Dorrell: Difficult choices
Former Conservative health secretary and chair of the health select committee Stephen Dorrell comments on the free milk announcements:
“This was a proposal from Anne Milton suggesting that this money might be better used to deliver the same objective by different means.
“It was a proposal that was being discussed at a junior level in the government. Downing Street… clearly reached the conclusion… that the [political] risks didn’t merit the reward.
“All life, not just politics, is about making sometimes difficult choices. This was a suggestion that there was £50m spent in providing free milk for under-five-year-olds.
“Could that be better spent to deliver the objective that we all share, which is to ensure that there is the best possible healthy start for all children, but perhaps particularly children from low-income backgrounds?
“If you read the correspondence it’s absolutely clear that everybody was seeking to deliver that objective.”
