Gary Porter, leader of South Holland District Council and chairman of Local Government Association, said he believed “we protected the National Health spending for too long”.
He went on to say that ring-fencing the NHS budget will mean local government spending would be further challenged.
In the same interview he reportedly said the policy of ring-fencing the NHS budget was “bizarre”. He went on to say he wished Mr Cameron’s government continued with what they were doing, but urged Number 10 to listen to local governments to allow them to help. Here he made a good point – the government, including the local one, should listen to its people.
Alas, Mr Porter does not seem to be listening to the people of South Holland. If he did, he would know that there would be no public agreement for cuts to the NHS.
Coun Porter may need to be reminded that he, as well as the other Conservative district councillors and John Hayes, MP for South Holland and the Deepings, were elected on the ticket of the Conservative Party Manifesto 2015.
In this manifesto, in chapter “Protecting and Improving NHS” the Conservative Party committed to protecting the NHS and to “spend at least an additional £8bn by 2020 over and above inflation to fund and support the NHS’s own action plan for the next five years”.
The Conservative Party Manifesto commitment was based on the Simon Stevens’ (chief executive of NHS England) plan.
Stevens’ plan identified a £30bn gap in the NHS funding that needed to be filled by 2020 in order to address the growing demand. Stevens determined the gap could be filled by £22bn in efficiency savings but a further £8bn needed to be covered by increased budget funding.
Is it the case again that the elected representatives renege on their electoral pledges?
We want to say now, loud and clear, to Mr Porter and his fellow Conservative party members, is that there is no public agreement for damaging the NHS.
He needs to understand that the NHS, the creation of Labour’s Aneurin Bevan, is a national treasure and must not be tampered with for short-term political gains.
Voyteck S Kowalewski
Chair of Constituency Labour Party – South Holland and the Deepings
