Mr Sunak is understood to have paused the funding because the NHS was working towards a March 2025 target of eliminating the one-year waiting list, which has spiralled 200-fold to around 300,000 because of Covid, but the Government wants it cleared ahead of the 2024 election.
On Monday, an ally of the Chancellor said the Treasury “hadn’t blocked anything” and simply wanted to ensure “good value for the taxpayer”.
Confirming that an earlier deadline had been agreed, they added: “The PM and the Chancellor are on exactly the same page on this and want the plan to be as ambitious as possible and in line with what was agreed last year as part of the funding package.”
The episode highlights Mr Sunak’s growing influence on government policy in the wake of a dramatic “reset” of Mr Johnson’s administration.
Last week he lost five of his closest aides including Munira Mirza, his long-standing policy chief, who is close to the Chancellor, along with her husband Dougie Smith, who is still working at Number 10.
With Henry Newman, Carrie Johnson’s best friend, also having left Downing Street on Monday to work on Michael Gove’s “levelling up” agenda, the power balance appears to have shifted.
It has not gone unnoticed that Stephen Barclay, Mr Johnson’s new chief of staff, is a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury who is also close to Mr Sunak.
