Labour unveils dossier of NHS ‘truth’

Rolling coverage of all the day’s political developments as they happen. 10.26am: Liz Kendall, a shadow health minister, is speaking now. She says that cancer test waiting times are already starting to rise and that cancer charities have said that services would suffer more under the plans in the bill. 10.23am: The Labour dossier should be on their website soon, but it’s not their yet. Tory HQ have already sent me an email asking for a copy so that they can prepare a rebuttal. 10.19am: Ed Miliband is here now. He says that he thinks David Cameron has not grasped the full scale of the challenge he faces. People are opposed to the bill because it undermines the principles of the NHS. He says the five points identified by Labour (see 10.03am) have been “largely hidden” from the public. They are all changes that would put the interests of patients last. 10.13am: Here’s the key quote from Ed Miliband. If the prime minister wants to listen, he should listen not to his deputy, but to the nurses, patients and others. He appears to believe that people don’t like his bill because his government hasn’t explained it properly. But the opposite is true. The more people understand and hear about these proposals, the less they like them. It’s not a problem of public relations. It’s a problem of principle. 10.03am: It’s the old dossier trick. Labour are releasing a 16-page dossier setting out “the hidden reality of David Cameron’s health reforms”. It identifies five main flaws in the bill. This is what they are, according to Labour. 1. There would be nothing to stop NHS hospitals going bust. 2. Hospitals would be subject to EU competition law, which means they could be fined up to 10% of turnover by the regulator. 3. There would be less accountability in relation to NHS services, which means NHS units could be closed without any consultation. 4. Hospitals would be allowed to give priority to private patients. 5. GPs would have the right to charge for services. Some of these claims are strongly contested. For example, Andrew Lansley has said the health bill does not extend the scope of EU competition law. But he’s going to have to provide a full rebuttal. The press conference should be starting soon. 9.39am: I’m just heading off to Ed Miliband’s press conference now. He set out his thoughts on the health bill in a speech two weeks ago. You can read it here, and a summary of it on my blog at 12.12pm here. Today, I expect, he will be trying to find some way of increasing the pressure on the government over this. We’ll find out soon. 9.32am: Here are the key points from the unemployment figures. • Unemployment fell by 17,000 in the three months to February to 2.48m. • The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance increased last month by 700 to 1.45m. • Average earnings increased by 2.0% in the year to February, 0.3% down on the previous month. Here is the Office for National Statistics summary of the figures. And here is its bulletin with the full details (pdf). 9.09am: William Hague started his interview on the Today programme with a sly swipe at the BBC. John Humphrys spoke to Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East editor, just before the Hague interview started and Bowen suggested that there was no sign of the Gaddafi regime crumbling. Hague then said that Bowen was giving “the view from the regime”. Humphrys did not pick him up on it, but he seemed to be coming close to suggesting that Bowen was a stooge. As for the rest of the interview, here are the main points. I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome. • Hague suggested that getting rid of Colonel Gaddafi was now the aim of the war. Ministers have always said that regime change is not the official goal of the operation, although they have always made it clear that this was an unofficial war aim because they have said that they cannot imagine Libya having a stable future with Gaddafi still in charge. Today Hague was even more explicit. Asked how the war would end, he replied: “It’s more difficult to say when it will end. It will end at some stage with the departure of Colonel Gaddafi, with a political process in Libya that is a more inclusive proves.” • Hague refused to say how long the war would continue. At one point, when asked to say how sanctions could bring down a regime, he said that this had happened with South Africa. • He defended the decision to allow Moussa Koussa to leave the UK. Koussa had not been arrested, Hague said. Whether he was arrested was a matter for the prosecuting authorities. Hague went on: “What we’ve said to Moussa Koussa. ‘You’ve got no immunity at all. You’ve come to the United Kingdom…you are at risk of the legal processes. You are not actually under arrest, you are free to move around.’” • Hague suggested he would like other members of the coalition to do more to support Britain, France and America in enforcing UN security council resolution 1973. “There is scope for some of [the other countries] to move some of their air defences into ground strike capability. That would increase our ability to intercept those forces – regime forces – that are killing the civilian population in Libya,” he said. 8.57am: Health is going to dominate today. Nurses at the RCN conference in Liverpool are due to hold a vote of no confidence in Andrew Lansley this morning. Ed Miliband is holding a press conference on health this morning, David Cameron and Lansley are holding a round-table discussion on the health reforms themselves this morning and this afternoon Lansley is going to Liverpool to hold a Q&A with nurses (but not to address the main conference). William Hague is co-chairing a meeting of the Libya Contact Group in Doha. On the Today programme earlier, he was more explicit than he has been before about the removal of Colonel Gaddafi now being the aim of the war. I’ll post a proper summary soon. First, though, here’s a full list of what’s coming up. 9am: Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, launches a new national arts campaign headed by the Art Fund. 9.15am: No to AV launches a new advertising campaign. 9.30am: Yes to Fairer Votes launches its own new advertising campaign. 9.30am: Unemployment figures are released. 10am: Ed Miliband holds a press conference about the health bill. 10am: Ed Davey, the business minister, launches a consumer empowerment strategy. 12pm: David Willetts, the universities minister, holds a briefing on student support arrangements for 2012-13. At some point we’re also due to get a statement from Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, about travellers occupying unauthorised sites and an announcement from Norman Baker, the transport minister, about street permits for roadworks. As usual, I’ll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I’ll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and an afternoon one at about 4pm. Ed Miliband Andrew Lansley David Cameron Health policy Health Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.