Sir Keir Starmer: Labour will end NHS "dental deserts"

The leader of the opposition visited Bury College on Friday morning to discuss his party’s plan to improve access to NHS dentistry. 

He aims to decrease appointment waiting times and tackle "dental deserts" where no NHS dentists are exist. 

Mr Starmer met with staff and students at the college where he discussed proposals to address poor dental health among children by asking schools to carry out supervised tooth cleaning for three- to five-year-olds.

Labour says it will cut waiting times and improve the quality of NHS services by abolishing the “non-dom” tax status, which allows wealthy individuals to reside in the United Kingdom and pay tax abroad.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and James Frith, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Bury North, speak with dentistry students at Bury College following the launch of Labour's Child Health Action Plan (Image: Labour)

Sir Keir said: “Too many people around here will be struggling to get urgent [dental] appointments.

“What we heard loud and clear in the questions [the students] asked me was ‘what about the places here and around here where you can’t even get access to an NHS dentist at all’, which is a massive problem.

“All of that is paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status, I think the super-rich should pay their tax in this country and use that money directly for dentistry.”

The Labour leader has committed to delivering two million more operations, scans and appointments per year with staff paid over time in the evenings and on weekends to reduce the spiralling appointment backlog.

He also detailed proposals to offer financial incentives to newly qualified dentists to work in areas where there are no NHS services.

Sir Keir’s trip to Bury followed a visit to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool where he unveiled a new Child Health Action Plan, which the party hopes will usher in "the healthiest and happiest generation of children ever".

The party said its government would work end hospital waiting times for children of more than 18 weeks.

As well as healthcare, Sir Keir also discussed the state of public transport in the region, saying the North West had been “neglected” by Rishi Sunak’s government.

He also praised Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s Bee Network which saw the introduction of a newly integrated public transport under public control. 

Sir Keir said: “[The government] would rather have a fight with the North West than work with the North West to ensure public transport is in place.

“We will work completely differently to the government at the moment, we will work with the North West, work with Greater Manchester.

“Northern Powerhouse Rail needs to happen, but it needs to happen in a way which works for Manchester and the North West, that’s only going to happen if we work with the mayor with our locally elected representatives.”