Miliband and Burnham warn against Tory “stealth privatisation of the NHS”

It’s still “NHS week” for Labour (after a brief foreign policy hiatus yesterday) and both Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham are out warning against Tory privatisation of the NHS today. In particular, they’re both trying to draw attention to the fact that 40% of all healthcare contracts have gone to private providers under this government, whilst the Tories have received over £20m in donations from 53 hedge funds with investments in private healthcare. Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham accused the Tories of “not being honest” about privatisation:

“David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt have not been honest with working people about the scale and pace of privatisation on their watch. They’ve tried to play it down but these figures show they simply cannot be trusted with the NHS.”

Meanwhile in Stevenage, Miliband reiterated Burnham’s attack on privatisation, claiming that “A Tory second term means the stealth privatisation of the NHS”:

“Under this government, 40 per cent of health contracts have gone to private providers. Private patient income in the NHS is up 58 percent. At the same time waiting lists rise for everyone else, operations are cancelled and A and E’s are overflowing. The evidence is clear and this would only get worse if the Tories were re-elected. A Tory second term means the stealth privatisation of the NHS.”

This is clearly a co-ordinated attack on the Tories as the party’s NHS week comes to a close. The week as a whole hasn’t gained much traction in the media – will this closing attack be any different?