Another Tory breaks ranks on NHS

Published on Friday 14 August 2009 22:04

DAVID Cameron suffered fresh embarrassment in the NHS row last night when another of his MEPs attacked the service.

The Tory leader spent much of the day engaged in damage limitation, dismissing Daniel Hannan's view that the NHS was a "burden" as "eccentric".

But yesterday evening, one of Mr Hannan's Conservative colleagues in the European parliament risked inflaming the controversy by expressing support for his position.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4's PM, Roger Helmer insisted: "Now we all love the NHS, but I think we all know in our hearts that it is no longer the envy of the world." He added: "If the Americans came to me and said 'would you recommend us taking up a system just like the British NHS?' I think I would have to say 'No'."

Labour has been quick to capitalise on Mr Cameron's discomfort, claiming the row exposed "deep ambivalence" within his party towards the NHS.

But Mr Cameron insisted he was fully committed to the NHS. "The Conservative Party stands foursquare behind the NHS," he told reporters in his Oxfordshire constituency. "We are the party of the NHS, we back it, we are going to expand it, we have ring-fenced it and said it will get more money under a Conservative government, and it is our number-one mission to improve it."

He brushed aside the remarks by Mr Hannan, who told US television viewers that he "wouldn't wish it on anybody".

"He does have some quite eccentric views about some things, and political parties always include some people who don't toe the party line on one issue or another issue," Mr Cameron said.

It was the second time in as many days he has slapped down a member of his own party, having already rebuked senior frontbencher Alan Duncan over his claim that MPs were having to survive "on rations" in the wake of the expenses scandal.

Since he became leader in 2005, Mr Cameron has made much of his own personal commitment to the NHS.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the Tory leader was "rattled" and Mr Hannan's intervention had been his "worst nightmare".

"What has happened within the last 48 hours is what Cameron has feared most because it lays bare the Tories' deep ambivalence towards the NHS," he said.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said the public would be shocked to see a Conservative politician flying out to the US to "slag off" the NHS. "What we see is the two faces of the Conservative Party – the one David Cam-eron wants everyone to see and believe, and the other one presented by the Conservative parliamentarian," he said.