A Conservative candidate has become stuck trying to defend Boris Johnson’s misleading claim that he is funding 40 new hospitals – shortly after saying she agreed the NHS should not be weaponsied.
LBC host and political commentator, Iain Dale, called out Conservative candidate for Chichester, Gillian Keegan, after she agreed with Chris Hopson on NHS providers who asked parties not to “weaponise” the health service as an election issue.
It comes after Boris Johnson announced plans to build 40 new hospitals which Dale claimed to be a ‘lie’.
Johnson had described the plans as the “biggest hospital building programme in a generation” – but it will only deliver six new buildings and refurbishments over the next six years.
Keegan struggled to answer his questions.
Dale said: “Why did he say 40? That’s weaponising the issue, isn’t it?
“He’s wrong to say that’s 40 new hospitals. That is, to coin a phrase, a lie.”
Keegan admitted: “You could say it’s six new hospitals which will be built straight away, 34 which will be built over the next 10 years.
“The vast majority of these hospitals are replacing very old Victorian hospitals.”
Her somewhat clumsy attempt to support Boris Johnson’s claims left Dale to question whether his “lies” were a weaponisation of the NHS caught in action.
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