Who can champion the fight against waste and bureaucracy?

29th June, 2011 by Alec Rickard

Mr Miliband in PMQs

As Nick Robinson stated in the Daily Politics immediately after PMQ’s, Mr Miliband’s line of attack on the NHS this week was very different and intriguing. Mr Robinson believes it is unlikely to catch media headlines and therefore, lack wider exposure, but also his line of attack did not play to Labour’s image and message as a party. Yet, on substance, I think again this week he dominated the exchange and he continued to compound a view of the Prime Minister as lacking attention to detail and being unsure of contradictions in his own policies.

First, Mr Miliband tested the Prime Minister on his ‘bonfire of the quangos’ claim with the statistic that the top-down reform of the NHS being passed will lead to the number of health quangos rise from 163 to 521. A rather astonishing rate when the Prime Minister hopes to champion a case for eliminating bureaucracy. Mr Cameron replied that the reforms abolished Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts but more importantly it would bring 5 billion worth of savings in this Parliament.

Second, Mr Miliband exclaimed that 852 million pounds would be spent just on making people redundant and yet the Prime Minster can’t even give the assurance that these people wouldn’t be rehired into their old roles in the new quangos created under the government’s plans. Not only does this demonstrates the top-down nature of the reorganisation but also proves there is a distinct inconsistency of thought in what the reforms hope to achieve. Effectively, Mr Miliband alleges that spending is being wasted and bureaucracy increased in direct contradiction to the purposes of the bill. A fine but highly convincing line of argument, but as Mr Robinson states, these attacks are unlikely to capture the imagination of the media or party activists.

Tags: David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Robinson