Andy burnham

Andy Burnham has just delivered the best speech from a Labour MP at conference. Taken from the autocue, it was emotive, stirring, tribal, and just what delegates needed. It seemed to have taken rather a number of lessons from the 'Yes' campaign in Scotland in that it was relentlessly negative about the threat that the Tories pose to the NHS and framed not voting Labour as an active threat to the health service. Burnham got a number of standing ovations - the first was just a few words into his speech - and had the audience captivated throughout. Why? He spoke with a passion and a sense of purpose.

Westminster has got in a tizz overnight because Andy Burnham has been taped saying that he still favours a 'death tax' of 10-15%, on top of 40% inheritance tax, to pay for social care. Burnham concocted a similar plan before the last election, only for Gordon Brown (even dear old Gordon Brown recognised a loser) drop it. Guido has a recording of Burnham’s comments, which were made at the Fabian Society’s Summer Conference in June. Burnham was musing aimlessly, rather than articulating party policy. But, that said, one might easily draw the conclusion from this and other musings, such as Harriet Harman’s views on sports betting and football, that Labour has a rapacious attitude to your money. In view of the above one would expect Labour to be paying lots of tax.

Ed Miliband's first few questions to David Cameron today were about the various inquiries into child abuse. Miliband wasn't interested in creating controversy: he didn't ask about whether Lady Butler-Sloss was the right person to run the inquiry given that her late brother was Attorney General when Geoffrey Dickens handed his file to the Home Secretary. But then Miliband turned to the NHS and the atmosphere in the House flipped. listen to ‘PMQs: Cameron and Miliband’ on Audioboo Cameron defiantly defended his use of statistics from last week. But it was once Miliband had asked his last question that Cameron went into full attack mode.

As the crucifixion of Damian McBride over Easter in 2009 proves, the four-day news void can be gruesome for Downing Street, yet it seems congratulations are in order this year. No.10 managed to throw the chattering classes such a juicy bone of distraction that they all spent Easter trying to convince themselves that the UK is not a Christian country. The row was stoked by an assorted group of lefties with impeccable Labour, Liberal and Green credentials writing to the Telegraph, questioning why a PM may possibly wish to talk about religion. The irony that it was Easter, top and tailed by two bank holidays where their entire ‘non-Christian country’ shuts down for 96 hours in celebration of the resurrection of Christ was lost on these modern day Doubting Thomases.

In an interview with The Spectator this week, the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin admits that HS2 will not have been approved by parliament before the next election. This invites the question, will HS2 become an election issue? Both Ed Balls and Andy Burnham have made forays against HS2 in recent months. But both have been slapped down by Ed Miliband's office. His allies believe that Labour can't run on a platform of rebuilding Britain while simultaneously promising to put a stop to the biggest infrastructure project in decades. But one wonders if this Labour position will hold. The Tory election campaign will claim repeatedly that Labour's sums don't add up, they'll constantly accuse Labour of planning to raise taxes or borrowing.

[audioplayer src='http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_23_January_2014_v4.mp3' title='James Forsyth discuss the NHS with Charlotte Leslie MP' startat=1430] Listen [/audioplayer]Pinned to the wall of Jeremy Hunt’s office in the Department of Health is an A1 piece of paper detailing that week’s ‘Never Events’. It catalogues the mistakes that have been made in NHS hospitals that should never have happened: people having the wrong leg amputated, swabs being left inside patients after surgery and the like. This grim list is a rebuke to the glib, Danny Boyle-style rhetoric which dominates all political debate about the NHS and treats any attempt to examine the failings of British health care as heresy.

Congratulations to Labour’s Gavin Shuker for some spectacular brown nosing. The Luton MP has thrilled readers of his blog with an account of him playing the ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ boardgame. It’s a riveting read: ‘I worked my way through all fifteen questions effortlessly, and nailed that £1 million – much to the annoyance of everyone else playing. But then again, they should have seen it coming. It really helps when your phone a friend can feature Ed Balls on economics, Douglas Alexander on geography, and Andy Burnham on the NHS.’ He concludes that he’s ‘one of life’s winners’. Pass the sick bucket.

There are two important NHS stories in the papers today. First, the Times reports (£) that A&E departments are facing severe pressures because of historic staff shortages. The paper notes: ‘Half of all senior doctor posts go unfilled at accident and emergency departments, putting unsustainable pressure on life-or-death care. The College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) says that 383 of the 699 specialist registrar posts in A&E have been left vacant over the past three years, stretching emergency ward doctors beyond capacity and driving up waiting times. The shortfall in senior doctors deprives A&E departments of the ability to see 766,000 people each year, since the CEM points out that each registrar would have seen about 2,000 patients.

The details of the government reshuffle are currently being hammered out at the 8.30 Downing Street meeting. But as MPs and ministers nervously wait for the call from the Number 10 switchboard, Ed Miliband will be plotting his own changes to his top team for later this week. And as key Shadow Cabinet members such as Liam Byrne look vulnerable, one shadow minister who is holding on with all he's got is Andy Burnham. The Shadow Health Secretary is very popular with the party's grassroots, but he is also politically vulnerable because of his connections to the previous Labour government. But though Ed Miliband failed to publicly back Burnham at the party's conference, his colleague has in the past few days launched an offensive on his detractors that also makes it more difficult to move him.

When David Cameron first addressed Parliament on the Francis Report, he told MPs that he didn't want to seek scapegoats. Some of his MPs were disappointed that the Tory leadership wasn't going after Andy Burnham or Sir David Nicholson. Well, the latter has left, and the former is looking vulnerable in a forthcoming Labour reshuffle, and for months the gloves have been off. After gaining access to a dossier of emails suggesting that Labour tried to stop the Care Quality Commission informing the public about failings at Basildon Hospital, Tory MP Stephen Barclay, who has been digging away on this for months, has called for Burnham to resign. He said: ‘Labour tried to cover up failing hospitals before the last General Election.

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, has given an interview to the Guardian which has excited the Tories. Tory chairman Grant Shapps has said: 'This shows that even senior members of Labour's top team think Ed Miliband doesn't have what it takes to stand up for hardworking people.' It’s a familiar refrain; but for once the spin rings fairly true. Here’s the crucial passage from Decca Aitkenhead’s piece: '...when I ask if he's worried by how long Labour is taking to come out with a set of flagship policies that explain what they stand for, he agrees. "Definitely. I think there's definitely a need to shout louder, and speak in a way that captures how people are thinking and feeling. There's definitely a need to put our cards on the table.

Grant Shapps’ latest broadside against Labour shows how keen the Tories are to frame the next election not as a referendum on their performance in government but as a choice between them and Labour. Shapps wants voters to think about the fact that the alternative to David Cameron as Prime Minister is ‘Miliband and Balls’ driving up Downing Street before they cast their ballots. The Tory Chairman’s speech, due to be delivered at Policy Exchange this morning, also shows where the Tories think Labour are vulnerable. Tellingly, he talks about ‘Miliband and Balls’ rather than just Miliband; the Tories believe that Balls’ presence is a reminder to voters of the links between the current Labour leadership and the Brown era.