TERMINALLY ill people have become the latest victims of Tory austerity as hospices for the dying cut bed numbers, sack staff and reduce home services to patients.

Labour has pledged to create a new National Care Service which it says will include hospices.

But the national charity Hospice UK, representing 200 hospices across Britain, says many are now in crisis, that their finances “are in their worst state for 20 years” and are at a “critical point.”