The NHS could be in line for another cash boost following the government's comprehensive spending review, health secretary Frank Dobson said this week.

Mr Dobson said he hoped the NHS would have 'a good deal more money' after ministers had sorted out their spending priorities.

Interviewed on ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Mr Dobson admitted that the NHS was underfunded and always had been.

He said he hoped that, after the review of Department of Health and other government spending and investment plans, there would be more money for the health service. The government would then, he hoped, 'have long-term plans which we will stick to for a sustainable level of funding. . . which will enable people in the health service to do the jobs they want to do'.

Mr Dobson was challenged on whether Labour would match the average 3.1 per cent year-on-year real-terms spending growth achieved by the former government, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies figures.

He refused to comment on 'generalisations'. But he said any extra money would be on top of the£5bn savings the government was pledged to deliver before the end of this Parliament.