Wes Streeting has warned the NHS will not receive extra funding from Labor without “major surgery” or reforms, including greater use of the private sector.

The shadow health secretary insisted he would not be put off by the “middle-class left” who cry “betrayal” for using the private sector to reduce waiting lists, adding that he was “ready to fight the NHS unions” “.

It is the latest in a series of bold statements about the health service from Mr Streeting, who said Labor would only provide an extra £1 billion to the NHS if medical staff worked on weekends to ensure more patients were seen.

he wrote in sun: “The NHS is a service, not a shrine. It will be judged by how well it serves the public, not by the price we pay for failure.”

Mr Streeting highlighted his comments in an interview BBC Radio 4 Today Program He told the programme: “There’s a principled argument here, which is that those who can afford it are willing to spend the money to go private, they will be seen more quickly, their results, their life chances and their The quality of life will be better. Those who can’t afford it will be left behind. Those people tend to be people like me who come from working-class backgrounds, and I think that’s a shame.”

“Spent a year in the pain and suffering of treatment and being told they should wait longer because my principles trumped their prompt access to care.”

Asked whether he was right to write for The Sun, he said he would “make no apology for ensuring Labour’s alternative is heard by the widest possible audience, especially during one of the biggest crises our country faces, which is financial crisis”. National Health Service. “

The shadow health secretary has long been a strong supporter of NHS reform and has made it clear that Labor will take a preventive approach to health care to reduce demand on the NHS.

Labor have repeatedly said they will not make any unfunded spending commitments and that shadow ministers must consider reforms ahead of cash because of the UK’s economic woes.

Mr Streeting recently criticized the NHS, describing it as a “20th century service that has not moved with the times and is not suitable for the modern era” and that “if the NHS does not change, it will die”.