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NHS becomes key battleground for rival parties

The NHS has become a key election battleground with a Conservatives pledge of an extra £8 billion a year for the NHS in England by 2020. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have attacked the announcement as an "unfunded" spending commitment.

Meanwhile, Labour is pledging one-to-one midwife care for every woman during childbirth as it launches its health manifesto.

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Jeremy Hunt: We can fund extra money for NHS

The Health Secretary has insisted the Conservatives can fund their pledge to inject an extra £8 billion a year into the NHS by 2020.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have attacked the announcement as an "unfunded" spending commitment.

Jeremy Hunt has defended the Tories' pledge to invest £8bn extra a year in the health service by 2020. Credit: ITN

By 2020.. we'll have a million more people over 70 and Conservatives want to make sure every single on of them is treated with dignity, respect, the kind of care we would all want for our parents and grandparents. We can fund that extra money for the extra doctors and nurses to do that because we've turned around the British economy, a thousand jobs being created every single day, all those jobs are people paying taxes, their companies who are paying taxes and we can have the confidence with that economic plan that we can put resources into the NHS.

– Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

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