Nearly 53,000 more people died in the UK last year above the normal rate of mortal attrition — the highest figure recorded in a non-pandemic year since the Second World War. These excess deaths coincided with 38 days of strikes by doctors over a prolonged pay dispute with the government as the state health service (NHS) struggled with the aftereffects of Covid-19.

According to the same analysis by the Tory-supporting Daily Telegraph, Britain’s health-care record lagged behind every other developed country, America included, as of mid-October 2023. It can only get worse if the stalemate between the government and the doctor’s trade union, the British Medical Association (BMA), continues. On Wednesday, junior doctors began another six-day walkout, the longest in the history of the NHS, staged at the busiest time in the year when flu outbreaks and other winter ailments reach their peak. More than 300,000 operations will be axed in London alone.