As general campaigns begin in the run up to the general elections, Conservative politicians have accused Labour leader Ed Miliband of exploiting the huge demands on the NHS system, including the poor service and attendance in A&E and the emphasis on shockingly long waiting lists. PM David Cameron called out Miliband's phrase 'to weaponise' in the Labour pledge to make the NHS the focus of their policies the "most disgusting phrase I have ever heard in politics (…) The leader of the opposition apparently said to the political editor of the BBC 'I want to weaponise the NHS'. I think that is disgraceful.
"The NHS is not a weapon, it is a way we care for our families, it's a way we care for the elderly, it's a way we look after the frail.” Cameron also chastised the Labour leader for treating the issue as if it were “a political football.” Miliband, who has not used the term since discussing the party's manifesto with BBC executives in November of last year, stood by his heavy-handed approach: “We are in a fight for the NHS” he said on the Andrew Marr programme on BBC One, “and I make absolutely no apologies for the fact I am really concerned about what is happening in our national health service."Another spokesman for Labour said: "No one should be surprised that we are going to make a fight of the NHS in the coming election. No one should be surprised that we are going to campaign and fight for the future of the NHS."
Dr Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative MP and chairman of the health select committee retaliated that: "They (Labour) are exploiting the huge pressures that A&E is under for political gain. It is less about genuinely arguing about systems and the best way forward, and more about a campaign to gain votes. I resent it deeply, it is wholly wrong and damaging for the political process (…) They are also exploiting people's fears that we are moving towards a US-style system where people have to pay. It's totally untrue. They are deliberately blurring what people fear about privatisation with the facts.”
Mary Helen Creagh, senior Labour politician, who recently appeared alongside Nigel Farage and Russell Brand on Question Time has shirked the term 'weaponise' as an arbitrary tangent and insisted that her party was committed to the rejuvenation of the National Healthcare System.
The head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, has said a minimum of £8 billion a year will be needed by 2020 if any real change is to be affected. So far, only the Liberal Democrats have emphasised the need for this specific amount.
