Miliband forced to clarify Labour position on health reforms

Labour leader Ed Miliband has confirmed that a Labour government would repeal the Health and Social Care Act – but hinted it may retain some of the coalition government’s NHS reforms.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Mr Miliband was urged to clarify his position, after his response to a question posed by retired GP Dr Kailash Chand during a pre-conference Q&A in Manchester suggested Labour may retain the Government’s health reforms if they won the next general election.

When questioned on this, Mr Miliband said: ‘Let me explain what we are going to do. We will repeal the NHS Bill. Why? Because it puts the wrong principles back at the heart of the NHS.

‘It puts principles of competition, markets and money as the central defining principles of the NHS. I want a different set of principles. I want hospitals to be able to co-operate with each not to be taken to court for colluding – which is one of the things in this Bill.’

He added: ‘What I said [on Saturday], which most people will think is totally right, is I’m not going to do what David Cameron did which is he came along, he didn´t tell us in his manifesto and he had a top-down reorganisation which cost billions of pounds at a time when nurses are being sacked in the NHS’.

‘So we’re going to repeal the Bill, we’re going to make those changes. But obviously, we will look at some of the detail, some of the reforms that have been made, because I don’t want to just shuffle the deckchairs all over the place again.’

Dr Chand told Pulse: ‘I wanted clarity, which is what he provided on the Andrew Marr Show. In the end, his answer was satisfactory.’