Morning Report – June 7th

Parliament is back after recess today, and the word of the day is Health. Everyone wants to talk about Andrew Lansley’s health reforms it seems. David Cameron will attempt to convince the public this afternoon that he has the best interests of the NHS at heart, while this morning Ed Miliband will use his monthly press conference to lambast the Tory health reforms – key to his message will be that the number of people waiting 18 weeks for treatment has gone up. Despite Cameron’s claims, he has not protected the health service budget. Poor Andrew Lansley will be speaking on the now infamous “pause” in reforms today, alongside statements on the crisis in social care. But how will he react if Cameron pulls the reform rug out from under him? We’ll have to wait until this afternoon to find out.

Meanwhile, down at GMB Congress in Brighton, there’s the possibility of strike action over government attacks on public sector pensions – which are on average only £7,000 a year, hardly “gold-plated”. However that might not even be the most newsworthy event to take place in Brighton today, as they also welcome a Andy Clarke, the Asda boss, who is the most senior business leader to ever attend the event.