Senior Tory is forced to distance himself from anti-NHS remarks

Published on Sunday 16 August 2009 22:08

A CLOSE ally of Tory leader David Cameron yesterday tried to distance himself from remarks made by a Conservative MEP attacking the NHS.

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove insisted it was "complete nonsense" to suggest he personally did not back the health service after a Sunday newspaper reported he and other senior Tories are listed with MEP Daniel Hannan as co-authors of a book Direct Democracy which criticises the NHS.

Mr Gove also accused Labour of trying to "smear" Mr Cameron over his support for the NHS after he was branded a "fraud" and "two-faced" by Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson.

Mr Cameron has been engaged in desperate damage limitation since Mr Hannan went on US television to warn against copying the British health system, saying he "would not wish it on anybody".

The remarks were quickly dismissed by Mr Cameron as "eccentric", and he cited his experience with his disabled son Ivan – who died in February – in stressing that his party stood "foursquare behind the NHS".

Yesterday Mr Gove hit back, saying that Mr Cameron believed "heart and soul" in the principles of the health service because of his "life experience" with Ivan.

"I think Labour, because they are ruffled, are trying to confect a series of stories, basically to smear David," he said.

Mr Gove admitted there were "one or two" of his colleagues who did not share the leadership's views on the NHS.

But he insisted it was "complete nonsense" to suggest he personally did not back the health service, or agreed with attacks on the NHS made by US Republicans.

"One of the great things about Dan (Hannan] is that he generates some fantastic ideas, and some ideas that I do not agree with," Mr Gove said.

"I value some of the ideas that Dan has brought, but I emphatically do not agree with him on the NHS.

"I am one of the people in the shadow cabinet who has been arguing that we should make health spending our number-one commitment."

Mr Brown stepped up his attack in a letter to Labour Party members over the weekend.

"It is understandable that the Conservative leadership have tried to distance themselves from those in Tory ranks who criticise the NHS," he wrote.

"But the reason why their comments have generated so much anger is that they spoke to a larger truth.

"That truth is that there are two Tory faces on the NHS. Behind all the recent talk of commitment, the party has not truly been reformed."

In an interview with a Sunday paper, Lord Mandelson said that Mr Cameron "likes people to think he's cuddly and compassionate and has a belief in social justice".

"He is fraudulent in two respects," the business secretary said. "He's different when he thinks people aren't listening or looking.

"And the sentiments he expresses in Britain are not shared by his party so there is a double fraud going on."

Health Secretary Andy Burnham last night called on Mr Cameron to demonstrate the Tories' support for the NHS, by withdrawing the whip from Mr Hannan and banning US politicians who have lambasted the service from party conference.

Mr Hannan was responding to Republicans in the US who used the example of the NHS to attack President Barack Obama's proposals for healthcare reform, branding the British system "Orwellian" and "evil".