During a campaign visit to the West Midlands, Labour leader Keir Starmer and Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Labour would provide 40,000 extra appointments, scans and operations a week during evenings and weekends with funding provided through ‘clamping down on tax dodgers'.

Further measures will include doubling the number of scanners to diagnose patients earlier, delivering the biggest expansion of NHS staff in history, using spare capacity in the private sector, free of charge to patients and reforming the NHS.

Labour said the extra appointments and scanners will cost £1.3 billion and will be paid for by clamping down on tax dodgers and closing non-dom tax loopholes.

Wes Streeting, Labour's shadow health secretary, said: ‘Rishi Sunak has given up on the NHS. He has no plan to turn this crisis around, which he blames on doctors and nurses instead of taking any responsibility himself. Patients deserve solutions not scapegoats.

‘If the Conservatives get another five years then nothing will change, the crisis in the NHS will get worse, and waiting lists will hit 10 million. The longer the Conservatives are in charge, the longer patients will wait.'

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Health secretary, Victoria Atkins, accused the opposition of ‘copy and paste politics', adding: ‘The NHS has faced unprecedented challenges which it can only overcome if supported by a strong economy.

‘That is why the Conservatives have a clear plan and will take bold action to strengthen the economy and continue to deliver the technology and innovation the NHS needs to keep cutting waiting lists.'

Daisy Cooper Lib Dem health and social care spokesperson said: 'The Conservatives have run the NHS into the ground.

'People struggle to get a GP appointment and impossible to or register with an NHS dentist. They have watched their local hospitals crumble thanks to Conservative neglect.

'The Liberal Democrats are putting the NHS and social care front and centre of our campaign by ensuring hospitals get the repairs they need, people have the legal right to see a GP within seven days and can get a dentist appointment when they need one.'

 Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, urged the next Government to ‘commit to sustained investment in NHS capital and digital infrastructure, staffing and social care reform – as well as resolving outstanding pay disputes and industrial action - so that patients get the timely care they deserve'.

Cordery added: 'We need all political parties to support the "next generation NHS" to create the picture of health trust leaders want to see and that patients want.'