Blair slams ‘desperate’ Tory campaign
The prime minister has lashed out at the Tories, accusing the opposition party of running a “nasty and unscrupulous campaign”.
Speaking as he unveiled Labour’s plans for community hospitals, Tony Blair criticised the Conservatives for focusing on immigration and declared that it was now the “values election”, with voters facing a distinct choice on May 5th.
Voters had the choice of “Labour values of security and opportunity for all Britain’s hard working families and pensioners,” he said. Or, they could opt for “Conservative values to govern in the interests of a privileged few at the expense of the hard-working majority”.
“It is a nasty and unscrupulous campaign and it is descending into increasing desperation as time goes on,” Mr Blair claimed. “They do not deserve to get away with the campaign being fought in this way.”
He added: “The major part of their campaign … is almost a one-issue campaign on immigration and asylum and associated issues.”
Labour announced plans to build 50 new community hospitals in the next five years, offering diagnostic tests, day surgery and outpatient facilities. The centres would be situated closer to where people lived and worked
Health secretary John Reid accused the Conservatives of a “systematic deception of the public” over the MRSA hospital superbug as he highlighted the Labour Party’s national petition to “keep the NHS free”.
The Conservative Party has admitted producing misleading MRSA leaflets, after it sent out letters including local MRSA statistics to target areas.
The NHS Confederation attacked the leaflets claiming they were inaccurate and stirred up public fears about the hospital-acquired infection.
Mr Reid claimed that the previous Tory government had failed to act against MRSA, suggesting that the Tory government ” ran down the staff, ran down the hospital, and ran down the cleaning”.
Conservative leader Michael Howard will later accuse the prime minister of failing to act on the warnings of the Electoral Commission over postal votes.
