Boris Johnson visits UK’s ‘Brexit capital’ in Lincolnshire as he fuels snap election rumours with £1.8billion pledge for the NHS

• Boris Johnson is announcing a planned spending spree on NHS hospitals
• The cash injection is targeting many Leave-voting areas amid election rumours
• Some £850million of the £1.8 billion fund will be used for repairs in 20 hospitals
• Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he no longer believes MPs can block Brexit
• PM’s aides believed to be preparing a ‘people vs politicians’ election campaign 

Boris Johnson visited the UK’s ‘Brexit capital’ today as he fueled snap election rumours by pledging to pump £1.8billion into the NHS.

The PM toured the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, as he unveiled a £21million boost for its trust.

Speculation over a snap election is running rampant after it emerged much of the cash injection will go to Brexit-voting areas. Boston famously had the highest Leave vote in the 2016 referendum, with 75 per cent backing leaving the EU.

The government’s wafer-thin majority and Remainer MPs means many at Westminster now expect an election within months. 

Mr Johnson today denied the commitment was a ‘drop in the ocean’ and that half had already been announced.

‘Don’t forget that this is £1.8billion of new money. It wasn’t there 10 days ago,’ he said.

‘It’s on top of the extra £34billion we are putting into the NHS and I’ve said that my job is to make sure that we use the funds that go into the NHS to reduce the time you wait to see your GP, the time you wait in A&E – and that’s why we are doing it today.

‘I would also stress that it is vital if we are going to fund our fantastic NHS in the long term that we have a strong economy.’  

Mr Johnson’s maverick adviser Dominic Cummings is reported to have told aides that the premier will simply refuse to quit if he loses a confidence vote when the Commons returns in September.

He is believed to be preparing a pro-Brexit, anti-establishment campaign if the government is forced to go to the country. 

Mr Johnson happily posed for selfies as he toured the Pilgrim hospital in Lincolnshire today

Mr Johnson chose Boston in Lincs – which had the highest Brexit vote in the 2016 election – for his visit today 

Boris Johnson (pictured centre visiting the Pilgrim hospital in Boston, Lincs with Health Secretary Matt Hancock, left, today ) is pouring NHS funding into Leave heartlands amid claims he is plotting a ‘people v politicians’ election this autumn

Tory party chairman James Cleverly insisted yesterday that Mr Johnson had no plans to call a general election – but said No 10 was prepared for the possibility that Labour could try to force one to avoid a No Deal Brexit.

One source described Downing Street as being in ‘full campaign mode’.

Mr Cummings, the strategist behind the Vote Leave referendum campaign, apparently made clear at a meeting with aides last week that the PM will not resign even if he loses a vote of confidence when Parliament returns in September.

Instead he could stay in place and use his executive powers to set the election date for after the Brexit date of October 31.

Mr Hancock said today that he no longer believed there was anything MPs can do to stop the UK leaving the EU by the Halloween deadline. 

‘There were votes in Parliament just before we rose for summer that I thought would stop a no-deal Brexit and actually were defeated,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

‘There was a vote in particular in the middle of the leadership contest where Parliament was asked if it wanted to stop a no-deal Brexit. I thought that would go through and in fact the Government won by 11.

‘I now don’t think it can (stop no-deal). I thought that it could and the votes went differently to what I anticipated. When the facts change, sometimes even as a politician you have to change your mind.’

Mr Hancock also tried to quell the election rumours, insisting he agreed with ‘Brenda’ – the Bristol woman who famously wailed ‘not another one’ when told by the BBC that Theresa May had called the 2017 election.

Mr Johnson himself dismissed the election fever this afternoon, telling reporters in Lincolnshire: ‘The people of the UK voted in the election 2015, they had a referendum in 2015, and another election in 2017. 

‘They want us to deliver what they asked for – and that is for us to leave the EU. 

‘The last thing I want to do is call another election.’ 

But one government aide told the Financial Times: ‘I think the Vote Leave people in here will do literally anything to win. 

‘Cummings is already planning the Facebook campaign for a ‘people versus the politicians’ election.’ 

An ally of the Prime Minister said No 10’s focus this month will be on core priorities: the NHS, crime and education.

‘We want to make sure people feel it at the front line. Boris is following through with his promises,’ they said.

Mr Johnson said: ‘The NHS is always there for us – free at the point of use for everyone in the country. With our doctors and nurses working tirelessly day in, day out, this treasured institution truly showcases the very best of Britain.

Dominic Cummings (pictured at No10 today) is apparently preparing for a ‘people v politicians’ election 

‘That’s why I made it my immediate task to make sure front-line services have the funding they need, to make a real difference to the lives of NHS staff, and above all, of patients.

‘I’m delivering on this promise with a £1.8billion cash injection.’

But experts said the money, while desperately needed, was just a fraction of what is required to restore ailing NHS buildings.

Remainers seek to secure 100 seats 

Remain campaigners will urge those in favour of a second referendum to vote tactically at the next election in a bid to stop Brexit, it emerged last night.

The People’s Vote campaign will target Tory seats with small majorities. It wants to emulate the successful tactic used in the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, where the Greens and Plaid Cymru stood down to give the Lib Dems a clear run at the Tories.

Seats which could be targeted include Iain Duncan Smith’s in Chingford, east London, Theresa Villiers’s in Chipping Barnet, north London, and Zac Goldsmith’s in Richmond, south-west London.

A leaked strategy paper spoke of plans to tell voters who to back in 100 seats, according to The Sunday Times.

It said: ‘Our objective has to be a simple one: to secure a parliamentary majority for a People’s Vote that gives the option of staying in the EU.

‘We recognise that we will be asking some of our supporters to ‘hold their noses’ and vote for a party they dislike.’ 

Ben Gershlick of the Health Foundation charity said: ‘Years of under-investment means this extra money risks being little more than a drop in the ocean.’

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said the cash would only cover a fraction of the cost of upgrading 20 hospitals. ‘Nobody should expect shiny new hospitals in their towns any time soon,’ he warned.

Sally Copley of the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘The NHS knows it can only thrive if the social care system is fit for purpose – 850,000 people living with dementia have waited long enough, so we are all looking to the Government to now deliver on social care, and look forward to the Prime Minister’s next announcement.’

Mr Johnson also announced extra cash for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to be spent by their devolved administrations.

The funding includes almost £100million for a new hospital block in Birmingham, £72million on a new adult mental health in-patient unit in Manchester and £100million for a women and children’s hospital in Truro.

The seats of Labour defectors have been targeted amid signs the Tories may wish to take advantage of splits on the Left.

The £1.8billion funding is in addition to the extra £33.9billion, in cash terms, that the NHS is set to receive every year by 2023/24.

‘This is just the start of the spending blitz by Boris on the NHS,’ a Government source said.

Mr Johnson yesterday pledged to sort out the NHS pensions crisis.

His ministers are close to finalising a deal to allow GPs and consultants to side-step punitive tax bills that encourage them to drop shifts or retire early. ‘We are fixing it,’ the Prime Minister told the Sunday Times.

Mental health in Manchester and more beds in Norwich: How the money will be spent 

East of England

Luton & Dunstable University Hospital: £99.5million for a block in Luton to provide critical and ntensive care, delivery suite and operating theatres

Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals: £69.7million for diagnostic and assessment centres in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn

Norfolk and Suffolk Trust: £40 million to build four hospital wards in Norwich, providing 80 beds

South Norfolk clinical commissioning group: £25.2million to develop and improve primary care services in South Norfolk

East Midlands

United Lincolnshire Hospitals: £21.3million to improve patient flow in Boston by separating urgent from emergency care in A&E

West Midlands

University Hospitals Birmingham: £97.1million for a hospital block in Birmingham

Wye Valley Trust: £23.6million to build hospital wards in Hereford, providing 72 beds

University Hospitals of North Midlands: £17.6million to create three wards with 84 beds in Stoke

London

Barking, Havering and Redbridge CCGs and North-East London Trust: £17million to develop a new health and wellbeing hub in North East London

Croydon Health Services: £12.7million to extend and refurbish critical care units at the Croydon University Hospital

North East

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals: £41.7million to improve paediatric cardiac services

Yorkshire

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System: £57.5million for primary care investment

Leeds Teaching Hospitals: £12million to provide a single laboratory information management system

North West

Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust: £72.3million to build adult mental health inpatient unit in Manchester

Mersey Care Trust: £33million to provide a 40 bed low secure unit for people with learning disabilities

Stockport Trust: £30.6million on an emergency care unit at Stepping Hill Hospital

Wirral clinical commissioning group: £18million to improve the urgent treatment centre

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care: £16.3million for emergency and urgent care facilities at Tameside General Hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne

South East

Isle of Wight Trust: £48million to redesign hospital services

South West

Royal Cornwall Hospitals: £99.9million for a women’s and children’s hospital in Truro

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