Ed Miliband
LABOUR’s leader pledged to hire thousands more doctors and nurses to the NHS in his final speech to the party conference before next year’s generatl election.
The Labour leader said the coalition government was “fragmenting” the country’s health service and that he would reverse those changes.
“They [the government] are privatising and fragmenting it. Just think what it would be like after five more years of this government,” he told party activists in Manchester.
“It is not safe in their hands. We built the NHS, we saved the NHS, we will repeal the Health and Social Care Act, and we will transform the NHS for the future.”
But political opponents attacked Mr Miliband for not once mentioning the deficit, even though he had planned to do so.
Asked ITV1’s Good Morning Britain programme on Wednesday if he had forgotten parts of his speech, he said: “Absolutely, yes.
“It’s not really about memorising the speech. What I try and do is I try and write a speech and then I use it as the basis for what I want to say to the country.
“In a way, I could just stand there and read out a speech that’s been prepared earlier. I like it as a way of engaging with people. And, of course, it’s one of the perils of it that there are bits that get left out, bits that get added in. It sort of comes with the territory.”
Mr Miliband said he would fund the extra NHS spending by raising £1.2bn from a new mansion tax on properties valued at more than £2m.
He also said a Labour government would recover £1.1bn from tax avoidance measures – including stopping hedge funds avoiding hundreds of millions in tax on shares – and £150m by annually charging “fees” to tobacco firms so that they make a larger contribution towards tackling tobacco-related illnesses.
Mr Miliband had intended to discuss immigration too, setting out how people who come to Britain “have a responsibility to learn English and earn their way”.
On Wednesday he insisted he had talked “very clearly” about Labour’s immigration plans.
“I didn’t pluck a number out of the air for what should happen to immigration, but, you know, the Prime Minister has done that,” he said. “He made a promise, he made a false promise to get immigration into the tens of thousands and it didn’t happen.”
Asked if he had forgotten the section relating to the economy, he told BBC Breakfast: “Yes, I didn’t do one part of the speech and I added in other bits.”