Lib Dems pledge £600m a year for maternity care in England
Sir Ed Davey has promised £600m a year for maternity services if the Liberal Democrats were in government.
He set out the pledge in an interview with BBC Breakfast at the party's annual conference in Brighton, reported on 21 September. He said ministers must not ignore what he called a "national safety scandal" in maternity care. BBC
The party said the money would be a rescue package for maternity services. It said the aim is to make Britain the safest country in the world to have a baby.
The case rests on the party's analysis of NHS figures for England. The party said the number of women with potentially life-threatening blood loss is the highest ever recorded in England. It said three in every 100 women had serious tearing injuries that needed emergency surgery in the first half of this year.
The analysis said more than 8,000 women had a postpartum haemorrhage, heavy bleeding after birth of more than 1.5 litres, since the start of this year. The party said that is more than double the number in the same period in 2021. It said the rate of third or fourth degree tears, the most serious vaginal tears during birth, is up by 29% in the last five years.
The party also cited survey data from the Care Quality Commission, the body that inspects health services in England. It said one in 10 women, about 54,000, were left alone during the late stages of labour or childbirth last year.
On staffing, the party said the £600m would pay for one-to-one midwife care for every woman in labour. It said every maternity ward would also have a specialist doctor on site around the clock. Liberal Democrats
Sir Ed linked the plan to the cost of poor care. He said £1.3bn a year is now spent on compensation payouts for poor maternity services. He said investing in staff and safety now would cut legal costs later.
The pledge sits inside a wider manifesto promise of £8bn for health and care services in England. The maternity figures used by the party also relate to England, where health is devolved and Westminster decisions apply directly.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the government will publish a new national maternity and neonatal action plan, covering newborn care, by the end of the year. It said the review will bring together recommendations from the inquiries led by Baroness Amos, Donna Ockenden and Lady Justice Thirlwall. A 2022 review found failings over 20 years at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust may have led to the deaths of more than 200 babies.
The broader context here is timing and leverage. A conference pledge lets an opposition party set a benchmark on staffing and safety before ministers publish their plan. For those who work in the service, the questions to weigh are whether enough midwives and doctors can be recruited and kept to sustain one-to-one care and constant medical cover, how falls in bleeding and tear rates would be measured, and whether lower compensation bills can be counted as savings within one Parliament.
