Morning One goes to Labour as NHS dominates discussion

Labour appeared to be winning Day One of the four-month-long campaign for the general election by dominating the agenda on “saving the NHS" - the issue Ed Miliband is banking on to give him victory.

The flagship BBC Today programme devoted considerable time to the NHS hours before Miliband officially launched Labour’s campaign in Manchester with a promise (or threat) to carry out four million conversations on the doorstep to win back power for Labour.

Cameron has been warned by his election guru Lynton Crosby to focus his campaign solely on the economy, and that if he allows the Conservatives to be dragged onto Labour’s territory of the NHS or Ukip’s chosen battleground - the European Union and immigration - he will lose.

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Cameron (who we learned from the Mail on Sunday is called ‘Bro’ by President Obama) stuck to the brief (largely) on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, repeatedly drawing the conversation back to Labour’s “car wreck” over the economy when Marr asked him about NHS policy.

Cabinet ministers are lining up to attack Miliband and Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, over the economy today. But the opening shots went to Labour.

A Today programme interview with Professor John Appleby, chief economist at the King’s Fund, the health service think tank, will have been music to Miliband’s ears.

Prof Appleby appeared to give weight to Labour’s campaign that the NHS will not survive in its current form if the Tories get another five more years in power.

He told presenter John Humphrys that an extra £2bn a year would be needed - a figure supported by Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS. “The NHS is in a critical state,” said Appleby, “it’s almost guaranteed that [without £2bn a year extra] the NHS will struggle to provide the sort of services we have come to expect of it in terms of waiting times and so on.”

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said it boiled down to whether the voters believed Labour could find the extra £2bn a year in funding with the ‘mansion tax’ on homes valued at more than £2m or whether the Tories could find it through efficiency savings.

Voters can be excused by being confused over the numbers that the opposing parties are firing at each other (and there are still 17 weeks of this to go!). What they want to know is whether the doctor will see them if they get sick.

Tony Blair campaigned in 1997 on saving the NHS. Cameron campaigned in 2010 on protecting the NHS. Yet everyone agrees it is still facing a crisis. No wonder the voters don’t trust any of the main parties any more.