Burnham keeps up NHS attack
By Ian Dunt
Andy Burnham has tried to keep up the attack on the Tories following last week’s controversy over the NHS by saying David Cameron would turn the service into “a quango”.
The Conservatives intended to take a “major gamble” with the NHS, the health secretary added.
Writing in the Guardian, Mr Burham said the Tory proposal to hand day-to-day control to an independent body was a major dividing line.
“For a party that has promised a ‘bonfire of the quangos’, turning Britain’s best-loved institution into the biggest quango in the world – responsible for a £100bn budget and 1.4 million staff – is a proposal that has had dangerously little scrutiny to date,” he said.
Mr Burnham also criticised the party’s desire to scrap targets.
“Now that these targets have been achieved, Labour will turn them into enforceable rights for patients. Removal of these standards, as the Tories propose, would inevitably see . a return to postcode variation,” he wrote.
“If you dig beneath the bland protestations of love, there is a genuine philosophical difference on the NHS between the political parties.
“For Labour, it all comes down to defending the N in NHS. Our commitment to national standards and structures in health remains strong. Without them, the poorest areas tend to get the poorest services. The Tories are ambivalent about the role of the centre, preferring localism in health, as in other areas.”
The attack marks a concerted government attempt to keep the Conservatives on the back foot, after Tory MEP Daniel Hannan told a US TV show he “wouldn’t wish the NHS” on anybody.
Over the weekend, Mr Burnham wrote a letter to Mr Cameron calling on the Tories to rescind invitations to their party conferences to American politicans who disagreed with President Obama’s health care reform.
He wrote: “Today I am challenging [David Cameron] to take three steps which could reassure people that the Conservatives have truly changed when it comes to the NHS.
1. Will you rescind your Party Conference invitation to those members of the Atlantic Bridge who have rubbished our NHS? Liam Fox is reportedly holding a drinks reception at your conference for a group called the ‘Atlantic Bridge’. But its American board members include vehement opponents of health reform – and one of them has praised Dan Hannan for rubbishing our NHS. Will you rescind this invitation from any of the group’s members who have misrepresented the NHS?
2. Will you withdraw the whip from Dan Hannan for his attacks on the NHS? It is not just that Mr Hannan doesn’t endorse the NHS. He went out of his way to talk it down and misrepresent it publicly. Therefore will you withdraw the whip – as you did from one of your other MEPs after he opposed the controversial Michal Kaminksi as head of your new European grouping?
3. Will you demand that your Shadow Ministers resign from the Cornerstone Group? The right-wing Cornerstone Group counts many Shadow Ministers among its members, including your shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Paterson. Yet it has published a report describing the NHS as ‘Stalinist’ and calling for it to be replaced. Will you order your shadow ministers to resign from the Cornerstone Group?”
