Labour’s Carlisle candidate said she has made a pledge to ‘rescue’ dentistry in the city.

Julie Minns said it comes after some dental practices have shut their doors to new NHS patients.

Of the twelve dental surgeries which provided a recent update in Carlisle, all are not currently accepting any new adult patients, she said.

Julie said this ‘collapse’ of NHS dentistry has left millions of patients unable to get an appointment when they need one.

A report by the Nuffield Trust said NHS dentistry was in “near terminal decline” and “at its most perilous point in its 75-year history”.

Commenting on the situation, Julie said: "The Conservatives have left NHS dentistry to wither on the vine, and now the service is barely worthy of the name.

“Patients in Carlisle are told to go without or do it themselves, with DIY dentistry now shockingly common in Tory Britain.

“The slow death of dentistry is the Ghost of Christmas Future for the NHS, if the Conservatives are given a fifth term: those who can afford it going private and those who can't left with a poor service for poor people.”

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A Labour spokesperson said vast parts of England are now ‘dental deserts’, where no dentists are available, and in the Southwest, where 99 per cent of dentists have shut their doors to new adult patients, the government has launched a pilot where NHS dentistry will only be offered to children and the most vulnerable.

By contrast, they claimed, Labour is promising to take ‘immediate action’ to provide care for those in most urgent need, and ‘long-term reform to restore NHS dentistry to all who need it’.

These plans include more funding for urgent NHS appointments and incentives for new dentists to work in areas with the greatest need, among other things.

At a recent Commons Liaison Committee, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said £3billion of funding and a reformed dental contract were already making a difference to dentistry.

Mr Sunak said a recovery plan for NHS dentistry in England will be published “in the new year”. The Prime Minister said “good progress” was being made in improving dental care but there was “obviously more to do”.