'Two-tier NHS would face stealth privatisation' under Tories, says Ed Miliband Ed Miliband is winning the waverers, says Lord Ashcroft

'Two-tier NHS would face stealth privatisation' under Tories, says Ed Miliband

Miliband has warned about the dangers of NHS privatisation

Labour leader says patients could only expect longer queues

The Labour leader, campaigning in Stevenage earlier today, said that ordinary people faced being “pushed to the back of longer and longer queues” and called for a cap on the proportion of private work NHS trusts could carry out.
Mr Miliband’s party says leading English hospitals saw their income from private patients rise by more than half since 2010 – a charge denied by Conservatives.
The Tories claim that private patient income was falling as a proportion of hospital budgets, and that under their governance private health provision within the National Health Service slowed after accelerating under Labour.

READ MORE: Three charts that show how voters view our political leaders
Four out of 10 health contracts going to private firms, Labour claim
Ashcroft: Why Miliband leads Cameron in battle for wavering voters

Backed by the Liberal Democrats - who claim that Labour were “totally beholden to the private sector” – the coalition parties have argued that private health provision only increased from two per cent over the last five years.
But Mr Miliband claimed: "A Tory second term means stealth privatisation of the National Health Service - NHS patients finding themselves pushed to the back of longer and longer queues, operations delayed and an NHS not there when people need it.
"Under the Tories, it would be a two-tier NHS where you have to pay to get seen."

Are you undecided about who to vote for on 7 May? Are you confused about what the parties stand for and what they are offering? Take this interactive quiz to help you decide who to vote for...
Click here to launch

The average income from private patients per NHS foundation trust rose 58 per cent from £1.7m (2009/10) to £2.7m (2013/14), according to documents from NHS trusts and financial regulator Monitor.
Labour claim that over the same period, waiting times for A&E and cancelled operations increased.
Mr Miliband’s two per cent cap on work for private patients as a proportion of total income would dramatically scale back the coalition’s health reforms.

The 2013 Health and Social Care Act, which came into effect in England, allowed trusts to earn up to 49 per cent of their total income from private services.
Despite his promises, the Labour leader has added a caveat that if the trust meet strict safeguards to ensure NHS patients are unaffected then hospitals can exceed the two per cent limit.
A Conservative spokesperson called Labour claims a “gimmick”, adding that Labour were “fixating” on the issue of “privatisation”.
They added that “official figures show that outsourcing accounts for just 6p in each NHS pound, and private patient income is actually falling as a proportion of hospital budgets."

The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible.
Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:
All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report

Ed Miliband is winning the waverers, says Lord Ashcroft

Lord Ashcroft says some people who prefer Cameron to Miliband as voting Labour

The former Tory deputy chairman, who is now a pollster, asserts that some people who prefer Mr Cameron to Mr Miliband are deciding to vote Labour, as the Labour leader performs better than voters and the Tories expected. Writing in The Independent he says: “Far from crumbling, Miliband has shown a good deal of resilience in the face of some rather unseemly attacks.”
His comments come as the Tories’ hopes of a breakthrough are dashed by the latest “poll of polls” for The Independent, which shows that the two biggest parties remain deadlocked. They are both on 33 per cent, with Ukip on 14 per cent, the Liberal Democrats on 8 per cent and the Greens on 5 per cent.
As the electoral map favours Labour, such a result would give the party 293 seats to the Tories’ 270, putting Mr Miliband in pole position to become prime minister in a hung parliament.

After a week dominated by Tory attacks on the dangers of a Labour government propped up by the Scottish National Party, Lord Ashcroft warns: “Too much emphasis on the opposing leader’s weaknesses (or, in this case, the deals he may or may not do to get himself into office) suggests to voters that a party can’t have much to say for itself.” He also says that Labour appears to be winning the “ground war” in the constituencies. The Tory peer declines to join criticism of Lynton Crosby, the Australian strategist running the Tory campaign, whose repeated predictions that the party would move ahead in the polls have failed to materialise.

Ashcroft has declined to join criticism of Lynton Crosby (Getty)
Instead, Lord Ashcroft lays the blame at Mr Cameron’s door, saying: “Rather than relying on the identity of their leader and the risks of change, the Tories over the last five years ought to have laid the foundations for a campaign in which they could talk confidently about their plans for public services, and to describe a Conservative vision of opportunity and prosperity for all.”
But Labour suffered a setback yesterday when Mr Miliband made a tactical retreat after suggesting Mr Cameron was partly to blame for the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean because he failed to plan for the aftermath of the UK-backed air strikes on Libya, which helped to overthrow Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Hundreds of migrants from Libya have drowned trying to cross to Europe in recent weeks.
After a rare foreign affairs speech aimed at enhancing his credentials as a prime minister-in-waiting, Mr Miliband was accused by the Tories of a “provocative and shameful intervention” which showed he was not fit for the post.

Election Analysis: The Key Voters

The Labour leader faced media questions over whether he was accusing Mr Cameron of having “blood on his hands”.
Mr Miliband replied: “Anyone who reads my speech would see that that is very, very wide of the mark. The only people trying to whip up a big storm about this are the Conservative Party.
“I am making a very important point, I believe, about post-conflict planning in Libya. The international community as a whole, including our Government, bears some responsibility for the crisis we see in Libya. I think that is undeniable. As far as what is happening in terms of the tragic scenes of people drowning in the Mediterranean, that is a result of the people traffickers who are engaged in those issues.”
Labour officials accused the Tories of “a deliberately and wilful misinterpretation of Ed’s words to dodge their record on foreign policy”.
Mr Cameron said: “I have learned as Prime Minister that it is so important in a dangerous and uncertain world that you show clarity, consistency and strength on these foreign policy issues. People will look at these ill-judged remarks and they will reach their own conclusions.”

Procurando minha galera