Rishi Sunak faces a new battle with the NHS after his health secretary said he could do without extra cash.
Steve Barclay astonished Treasury officials when he told Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, that he would not ask for more money to offset the effects of inflation next year, promising to find efficiencies and savings instead.
His remarks started “robust” negotiations with NHS England, which has warned that cancer care, GPs and mental healthcare face cutbacks without £6 billion to £7 billion more to deal with surging inflation and pay rises.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said in a warning to Barclay that savings from bureaucracy could “only be a margin of an already small margin”.
After Sunak promised to prioritise the NHS,