CAMPAIGNERS dared Labour MPs today to honour their party’s manifesto pledge and guarantee that the NHS will remain publicly owned and funded.

Anti-privatisation group We Own It staged the action at the doors of the Labour conference as it entered its second day in Liverpool.

Only 28 MPs opted to sign the five-foot manifesto replica — among them were local MPs Ian Byrne and Kim Johnson, along with Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Emma Lewell and Olivia Blake.

Campaigners also held a sign calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to ringfence the NHS from private finance in the upcoming Autumn Budget.

Labour is currently considering the introduction of new PFI-style deals to build “neighbourhood health centres” under plans to move some care from hospitals into community settings.

We Own It director Cat Hobbs said: “We did a freedom of information request and found out that the government has already spent £6 million on consultants to look into private finance for these new centres.”

She warned against risking a repeat of the government’s disastrous private finance initiative deals under Tony Blair, in which private firms built hospitals and demanded high-interest repayments over the long term. 

“NHS trusts are now spending up to 13 per cent of their income on these old deals,” she said, noting that one trust had paid the equivalent of 27 times over for one building.

“It really makes no sense. It’s like if you could afford to buy a house, but instead you take out a really expensive mortgage.

She called for direct public investment “so that we own the buildings, we own the services, and that way the NHS can be protected.”

Private contracts are extracting an estimated £10m a week in profits from the NHS, according to analysis by We Own It.