Can Cameron afford Lansley?

Is Andrew Lansley using his untouchable status* to bounce David Cameron into a three-year budget settlement? On the Marr sofa (or the Sophie Raworth sofa as it was today), he announced that the Tories are planning “real term increases to the NHS year on year.” Well, David Cameron has only said he would protect health from cuts – but he has not specified how long for. It could be as little as one year.

In my political column for this week’s magazine I recommend Cameron keeps uses this to wriggle out of what is now an unaffordable promise. He should freeze NHS spending for a year, then take a scalpel to it. When Lansley first gaffed about how protecting health cuts would mean 10 percent cuts, there was a key part to this overlooked at the time. The 10 percent calculation, which was first aired here in Coffee House, was on the premise that Cameron would protect the NHS budget for all three years, Apr 2011 to Apr 2014.