Andy burnham

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

The bloody tussle for the moral high ground

Alan Johnson and Stephen Dorrell have just conducted an impressively reasoned debate on the NHS on Radio 4. This was all the more impressive given both their parties have boxed themselves into corners on NHS care scandals, from which they will continue to lash out today at the last PMQs of the summer. Whether or not Andy Burnham bears responsibility for the hospital failings detailed yesterday, his circumstances significantly constrained his ability to scrutinise the policies the government announced. Because he is in the extremely uncomfortable position of shadowing the brief he held in government, Burnham spent more time defending his own record than he did anything else.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

NHS political football, full-time report: Hunt and Burnham’s fouls and fury

Jeremy Hunt's statement on the Keogh review marked one of the uglier Commons sessions in this parliament. Amid shouting, muttering and angry pointing from the Opposition benches, the Health Secretary announced that 11 of the 14 hospitals in the review would be put into 'special measures', while making clear that he blamed the culture the Labour government had nurtured in the NHS, and pressure from ministers to cover up bad news. Labour MPs hated the last assertion in particular, roaring with disagreement as Hunt said: 'It is never acceptable for the government to put pressure on the NHS to accept bad news because in doing so they make it less likely that poor care will be tackled.' Burnham accused him of being partisan and guilty of 'one of the most cynical spin operations of our time'.

Isabel Hardman

NHS political football, half-time report: Crosby and warnings ignored

Labour and the Tories played the first half of NHS political football this morning at health questions. The scrap began with Opposition MPs asking what influence Lynton Crosby had over the decision to drop plain packaging for cigarettes. It is their equivalent of the Tory attack on union influence, and as such has a fair bit of clout. The first question came from Labour's Cathy Jamieson, who asked: 'Given some of the previous pronouncements by the Public Health Minister I think some of us could be forgiven for thinking that the government's policy has changed in relation to this. And I wonder therefore if she could advise the House, who overruled her support for this policy? Was it the Prime Minister? Was it the Health Secretary? Or was it Lynton Crosby?' Ian Austin had a go too.

Isabel Hardman

Angry Burnham hits back

listen to ‘Andy Burnham defends Labour's record on Health’ on Audioboo Andy Burnham was in a furious mood this morning when he toured the broadcast studios. It was hardly surprising: most people would grow rather ratty if CCHQ wasn't just coming after you but briefing that it is coming after you. He angrily told listeners that he did not 'accept this attack on the integrity of the last Government'. He listed all the actions of the Labour government that he believed showed he and colleagues were not in the wrong. That list included: 'It was the last government that introduced independent regulation into the NHS'. 'I brought in Robert Francis to investigate what happened' at Stafford Hospital. Burnham said he overruled civil service advice when he engaged Francis.

Monday

James Forsyth

Conservatives ramp up the pressure on Andy Burnham

One of the striking things about politics at the moment is how the Tories are behaving like an opposition, campaigning against Labour with even more intensity than they managed in 2009. The Tories intend to use the Keogh report, out tomorrow, to — in the words of one Number 10 insider — give Labour ‘both barrels’ over the NHS. As one Tory minister puts it, ‘Labour’s argument about Mid-Staffs is that it is one isolated, bad case. Keogh disproves that.’ As part of this, the Tories are going after Andy Burnham. The Tory leadership is convinced that Ed Miliband will move Burnham in the reshuffle, there’s a reason why people tend not to shadow in opposition the job they did in government, and want to be able to claim the credit.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Tories must tread carefully in NHS battle

It is clear now that we have reached a tipping point where it is no longer enough to repeat 'I love the NHS' or swear allegiance to Danny Boyle's Olympic caricature of the health service. So what now? Labour and the Tories are scrapping over who still really, truly loves the health service: the latest round of revelations about the Care Quality Commission have allowed the Conservatives to ask questions about the culture and attitudes of both the health service and of the Labour government that led it. Labour, meanwhile, points out that Andrew Lansley is also alleged to have leaned on a whistleblower, something the former Health Secretary denied yesterday.

Thursday

Keith Cooper

There’s more to fixing the NHS than chasing A&E waiting times

NHS workers used to enjoy hearty backslaps for their ‘jolly hard work’ to bring down accident & emergency waiting times. Such praise was delivered by the Labour government’s chief nursing officer at a conference I covered back in 2003. Back then, talk was of shrinking queues rather than impending ‘A&E crisis’. Nurses should congratulate themselves, she beamed, for helping speed patients through casualty in fewer than four hours. This apparent success was just the beginning, if this graph, circulated in a campaign e-mail by Labour’s shadow health secretary recently, is to be believed: 'This is what three years of David Cameron running the NHS looks like: a crisis in A&E,' it rails.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

The political battle over A&E will get nastier before the problem is solved

Today's row about Accident and Emergency has little to do with the issue itself, and far more about one party trying to prove a point about the other. Those rows are the most vitriolic, the most hard-fought, and to the outside world, the most pointless. The King's Fund today finds waiting times are at their worst level for nine years. What's going wrong? Each side has its own theories. But what's significant is that each side is trying to use this row to steal that coveted 'party of the NHS' title. This was abundantly clear from Andy Burnham's response to the report, written in what appears to be a spitting rage.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Hunt attacks Labour for A&E crisis

Andy Burnham summoned Jeremy Hunt to the Commons this afternoon for a shouty hour about who loves the NHS more. The Health Secretary's answer to Labour's urgent question on the government's plans for changes to the GP contract and the crisis in Accident and Emergency departments was largely a direct attack on decisions the opposition took when it was in government. He decried Labour's 'disastrous changes to the GP contract' which had led to a significant rise in the number of patients visiting A&E, and 'the disastrous failure of Labour's IT contract'. He also told Burnham that his government had failed to address the disconnect between social care and the health service.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

The question Labour won’t even consider on the NHS

Labour's new independent commission on health and social care aims to draw up plans on bringing together health services and social care so that the NHS can be financially sustainable. Launching the plans today, Ed Miliband said that 'we must make every pound we spend go further at a time when our NHS faces the risk of being overwhelmed by a crisis in funding because of care needs by the end of this decade'. But there is one big question that Sir John Oldham, who will chair the year-long review, won't be asking about the long-term financial viability of the health service. It's a question that some Labourites are well-attuned to, and that the chair of NHS England (formerly the NHS Commissioning Board) Malcolm Grant raised earlier this month.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Mid-Staffs scandal: The Tories must beware focusing solely on Andy Burnham

MPs were debating accountability in the NHS following the Mid-Staffs scandal today, and as part of that, the argument about who - if anyone - should be held responsible continues to rumble on. Charlotte Leslie and many of her Tory colleagues want to see Sir David Nicholson gone (and The Telegraph's Robert Winnett reports that senior government figures are considering a route by which he can exit). But the focus of Jeremy Hunt and other Conservatives is on Andy Burnham instead. Today Hunt said: '[Nicholson] does bear some responsibility. He said himself 'we lost our focus', he has apologised and has been held to account by this House and others. But I don't believe that he bears total responsibility, or indeed personal responsibility for what happened.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Tories set Labour in their crosshairs over Mid-Staffs

After today's slightly confusing PMQs line from the Prime Minister about unidentified 'people' who 'should be thinking of their positions' after the Mid-Staffs scandal, ministers and loyal backbenchers have gone out to bat for the government. After PMQs, the Prime Minister's sources refused to say who these 'people' were who needed to consider their positions. But now Jeremy Hunt has written a piece for ConHome saying 'Labour can and will be held accountable for what happened at Mid-Staffs'. He then warns that the party appears to have learned no lessons at all from the Francis Report and that the public shouldn't trust them again: 'Labour’s reaction to Mid Staffs has been a deafening silence which is shocking both in its arrogance and complacency.

Thursday

J Tomlinson

Solve childhood obesity with nudging, not nannying

Whilst I have been a vocal supporter in Parliament of the need to tackle childhood obesity, I am by no means a shining example.  My childhood was fuelled by sugar and E numbers that had me running around convinced that one day I would be a professional cricketer, or the next Gary Lineker, inspired by whatever sport happened to be on the telly.  The year was 1986 and politicians hadn’t given a second thought to Frosties. Listening to Andy Burnham this weekend (over my bowl of Frosties), it occurred to me that, whilst I ate additives that would probably strip paint and enough sugar to power a small town, I was never overweight. Politicians are missing the point on childhood obesity.  The problem cannot be attributed to diet alone.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Don’t ban Frosties: teach children the life skills they need to make choices

What a very sensible idea from a group of more than 200 MPs in today's FT: teach children about personal finance. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People wants financial education to become a compulsory part of the curriculum, with banks visiting classrooms. The idea that Natwest and Barclays could send their representatives into classrooms is obviously not enormously palatable to everyone, with critics arguing that this is just another route for big business to indoctrinate innocent minds. But consider this: research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research found a lack of financial education costs the taxpayer £3.

Alex Massie

Let Them Eat Gruel: The Government-Health-Security Complex Invades Your Kitchen – Spectator Blogs

Addressing the American people for the final time as President, Dwight Eisenhower warned that: This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

Wednesday

Camilla Swift

The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards | 21 November 2012

The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards are being held this afternoon at the Savoy Hotel. In total 14 awards were presented by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, who was invited to be  guest of honour in recognition of his parliamentary achievement. The award winners were: 1. Newcomer of the Year - Andrea Leadsom MP (Con) 2. Backbencher of the Year - Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP (Lab) 3. Campaigner of the Year - Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP (Lab) 4. Inquisitor of the Year - Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP (Lab) 5. Speech of the Year - Charles Walker MP (Con) & Kevan Jones MP (Lab) 6. Resignation of the Year - Rt Hon Lord Hill of Oareford (Con) 7. Apology of the Year - Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP (Lib Dem) 8.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband hints at realism on NHS reforms

There's a great temptation for an opposition leader to give answers praising motherhood and apple pie when taking part in a Q&A with members of the public. Especially when that session marks the start of your party's conference season and your party has set out very few formal policies so far. But Ed Miliband today, as well as announcing crowd pleasers on energy and pensions, caused a bit of a stir by accepting that a Labour government would not 'spend another' £3 billion dismantling the frameworks created by the Government's Health and Social Care Act. He said: 'There’s no more important institution that expresses, I think, the real soul of the country than the NHS, because I think it expresses a whole set of values which I think the British people share in common.

Wednesday

David Blackburn

The doctors’ strike

No public sector strike is easy to sell to the public. I recently did a stint of jury service and witnessed the chaos caused by court staff, members of the PCS union, striking over pensions. It’s one thing working around the inconvenience of jury service, but it’s quite another being kept on the premises when there is little chance of the courts actually sitting, as proved to be the case. But, the BMA have it doubly difficult. Today, doctors decided to strike for the first time in more than 40 years. Doctors have a reputation for being well-paid, a reputation that is ingrained and, when one examines the NHS pay structure, not wholly unmerited.

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Lib-Lab bonding over legal aid

The Legal Aid Bill limps back to the Commons this afternoon, having had a rough ride through the upper chamber where the Lords inflicted 11 defeats on the government. And it looks like its next stint in the lower chamber might not be much smoother. As Paul Waugh reports, a group of MPs have tabled a new amendment to the Bill (actually, an amendment to an amendment tabled by the government on Friday) to continue to provide legal aid advice (but not representation) for reviews and appeals of benefit cases. What’s significant is that the amendment is signed by seven Lib Dem MPs, including party president Tim Farron, and four of Labour’s frontbench Justice spokespeople, including shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan.

Saturday

James Forsyth

Why Lansley might hang on

Perhaps, the biggest question about the post-Olympics reshuffle is what happens to Andrew Lansley. In an interview with The Times (£) today, he makes it abundantly clear that he expects to stay at Health. Now, there are certainly those in Downing Street who would like to see him moved. But I suspect that he’s got a better chance of staying in post than most people realise. There are three reasons for this. First, Lansley is the person who understands best what the bill actually does. Anyone else on the Tory side would face a steep learning curve. Second, it is far from certain that a slicker communicator would actually fare better than Lansley has.