Burnham: I took all the action that I had to take

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has defended himself against suggestions that he failed to act over excessive death rates at some NHS hospital trusts when Labour was in power.

He told Daybreak: "I took all the action that I had to take when problems were brought to my attention.

"It's just not possible to stop everything that goes wrong in the NHS, it's a huge organisation. What matters is when things are brought to your attention, do you act on those warnings and try and improve things."

A major report into higher than expected death rates at 14 hospital trusts in England is set to be published later today.

"All 14 of these trusts are missing the Government's own A&E target - that wasn't the case when we left government - they have gone downhill on this Government's watch", Mr Burnham said.