The NHS is the largest public sector organisation in England, seeing 1.7 million people each day including in patients’ own homes, local GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals. It employs 1.7 million people, is funded largely out of general taxation, and has an annual budget of about £190 billion.

The PM says abolishing NHS England will reduce "duplication", saving money that can then be spent on frontline services.

A reporter asked the president what responsibility he felt for the civil servants who had lost their jobs during Wednesday’s Oval Office meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin. “I feel very badly,