Ed Miliband used the penultimate prime minister’s questions before the general election, and the session immediately before the budget, to attack the government’s record on the NHS.
In a chamber packed with MPs waiting for chancellor George Osborne to deliver his budget, the Labour leader said that since the last election, the government had missed A&E waiting times and waiting times for cancer treatment, and broken a promise not to embark on a top-down reorganisation of the NHS.
Miliband asked: “When he makes a whole series of new NHS promises, why on earth should anyone believe him?”
The prime minister responded with a reference to the news that the leader of the opposition has two kitchens in his house: “The fact is on the NHS, we’ve put in the investment, we’ve increased the doctors, we’ve increased the nurses and, frankly, if he can’t stand the heat, he’d better get out of his second kitchen.”
Cameron argued his government had invested in the NHS: “We made two big decisions. Big decision No 1 was to put more money in, and big decision No 2 was to take the bureaucracy out. That is why we have 9,500 more doctors and 7,500 new nurses.”
He said a functional NHS was dependent on a strong economy. “The government is delivering a strong economy that builds a strong NHS,” he said.
“There is only one government in the history of the NHS that cut the NHS and that is the last Labour government. And they did it because they lost control of the economy.”
He added: “It was when the Labour party wrecked the economy that they wrecked the health service.”
Miliband responded by saying , under this government, the country was “worse off and the NHS is worse off on his watch and that is why working families cannot afford another five years of him”.
“The NHS was built by Labour, saved by Labour and will only be safe in the hands of the next Labour government.”
Cameron attacked the Labour leader for using all five questions to talk about the NHS, ignoring official figures released on Wednesday that showed employment had reach a record high of 73%: “Isn’t it interesting Mr Speaker? Five questions and not one mention of the unemployment figures today. He cannot bear the fact that the employment rates in our country are at a record level.”
The prime minister said he felt sorry for the leader of the opposition because “he literally doesn’t know where his next meal is coming from”.
