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. This morning, a slew of loyalist Tory backbenchers took to Twitter to try and ramp up the pressure on the former Health Secretary.
Labour argue that these attacks aren’t proving very effective, and that they still have a huge lead on the question of which party do you trust with the NHS. But it’ll be interesting to see if the Tories’ attacks this week, which contrast with Cameron’s far more consensual approach to the publication of the Francis Report into Mid-Staffs, have any effect or not.
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