Party for NHS says it will meet funding gap of £30bn by 2020

The National Health Action Party has promised to increase funding to the NHS in England with an immediate cash injection of £4.5bn (€6.3bn; $6.6bn) by raising income tax by a penny in the pound, followed by a level of funding sufficient to meet the £30bn NHS funding gap by 2020.

In its manifesto, released on 15 April, the party said that NHS funding needed to match that of health spending in other industrialised countries. Currently it is the lowest of all the G7 richest countries.

As well as bolstering the NHS budget, the party said that it would also abolish competition between parts of the NHS, which it estimated would save £4.5bn a year. The internal market would be replaced by cooperation and collaboration. Privatisation would have no …