BORIS JOHNSON has “misled the public” by claiming that his £1.8 billion NHS cash injection promise would be backed by new money, said experts, campaigners and the Labour Party today.

The Prime Minister has claimed that the funds represent “new money” for the service. Health Secretary Matt Hancock appeared on BBC and Sky News programmes this morning to say a “strong economy” and “record” job figures had allowed the Treasury to allocate “new money” to the NHS.

But both Labour and the Nuffield Trust health think tank contested the claims and argued that the government is simply drawing on money hospitals put into Treasury coffers through a cuts incentive.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Boris Johnson has misled the public and our NHS staff. You cannot trust a word he says and his claims are unravelling.

“It is now clear this is not new money, but funds already earmarked for hospitals which ministers previously blocked.

“With 4.4 million patients waiting for operations and over 20,000 cancer patients waiting longer for treatment it is a disgrace that Johnson is trying to treat people like fools.

“After years of smash and grab cuts of £4 billion to NHS budgets it is now clearer than ever that, as Johnson’s top adviser [Dominic Cummings] says, the Tories don’t care about our NHS.”

Nuffield Trust senior policy analyst Sally Gainsbury said that the money was earned last year in “incentive payments for [NHS trusts] cutting their costs” and reporting surpluses in their accounts. She said they would be rewarded with a cash incentive for doing so which could only be used on capital spending such as on equipment and building repairs.

Ms Gainsbury said the government wanted to prevent the so-called “provider sustainability fund” cash from being spent on everyday costs like staff and medicines because this spending would increase the reported overspend in NHS operating costs.

She likened Mr Johnson’s funding announcement to “giving someone cash then banning them from spending it, only to expect cheers of jubilation when you later decide they can spend it after all.”

Mr Hancock sent a tweet to Ms Gainsbury this afternoon to say her claims were “not quite right” and said: “It is new cash or new spending or whatever else you might want to call [it].”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, while visiting the damaged reservoir dam in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire today, said that the cash pledge is not enough anyway as it would only go to 20 hospitals.

He called for a more “comprehensive” plan that would relieve pressure on GP practices, accident and emergency services, problems with staff recruitment and the “huge” social care issue.

Unison union’s head of health Sara Gorton said that the amount is a “fraction” of what is needed “after a decade of neglect.”

Candy Gregory, a nurse and Labour member of Kent’s Thanet District Council, has written to Mr Johnson asking him to ensure some of his much-trumpeted “extra” cash for the NHS is used to save a specialist stroke unit under threat of closure.

She told him that local NHS bosses have used “flawed and irrelevant research to support … spurious claims” to close the stroke unit at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.

As reported by the Morning Star, campaign group Save Our NHS in Kent mobilised 300 people on Saturday to protest against the proposed closure of the unit.

Ms Gregory also said that while staffing issues were cited as a reason to close the unit “they have not incentivised doctors and nurses financially to work there.

“Instead they have spent millions of pounds on ‘listening events’ and ‘public consultations’ which were always foregone conclusions.

“Margate houses the most deprived area of Kent. NHS executives have decided to close this wonderfully functioning and responsive facility and relocate it to a wealthier part of Kent — Ashford — where the life expectancy is substantially greater.

“Not only will Ashford become overwhelmed but the journey is too far, in regard to stroke victims, for the best outcome.”

Ms Gregory told the Star: “Many people, including myself are sceptical of Boris’s genuine intentions regarding our NHS.

“If he wants to show he really cares about people’s urgent health needs, he should act now and save our stroke unit.”