Prime Minister promises to protect NHS spending

DAVID Cameron will today promise that a future Conservative government will protect the NHS budget when he makes his keynote conference speech.

Prime Minister David Cameron as he listens to Boris Johnsons speech yesterday. Picture: Getty

The Prime Minister will pledge to invest more in the health service if the Conservatives win next May’s general election.

According to UK government sources, NHS spending rose by £12.7 billion over this parliament – a 4.4 per cent rise in real terms according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Mr Cameron will say continuing to invest in the NHS is only possible by managing the economy successfully. Addressing the party faithful in Birmingham, he will say how much the NHS means to him personally, referring to his late son Ivan, who died in 2009 with a rare disease.

The Prime Minister will pay tribute to world-leading NHS research on DNA, which has the potential to cure genetic conditions. “I understand very personally the difference it could make,” Mr Cameron will say. “When you have a child who’s so ill and the doctors can’t work out what he’s got or why – you’d give anything to know.

“The investment we’re making will mean that more parents have those answers and hopefully the cures that go with them… this is all only possible because we have managed responsibly. That is why I can tell you this, we will do it again. The next Conservative government will protect the NHS budget and continue to invest more. Because we know this truth. Something that Labour will never understand and we will never forget. You can only have a strong NHS if you have a strong economy.”

Mr Cameron will make his speech as a ComRes poll for the Independent newspaper found that the Prime Minister is trusted by many more people than Labour leader Ed Miliband to take the right decisions on how to combat Islamic State.

The poll suggested that some 45 per cent of the public trust the Prime Minister to make the right decisions on tackling the jihadist group, but only 28 per cent trust the Labour leader to do so.

A key theme of his speech will be that a Conservative government will use the next five years to make “Britain a country that everyone is proud to call home”.

He will say that he wants to help people live a better life.

“A Britain that everyone is proud to call home is a Britain where hard work is really rewarded. Not a free-for-all, but a chance for all – the chance of a job, a home, a good start in life, whoever you are – wherever you are from.

“The past four years have been about laying the foundations. The next five will be about finishing the job. Put another way – if our economic plan for the past four years has been about our country and saving it from economic ruin, our next five years will be about you and your family and helping you get on. If you want to provide for yourself and your family, you’ll have the security of a job, but only if we stick to our long-term economic plan.”