Jeremy Hunt aims for the moral high ground on the NHS

Jeremy Hunt has an unusual way of delivering a forceful speech. He pulls a worried, frowny face, and speaks in a special growly sort of voice when he wants to criticise his opponents, but doesn’t shout, or indeed really raise his voice at all. Today he delivered a particularly forceful speech to the Conservative conference on why the Tories are the ‘party of the NHS’. He used that phrase ‘our NHS’ that Andy Burnham likes to deploy as part of his emotive pitch to voters on the health service. Hunt used the same emotive pitch today, arguing that Labour placed ideology above what works for patients, and that it failed to address problems. He said:

‘Even their own people felt desperately uncomfortable. To those Labour people who hated what was happening on their watch, I have this to say: you were right. Covering things up is not only worse for those who suffer.