NHS waiting lists hit new record high of 7.7 million

In January, Rishi Sunak pledged to cut the NHS care backlog in England – promising ‘lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly’.

Figures out today from NHS England showed that list has in fact grown to a record 7.7 million people – with the Prime Minister conceding his target would now be ‘very hard’ to meet, and pinning a large part of the blame on striking medical staff.