David Cameron doesn’t regret the Lansley reforms that have done so much to damage any chance that the Tories could be trusted again by voters on the NHS. That’s what he told the Today programme this morning, saying:
‘The reforms were important and they were right… Of course [I stand by the changes]. If you’re saying to me: “Would you rather have 20,000 more bureaucrats and 9,000 fewer doctors?” Of course not.’
It’s difficult to find many Tories who privately share his view. Many who still think the spirit of the reforms were right wonder why they had to be introduced through legislation when the legislation caused such a political fight. Perhaps if the Prime Minister really did rate the job that Andrew Lansley had done with the Health and Social Care Act, he would have given the outgoing MP the job in international public service Lansley appears to have been expecting, rather than humiliating the man by allowing him to leave Parliament with nothing.
Blaming Lansley for the NHS mess is unfair, though, given many other senior figures, including the Prime Minister, signed off on the reforms.
If there’s another thing the Prime Minister should regret that he’s pretending not to, it’s his pledge to reduce net migration into the tens of thousands by this election. He hasn’t, which means that today Nigel Farage is unveiling a billboard poster in Dover highlighting the Tory failure on immigration. Instead of regretting the policy, though, Cameron is pursuing it as an aim for the next Parliament too. He can’t even blame Andrew Lansley for that.
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