Three-quarters of people would use private healthcare if a relative was waiting for surgery, with public opinion at odds with the position taken by Sir Keir Starmer.
Polling of more than 4,000 adults found widespread support for “going private” to fund treatment – with most people saying they think it is acceptable for ministers to do the same.
During Tuesday’s TV debate, the Labour leader ruled out using private healthcare, even if a family member was on a long waiting list, while Rishi Sunak said he would use it.
Polling by YouGov, conducted since the debate, shows the vast majority of the public share the Prime Minister’s view.
In total, 74 per cent of those polled definitely or probably would use the private sector if they had a relative waiting for surgery and could afford it.
The polling found that 54 per cent of the public also think it is acceptable for senior members of the government to use private healthcare.
David Hare, chief executive of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, said: “Millions of people use private healthcare every year and value the quality and access that it brings.
“It is therefore unsurprising that the overwhelming majority of the public would be willing to pay privately for surgery for themselves or their families should they need treatment.”
Data published this week shows private hospital admissions have reached a record high, with a 7 per cent rise across the UK last year, with an NHS backlog of 7.5 million on waiting lists.
Amid growing concern over long NHS waits for cancer tests and treatment, chemotherapy is now the second most common procedure to be administered privately, the figures show.
The figures from the Private Healthcare Information Network also show a surge in patients turning to the private sector for diagnostic tests, such as endoscopy and colonoscopy, which are used to investigate cancer.
Both types of test were more common than hip and knee replacements last year.
On Wednesday Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general, followed Sir Keir in saying he would not use private healthcare even if he had a relative stuck on the NHS waiting list for life-saving care.
Mr Ashworth, who was previously Labour health spokesman, told the BBC: “If you’ve got a family member who is seriously ill, you are likely to get the very best healthcare in the NHS because the private sector tends to do hip replacements and knee replacements.
“I would use the NHS and I would want my family to use the NHS,” he continued, saying: “The truth is you would get better quality care in the NHS.”
However, latest data published by regulators the Care Quality Commission shows 93 per cent of acute services at private hospitals are rated as good or outstanding.
This compares with 73 per cent of such services at NHS hospitals.
Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, has said a Labour government will expand NHS use of the private sector in order to clear waiting list backlogs.
He has also said he will take on “middle-class Lefties” opposed to the policy, saying that getting patients access to care is “more important than people’s ideological hobby horses.”
On Wednesday, the Labour leader said he would not criticise people who chose to use private schools or private healthcare.
Asked whether he thought it was wrong for people to use their wealth to “jump the queue”, the Labour leader told reporters: “I’m not going to criticise anybody who wants to send their children to private school. I understand many families work hard, save hard in order to be able to do so. Equally with private health.
“But when it comes to the health service, I fundamentally believe in the NHS. My mum was very, very ill for all of her life. I know what acute care looks like because I’ve been there with my mum in high dependency units and I have every faith and confidence in relation to acute care in the NHS.”
He told GB news: “I grew up with my mum suffering. She was extremely ill, she nearly died several times, and she was treated on every occasion by the NHS on an urgent basis
“I am 100 per cent confident in the NHS and that is why I wouldn’t use anything other than the NHS and I wouldn’t with my relatives.”
