Who is the most powerful person in government at the moment? In normal times, the automatic answer would be the Prime Minister, but things are rather more complicated at the moment. Theresa May’s stock has risen in recent weeks, thanks to her confident handling of the Salisbury attack – and partly because Labour is in a terrible mess. But today we learned a little bit more about quite how influential one of her ministers has become.
The Prime Minister spent this afternoon giving evidence to the Commons Liaison Committee, the powerful group of select committee chairs who grill the Prime Minister periodically. She was in her usual defensive mode of not giving anything away for much of the session. But then, towards the end, she announced that the NHS would be getting more money. This is what the Prime Minister said:
‘We also need to, I think, get away from the annual approach we see to the NHS budget and recognise that for the NHS to plan and manage effectively we need to get away from the annual top-ups and have a sustainable long-term plan and that should build on the work of the five-year plan.
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