General Election: Hunt's pledge on NHS as Labour and Lib Dems give vow on funding

Labour said the failure to meet the four-hour A&E target in England was "symptomatic of the crisis that the Tories have left our NHS in".

It came the day after the Liberal Democrats pledged to put a penny on income tax to fund a cash injection for the NHS and social care.

Described as their "flagship" spending commitment of the election campaign, party leader Tim Farron said the policy was "the first time a party has offered a real alternative to the current decline in health and social care".

But Mr Hunt insisted that health outcomes had improved in the last five years and focusing on the targets was not a "fair reflection" of NHS performance.

On the A&E target, Mr Hunt said: "The standard says that you should be seen within four hours, not just seen but also treated and either discharged home or admitted to hospital."

On BBC One's Andrew Marr Show he admitted: "We haven't hit it for over two years, it's not acceptable. We have a plan to get back to that standard."

He added: "You have got to look at what actually happens in A&E departments, which is despite the huge pressure of an ageing population - half-a-million more over-75s since 2010 - we are actually seeing, within that crucial four-hour standard more than 2,000 people every single day.

"Demand has gone up faster than that, which is why we are investing in more doctors, more nurses, putting in more funding than ever before."

A separate target is for 92% of patients to be treated within 18 weeks of referral by their GP.

But the NHS has not hit this target since February 2016 and performance has been slipping since then.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: "We've now had an admission of failure straight from the horse's mouth: the Tory-made A&E crisis is simply 'not acceptable'.

"Jeremy Hunt this morning was forced to admit to the British public that the four-hour A&E target has not been hit in over two years. This shameful statistic is symptomatic of the crisis that the Tories have left our NHS in. Britain cannot afford another five years of Tory failure.

"Only Labour will give the NHS the resources it needs to deliver the service patients deserve."

Under the Lib Dem plan, 1p would be added to the basic, higher and additional rates of income tax and the rate of dividend tax from the next financial year, with the £6 billion raised being "ring-fenced" for the NHS, social care and public health.

The announcement came as Theresa May insisted the Conservatives have no plans for tax rises while appearing to back away from a previous pledge not to put up income tax or national insurance.

Mr Farron told reporters: "Politicians are often scared of saying things like this.

"My view is, you've got to be bold and tell the truth if you want to be believed and be supported - and the Liberal Democrats are being very straightforward and honest."

Mr Farron insisted the public realised the need to address the "chronic state" of healthcare and would support the tax hike.

"Everybody in the health and social care services knows the solution - and the solution is an additional amount of money that we will all pay into," he said.

"I think that's something that the British people will want to do, because all of us have experienced in our own families the need that there is. So here is a solution.

"The Liberal Democrats are providing the only alternative to Conservative additional cuts in health and social care."