn statement as the new Chancellor on November 23.
Signatories include Labour’s Chuka Umunna, former health minister Liberal MP Norman Lamb and Green MP Caroline Lucas who want to see the extra cash for the NHS.
They are backing the #showusthemoney campaign which wants to see the Referendum pledge made good.
The letter said the Vote Leave campaign backed senior politicians Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and International Development Secretary Priti Patel promised if successful the NHS would be better off by £350 million a week.
The slogan was also emblazoned on Vote Leave buses during the Referendum campaign.
The authors said the pledge was accepted by a large number of the electorate in June’s referendum vote.
Fifty-two per cent of voters elected to leave the EU. The other 48% said they wanted to stay.
The letter told Mr Hammond: “It is clear that if this mandate is to mean anything, it must include the single most visible promise of the leave campaign – spending £350 million more a week on the NHS.”
After the referendum vote the BMA council chairman Mark Porter wrote to David Cameron calling for extra cash for the NHS.
He told the then Prime Minister that although the extra cash was the subject of argument “what cannot be disputed is the public’s eagerness to see increased funding for the NHS.”
He called on the Government to give the NHS the cash it needed “so that doctors can provide the service for patients which they deserve.”
A Treasury spokeswoman said the £350 million a week was promised by Vote Leave campaigners and not the Government.
She said the Treasury was not commenting on the MPs’ letter.
