BRAZEN Prime Minister David Cameron tried to brush aside dramatic new evidence yesterday that the NHS is plunging into deep crisis.

He put on a shameless Commons display of unconcern over warnings that the NHS faces a £2 billion funding gap, with one in three hospitals already in deficit.

Labour MPs piled on the pressure at Prime Minister’s Questions, warning that GP surgeries around the country are facing acute problems and around 100 face closure.

But Mr Cameron insisted: “This government is increasing spending on the NHS.” 

And the Tory PM indulged in more evasion when challenged by Labour MP Nick Brown about a top-level leak revealing that the NHS funding gap will be £2 billion in the next financial year.

The dodgy PM replied: “The estimates being made today are being made on the basis that we have set challenges for the NHS in terms of efficiency savings.”

These efficiency challenges had been met every single year for four years, and that money had been “ploughed back into better patient care in our NHS,” he insisted.

Labour shadow health minister Liz Kendall yesterday unveiled research figures showing that 58 hospital trusts are already in deficit — more than one in three of England’s total.

The figures were obtained by Labour from health regulator Monitor, the NHS trusts development authority and the House of Commons library.

Ms Kendall said: “David Cameron promised that he would protect the NHS. Instead, his disastrous reorganisation has thrown the NHS into chaos.”

Bethnal Green MP Rushanara Ali told Mr Cameron in the Commons that five GP surgeries faced closure in east London borough Tower Hamlets.

Mr Cameron responded: “We are spending £12.7bn more on the NHS, which Labour said was irresponsible.

“We have 7,000 more doctors in our NHS, 3,000 more nurses and we have over 1,000 more midwives.”

But there were 19,000 fewer bureaucrats, with the money saved being “piled into patient care.”

Health union Unison said the prospect of a further £2bn cut in the NHS budget was “a real blow for patients and staff.”

The union’s head of health Christina McAnea warned: “The government can’t expect staff to plug this hole in NHS funding by cutting pay and conditions even further.”