Keir Starmer has signalled that a Labour government would pump more funding into the NHS in England as he outlined his plans to make the health service “fit for the future”. The Labour leader agreed that he was prepared to put his “money where [his] mouth is” on investing in the future of the health service. He told the BBC: “Yes, money is part of the answer and the NHS is always better funded under Labour”. Some Labour MPs are concerned that Starmer is too cautious over his spending plans. They argue that the health service will not be able to “get off its knees” without substantial investment and that the public would expect that. Before a speech in Essex to launch the latest of his five “missions” for government, Starmer acknowledged that Labour would need to pour more money into the NHS. “So far as the money is concerned, firstly, wherever we have made a specific commitment we are setting out in terms today how we will pay for that,” he told the BBC. “But also I do want to emphasise, I ran a public service for five years, I do know that if you put more money in the top you do get a better outcome, so money is of course part of the answer, but we have also got to change and reform. “And if we go down the path of prevention, that actually will be far better for people’s lives and their health but also, actually, in the long run cost a lot less.” He promised to set out a comprehensive breakdown of Labour’s funding plans for the NHS in advance of next year’s election, depending on the state of the public finances at the time. However, after his speech, Starmer sidestepped questions on exactly how the party would fund wide-ranging NHS reform in the longer term. He denied that he had not set out where the money would come from, highlighting that Labour has said it will pay for “the biggest workforce expansion in NHS history” by scrapping non-dom tax status, which could raise £3.2bn a year. While there was little mention of Labour’s social care plans, Starmer stressed they remained a priority. A review commissioned by the party from the Fabian Society last summer will report next month on how a new “national care service” could be structured and funded, according to a spokesperson. A Labour source admitted there were some details yet to be announced about the party’s spending plans in the run-up to the next election – including on areas such as health – but stressed this was because “we don’t know the full extent of the fiscal situation we’re going to inherit”. Starmer said the health service was “on its knees” and “at the next election, the NHS is on the line”. He promised to ensure the health service meets targets that are being missed, including a seven-minute response time for cardiac arrests, a four-hour wait to be seen in A&E and planned treatment within 18 weeks. Further aspirations – stemming the number of deaths by suicide and reducing cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes by a quarter – may not be achieved until the second term of a Labour government. Although Starmer ruled out imposing a sugar tax to deter people from eating unhealthy food and contributing to growing problems with obesity, he was urged not to be deterred by fears of “nanny-statism”. Dr Aveek Bhattacharya, research director at the Social Market Foundation, said Labour should be “more open to regulating the availability of unhealthy food and drink, minimum unit pricing of alcohol, and higher taxes”.