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5 June 2013

PMQs review: Miliband keeps his cool and wins another NHS battle

The Labour leader refused to rise to Cameron's child benefit jibes and left the PM struggling to explain away the A&E crisis.

By George Eaton

Even before Ed Miliband got to his feet at today’s PMQs, David Cameron went on the attack over his U-turn on child benefit. Reminding Miliband that he had criticised the changes in his first-ever outing at the despatch box, Cameron derided Labour’s “total and utter confusion” and quipped (in response to a question from Douglas Carswell on a recall bill): “I hope the leader of the opposition will recall his attack on child benefit”. He topped that later with this line: “I know I’ve been in Ibiza but they’ve been taking policy-altering substances”.

But Miliband, his zen-like calm on full display, refused to rise to Cameron’s bait and challenged him over the new figures showing that A&E waiting times have reached a nine year high. As before, Cameron blamed Labour’s 2004 decision to remove responsibility from GPs for out-of-hours care but Miliband was on strong ground, noting that waiting times fell between 2004 and 2010, that GPs’ leader Clare Gerada had described this explanation as “lazy”, and that doctors blamed the upheaval caused by the government’s NHS reorganisation. The voters, weary of Cameron’s excuses, are likely to side with Labour, which now enjoys a 15 per cent poll lead on health (compared to a Tory lead of 3 per cent in 2010).

Cameron, who has chosen to maintain the NHS ring-fence in the Spending Review, attempted to carve out a dividing line when he claimed that Labour would “cut the NHS”, but it’s worth noting that Miliband last month stated that a Labour government would protect the NHS. He told Nick Robinson: “We’re not going to be cutting the health service, I’m very clear about that. We will always be protecting the health service and will always make it a priority.” Labour won’t allow the Tories such an easy chance to claim that they are “the party of the NHS”.

When the Labour frontbench alerted Cameron to as much, he replied: “That’s changed as well! We’ve got a new health policy! Honestly, there are so many U-turns they should be having a grand prix.” But while politicians and journalists obsess over U-turns, the voters are more concerned with whether the party in question has the right policy (and the majority supported the child benefit cuts). If Labour’s move on child benefit helps convince a sceptical public that it would be fiscally responsible in government then it will be Miliband who gains.

A more awkward moment came when Cameron, in response to a piece in today’s Daily Mail reporting that half of the shadow cabinet now support an EU referendum, asked those who did to raise their hands. When none did, he declared: “the people’s party doesn’t trust the people”. It is precisely for fear of this line of attack that the likes of Ed Balls and Jon Cruddas have urged Miliband to commit to holding a referendum after 2015. As we get closer to the vote on the Tories’ EU referendum bill on 5 July, expect Cameron to take every opportunity to make hay with this divide. 

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