In recent weeks, Ed Miliband has been setting the agenda, focusing on key issues including the rising cost of energy bills, the urgent need for regulation on payday lenders and the crisis in A&E. Today he stuck with this theme and asked David Cameron a simple question: Can the prime minister guarantee there won’t be an A&E crisis this winter?
Cameron, clearly perturbed by Miliband’s calm tone, resorted to lines about all the wonderful improvements under the coalition government across the NHS including 20,000 fewer managers and the millions saved under the reorganisation. And so the gloves came off. The next few series of exchanges saw Cameron and Milliband argue over the facts and figures, with the odd reference to the former secretary of state for health Andy Burnham and how proud they are of the NHS. At one point it appeared as if Cameron may have needed a doctor himself as he tried but failed to attack the ‘crisis’ across the NHS in Wales and the speaker had to call order in the chamber. Miliband pointed out that Cameron is too clueless to know the facts.
Who won?
Miliband had the edge, portraying Cameron as the person responsible for the looming winter crisis across A&E’s. Cameron tried his best to hide behind statistics but the reality on the ground for thousands of hospital nurses, concerned patients, their families and doctors is that the NHS under the Tories is a mess.
Best backbencher
David Winnick raised the importance of the sacrifice in the second world war: the war was fought on the principles of bringing about a fairer society, he said, yet we have a prime minster pushing policies to penalise hard-working families and individuals. What is happening under the coalition government is totally unacceptable, he said. Cameron replied with yet another statistic about the amount of people taken out of poverty. It beggars belief that he cannot seem to understand the record increase in the use of food banks across the country, including in my own borough of Lambeth, the increase in payday loan applications to cover basic household necessities, and the rising cost of energy bills.
Best question, answer, comment or joke?
Conservative MP Mark Reckless raised an important question about what plans are in place to close the loophole that allows foreign buyers to buy property in London without paying capital gains tax. Across the capital, new developments are snapped up by overseas developers and investors, pushing up property prices for others trying to get on the property ladder. Housing remains a top political issue and closing this loophole will help address this. In the run-up to 2015, all three main political parties need to develop progressive housing policies, including a housebuilding programme, and an honest discussion about the private rental sector and taxation.
Susan Elan Jones commented on the fact that bonuses had risen more than 90 per cent than ordinary wages and asked if Cameron is just too useless to do anything about this. I will leave you all to be the judge of this question!
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Florence Nosegbe is a member of the Progress strategy board and a councillor in the London borough of Lambeth. She tweets @flonosegbe