ANTI-privatisation campaigners gathered outside the Labour Party conference today morning to demand that leader Sir Keir Starmer commit to reinstating the NHS as a fully public service.

Protesters from We Own It wore masks of the most recent Tory prime ministers and cut into an NHS box using knives adorned with private company logos while a masked Sir Keir watched as delegates began arriving at the conference in Liverpool.

We Own It director Cat Hobbs said: “In 2010, the NHS was rated the most efficient and best-performing health service in the world.

“The message of our action … is that after 13 years of cuts and privatisation, Keir Starmer has an opportunity to be a hero to the NHS by committing, in his speech to conference, to reinstate it as a fully public service.

“We want to say to Keir Starmer that the public wants a leader who will stand up for our NHS.”

Ms Hobbs said the public call is “too clear for Labour to ignore.”

Last year, polling by the group revealed that 78 per cent of the British public believe the NHS should be in public ownership.

NHS Workers Say No leader Holly Turner, who has worked as an NHS nurse for almost 20 years, said: “Year on year I witness the impact of rampant outsourcing and privatisation.

“Fragmented services make it incredibly difficult to provide collaborative care which only leaves our patients, already at risk from chronic understaffing, having increasingly poor health outcomes.

“Step up Starmer, and commit to reinstating the NHS as a fully funded service for our patients, staff and to preserve the institution your party created for future generations.”