For some time now at Coffee House, we’ve questioned the sense of Cameron’s pledge to increase NHS spending in real terms. And in today’s Independent, a ComRes poll suggests that 62 percent of Tory MPs do not think the NHS should receive guaranteed spending increases. Indeed, their opposition to Mr Cameron’s plans runs deeper: only 33 percent believe the current model of care free at the point of delivery is sustainable. Additionally, the Independent quotes an anonymous Tory MP saying:
“The hope is that we would be more radical on health in office than we say now, that he [Mr Cameron] is anxious not to frighten the horses. But there are concerns about cutting other areas and allowing the health budget to carry on rising regardless. It cannot be exempt from financial pressure or reform.”
Regardless of the financial sense of these arguments, post-Hannan this poll is not encouraging for the Tory leadership, serving only to fuel Labour’s ‘the two-faces of the Tories’ campaign, which now seems a little more legitimate.
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