Boris Johnson faces investigation into claims over 40 ‘new’ hospitals

Trusts reveal only five wholly new hospitals planned, as Labour says the scheme exists only in PM's imagination'

The government's official spending watchdog is to launch an inquiry into Boris Johnson's claim that 40 new hospitals will be built by 2030, as concerns grow in Whitehall that the pledge is unaffordable and has been greatly oversold to the public.

In a move that could prove hugely embarrassing for the prime minister, the independent National Audit Office (NAO) has decided to conduct a value for money review" into the entire scheme, which was a cornerstone of the Conservative party's 2019 general election manifesto.