In an article for The Independent, Jeremy Corbyn hit out at the Labour government's plan to award private healthcare operators £2.5bn in NHS contracts in an attempt to shorten hospital appointment waiting times, stating that they risk repeating the mistakes of Tony Blair's government, which opened our hospitals up to private interference and profiteering.

Corbyn went further in his remarks and warned that Labour's plans threaten to "betray the foundational purpose of the NHS: to provide healthcare for everyone irrespective of their status of wealth", and highlighted that many private healthcare providers cherry-pick which patients they treat in order to report the best outcomes for their business, which often leaves those with long-standing or complex conditions to languish on waiting lists for months, if not years, at a time.

Instead of handing over vast sums of money to private companies, the government should instead be investing in the NHS and staunchly defending universal healthcare.

The future of the NHS has long been at risk due to the failures of successive governments to defend and invest in universal healthcare in Britain. We join Jeremy Corbyn's pleas to the government to commit to totally removing all privatisation from our NHS and protecting its long-term and sustainable future as the world's leading healthcare institution.

Peace & Justice Project has long campaigned for a wealth tax on the super rich to fund large-scale investment in our hospitals as part of our 5 Demands to build an alternative to the misery faced by millions.