If Tories want to ward off Jeremy Corbyn the NHS needs a 10-year plan, not a plaster
ON Tuesday, the Cabinet will discuss the NHS – and how it is coping with the winter crisis.
But those hoping this meeting will offer a preview of how Jeremy Hunt intends to tackle social care, which he took responsibility for in the reshuffle, will be disappointed.
Hunt will set out how the NHS is dealing with the worst flu season in seven years.
The Tories, though, need a plan for the NHS. It is one of the issues that could cost them the next election.
Tellingly, Labour’s latest party political broadcast features just doctors and nurses talking about how overstretched the health service is and, predictably, how Corbyn is the answer.
David Cameron used to say you could sum up his priorities in three letters, N H S. But right now, the Tories aren’t talking about the health service. Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s chief of staff, is clear that when they aren’t focusing on the overarching themes of the economy and delivering a good Brexit deal, they should be emphasising housing, school standards and the environment.
The thinking goes that the NHS is a Labour issue, so there is little benefit in the Tories highlighting it.
This is a mistake. Voters regard the health service as the second biggest issue facing the country after Brexit. So the Tories need a robust plan for it. If they don’t, they will just get hammered by Labour.
The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has been brutally clear in private that he doesn’t regard it as his job to get Boris off the hook on this. I understand that the extra money for the health service in the last Budget was even put in jeopardy by NHS chief executive Simon Stevens calling on the Government to deliver on the Leave campaign’s pledge.
But the Tories need to forget about the referendum and who was on which side. For unless they address public concerns about the NHS, they will be arguing about all of this in opposition.
Hunt wants a ten-year funding plan for the health service. This is a sensible policy. If it had the backing of the NHS itself, it would help to depoliticise the issue.
It would provide the Tories with a shield against Labour attacks. Now, those in No10 who think the consensus behind this plan wouldn’t hold for a decade are almost certainly right. But it would be a start. The five-year funding plan for the service certainly made health less of an electoral issue in 2015 than it otherwise would have been.
The other big thing the Tories need is an answer on social care. One of the main causes of the NHS’s difficulties this winter is a lack of places to discharge elderly patients to.
I understand that Hunt will give the first indication of how he plans to tackle the social care crisis next month. The Tories must make sure that health and social care are working in tandem.
If Hunt can come up with a way to do that, it will go some way to dealing with the current crisis.
Brexit foot-dragging will cost us
“NOWHERE close to any conclusion being reached.”
That was the verdict of one member of the Brexit inner Cabinet after Wednesday’s meeting.
Not helped by interruptions for parliamentary votes on the EU Withdrawal Bill, the meeing was, I understand, mostly about the transition arrangements. Boris Johnson remains concerned about what the UK could be made to accept during this period, when it will have no say in EU decision-making.
Philip Hammond, however, is of the view that the crucial thing is getting agreement on the transition as quickly as possible to reassure business. I understand, though, that this did not turn into a major argument, as other Brexiteers are not as animated on the question as Boris. I am told that Michael Gove was “vocal about fish” but kept his powder dry on other matters.
This lack of clarity is going to cost the UK. One of the major battles in any negotiation is to make your draft the basis for the negotiations and the UK’s foot-dragging means that the EU’s offer will be where the discussions start. What is so frustrating about this delay is that there are several EU countries chafing at the Franco-German hard line – the Italians, the Belgians, the Spanish and the Dutch are all urging a more sensible approach – but the UK isn’t providing them with anything to argue for.
The lack of a UK view of what the final deal should look like is also resulting in a domestic vacuum. It is hard to persuade voters of the opportunities of Brexit when you haven’t decided what you want those to be.
Mrs May needs to accelerate the discussions of her Brexit inner Cabinet and set out in detail the deal she is aiming for as soon as possible.
SCORNED PRITI EYES WAY BACK
PRITI PATEL’S political comeback is starting.
The former Cabinet minister is standing for election to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Patel, above, is the standout candidate in the seven-strong field.
Regarded as a racing certainty to get elected by committee insiders, she would be able to use her new perch to question Foreign Office ministers and officials.
This should lead to some tasty encounters.
Patel’s allies hold Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan responsible for leaking the information which forced her resignation.
Gavin is top flesh presser
Well, members of both camps tell me that Gavin Williamson, above, the chief whip turned Defence Secretary, has been particularly assiduous in reaching out.
Tory MPs are taking this as another sign that the ambitious Williamson is interested in running for the top job one day.
MOST READ IN OPINION
THE entente was so cordial at the Macron/ May party on Thursday night that they ran out of English sparkling wine, or “Brexit juice”, to give it Boris Johnson’s preferred title.
Inside the Government, the hope is that the positive summit meeting will help grease the wheels of the Brexit talks.
They argue that the stepped-up security cooperation between the two countries proves Mrs May’s point that the UK is leaving the EU, not Europe.
They hope the French, who are – in the words of one Cabinet minister – “the backmarker” of the Brexit talks, will now take a more reasonable approach.
James Forsyth is political editor of The Spectator