The Queen’s Speech in November will unveil proposals to give the right to NHS patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment to be treated privately free of charge.

The Times reports that maximum waiting times will be rushed through in law in time for next year’s general election – and the move is thought to be an attempt by the Labour party to challenge the Conservatives on the future of the NHS and public services.

Patients will also be given the right to see a private specialist if they have not been seen by an NHS specialist within two weeks of referral by a GP.

The proposals, it is hoped, will also help prevent NHS waiting lists spiralling upwards in the future, as budget cuts in the health service begin to bite.

Tory leader David Cameron has pledged to abolish NHS targets – including waiting times. Should Mr Cameron be elected as prime minister next year, the Conservatives would have to decide whether to repeal the new law on patient waiting times.

Former Health Secretary John Reid said he was ‘delighted’ with the new proposals:

‘It will provide ordinary people with the right and the power to ensure that they get the service that they deserve and that their illness is treated in time,’ Mr Reid said.

Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said that the plan had more to do with ‘electioneering’ than improving the health service.

‘They claim that these will be legally enforceable new rights,’ said Mr Lansley, ‘But are Labour really planning to put the lawyer in the operating theatre?

‘Do they trust the doctors to do their job – or do they want judges telling surgeons who they should operate on first?’

Mr Lansley said that ‘putting the 18-week target in legislation’ would ‘distort priorities further’ – and could lead to many more patients waiting a full 18 weeks until they were treated, when they could have been treated earlier.

The Patients’ Association also questioned the benefits the proposals, saying that waiting time targets were ‘already perverting care in too many cases’.

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