Labour confirms plans to repeal NHS bill

There has been much speculation this afternoon about whether or not Ed Miliband u-turned on plans to repeal the NHS and Social Care Bill. If Miliband did say that, it seems to have been a slip of the tongue, as a senior Labour source close to Miliband just told us:

“We will repeal the bill. We will return the NHS to its founding principles of care and cooperation. We will not go through a costly reorganisation.”

As you were…?

Update: This morning we went back and took a look at the transcript of Ed’s Q&A yesterday. Here’s what he said on NHS reform:

“I think what would not be sensible is for us to come along and say, “Well Andrew Lansley – now Jeremy Hunt – they are changing all the arrangements to have these new clinical commissioning groups and so on, and we are just going to reverse it all back and spend another £3 billion on another top-down bureaucratic reorganisation”. So…but I think I can make you this promise that you are looking for: we will put the right principles back at the heart of the NHS.”