An inappropriate question for Rishi Sunak

If the Prime Minister is paying to avoid the consequences of his own government's failures on the NHS, then he should be honest about it.

Rishi Sunak today refused to say whether he has gone private in order to skip NHS waiting times, saying that it would be “inappropriate” to answer the question.

 “I wouldn't normally talk about the healthcare me or my family receive for obvious reasons,” Sunak told ITV.

“What's important is that we have an NHS and healthcare system that is there for people when they need… I think most people would appreciate talking about one's family's healthcare is probably not appropriate.”

This is surely an unsustainable position. Waiting times for routine appointments and emergency care are currently going through the roof, with NHS leaders announcing today that they will soon be forced to "depart from established procedures" on patient care, in order to deal with the overwhelming pressures now being placed on them.

This is all the result of policies deliberately backed and implemented by the Prime Minister himself.

So if, after having implemented these policies, he is then paying to avoid the consequences of them, then it is not “inappropriate” for us to ask him about it.

In fact far from being “inappropriate” the Prime Minister surely has a duty to tell us exactly which other parts of the crumbling public sector he is willing to pay to avoid as well.