The Guardian says Rishi Sunak blocked plans by the health department to rebuild five hospitals “riddled with crumbling concrete three years ago” while he was the chancellor. It says “just two of the seven hospital rebuilding projects requested by the Department of Health were signed off by the Treasury at the 2020 spending review”. A government spokesperson told the paper the “claims were untrue” and “the funding was not rejected by the Treasury, or the chancellor and chief secretary at the time”.