May’s NHS pledge as she plots to stay until at least 2021
...and is she lining up a sweeping pre-Christmas Cabinet shuffle?
THE Prime Minister today signals her determination to stay in Downing Street for the ‘long haul’ with the audacious declaration that the Conservatives are ‘the natural party of the NHS’.
Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, Theresa May makes a direct challenge to the political orthodoxy that Labour will always be more trusted with the health service by stressing her personal debt to the NHS as a diabetes sufferer.
It comes as No10 strategists are plotting a path for Mrs May to stay in Downing Street until at least 2021, a year before the expected date of the next General Election, by boosting her domestic policy credentials.
If Mrs May secures Cabinet and parliamentary approval for a Brexit deal by December, she is being urged to carry out a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle before Christmas to try to reassert her authority.
Those who would be in line for the chop include Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom, Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling; those tipped for promotion include Home Office Minister Victoria Atkins and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox. Well-placed sources also tip Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab to replace Philip Hammond as Chancellor.
The plan will be greeted with dismay by the ‘noose and knife’ cabal of Brexiteers, who failed to force a leadership contest last month to avert a ‘sell-out’ on Brexit by threatening the Prime Minister in colourful terms.
Today’s bold claim on the NHS is designed to build on Monday’s taxcutting Budget, in which Mr Hammond announced the biggest public-spending splurge since 2010 – including the £20billion a year extra for the NHS announced by Mrs May earlier this year.
Despite the resignation of Culture Minister Tracey Crouch over delays to reforms to fixed-odds betting terminals, the Budget has still been seen in No10 as a success – and a chance to give Mrs May’s leadership a fresh lease of life. In her Mail on Sunday article, Mrs May promises a ‘brighter and more prosperous future for everyone in the United Kingdom’, arguing that at the heart of the Budget was ‘our absolute commitment to the public service that the British people value the most: our NHS’.
She writes: ‘This is personal for me. Just like millions of people across our country, I rely on the NHS every day. The wonderful staff of my local NHS trust in Berkshire help me manage my diabetes so I can live a normal life and get on with doing my job.
‘As Prime Minister, I am determined to do what it takes to secure our NHS for the future so it is there for all of us.’
Mrs May adds: ‘It is clear that in British politics today, the Conservatives are now the natural party of the NHS.’
Critics of the NHS splurge, including allies of Mr Hammond, argue the perception that the Tories are not to be trusted on the NHS is so ingrained that it is pointless – yet ruinously expensive – to attempt to shift it.
Downing Street has been angered by the way Mrs Leadsom and Ms McVey – both strong Brexiteers – have made repeated threats to resign over Mrs May’s attempts to secure a deal with the EU, while Mr Grayling has faced a torrent of criticism over his handling of the rail network following months of timetabling chaos.
It has been widely rumoured that after clashes between the Treasury and No10 over the end of austerity this would be Mr Hammond’s last Budget. A senior Government source said: ‘The Budget was all about trying to set Mrs May up for the long haul. This wasn’t Philip’s Budget, it was hers.’