Election 2015: Leaked documents reveal Tory benefit cut options – as it happened

Populus has a poll out today. Here are the figures.

Labour has confirmed that its proposed profits cap on private NHS providers would only apply to clinical services.

That answers this question.

Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative health secretary, has claimed that Labour’s proposed cap on profits for firms with NHS contracts could lead to “chaos” for the NHS.

If you bankrupt the economy like Labour did last time, then you’ll put our NHS at risk. We can only have a strong NHS if we have a strong economy, but Ed Miliband doesn’t have an economic plan.

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He added:

We all know Labour want to ‘weaponise’ the NHS but this is another policy from Ed Miliband that looks ill-thought through. It risks higher infection rates, higher waiting times and chaos for our NHS. This incompetence is exactly why Ed Miliband is simply not up to the job.

Independent commentators confirm that use of the private sector has grown at half the rate under this government as it did under Labour, so this is no more than a gimmick to scare people about privatisation that isn’t happening.

The real issue for the future of the NHS is how to fund the growing needs of an ageing population, and by tearing up an economic plan that is working, Labour would threaten the real increases in funding that Conservatives are promising. No-one can deliver a strong NHS without a strong economy.

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There were two key policy announcements in Ed Miliband’s speech.

First, he announced plans for a cap on the profits private firms can make from NHS contracts. And I’ve already quoted what the Labour briefing note claims about the threat posed by NHS privatisation under the Tories. (See 11.36am.)

Second, he announced measures to stop private firms “cherry picking” the easiest, most profitable cases when taking on NHS work. This is what the Labour briefing note says about profit-making and cherry picking.

· Doctors have raised concerns over private companies “winning contracts that have multi-million pound profit margins.” (Pulse, May 2014)

· The National Audit Office has called for greater use of profit controls in government contracts, saying “Excessive profits can undermine public confidence and contractors should not be able to make a profit by acting against their customer’s (the government’s) interest” and calling for the use of “gain-share mechanisms, claw-back of excess profits and post-contract reviews.” (National Audit Office, 2014).

· The Health Select Committee has raised concerns about cherry picking: “evidence submitted to us supports the view that anomalies in the National Tariff contribute to the phenomenon known as “cherry picking”, that is, the inappropriate selection of patients on economic rather than clinical grounds” (Health Select Committee report, 26 February 2013)

· The Royal College of Opthalmologists is one example of a professional body that has raised concerns about cherry picking: “The AQPs [firms contracted on an any qualified provider basis] are coming in and obviously helping themselves to the easy stuff but leaving the difficult stuff for the NHS departments, and that is causing considerable concerns around budgets.” (Carrie MacEwen, president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, BMJ, December 2014)

Q: You have a poster about the Tories cutting health spending “to the bone”. But it has been protected. You are just scaremongering, aren’t you?

Burnham says the government has slashed spending on care. That is at the root of the NHS problems. Care cuts are effectively NHS cuts, he says.

Q: You will spend an extra £2.5bn on the NHS. You will get the money from the mansion tax and tax loopholes. But that won’t flow immediately. So where will the money come from?

Burnham says Ed Balls has said that he will bring these in with immediate effect.

Q: What is the first tax loophole you will close down?

Burnham says it is a tax loophole used by hedge funds to avoid tax.

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, is being interviewed by Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics.

Q: Why is public dissatisfaction with the NHS at a record low?

Burnham says there is lots of good treatment in the NHS. But A&E waiting times are getting worse. And that is a barometer for future problems.

Q: So why is satisfaction at is second highest level?

Burnham says the government inherited an NHS in good condition. If Neil thinks there are no problems with the NHS, he is wrong. It is heading backwards. The King’s Fund confirmed that yesterday.

Q: Do you regret the level of outsourcing under Labour. It increased twice as fast under Labour as it has under the coalition.

Burnham says it has increased under the coalition. The BMJ recently found that one in three services is going to the private sector. (See 11.36am.) That is not included in the figures David Cameron quoted on this yesterday.

Burnham says, as health secretary, he changed policy to make the NHS the preferred provider. Ed Miliband confirmed that today.

Miliband is wrapping up.

Addressing the Labour people in the audience, he says “the fight starts here”.

Q: Aren’t you scaremongering about the NHS? No one is being asked to pay.

Miliband says the Health Act was all about giving more role of the private sector. If the Tories get back in, there will be more of this. This is not the way forward, he says. He says the experts agree.

As for people having to pay, the Tory plans could lead to people either having to wait, or having to go private. That is what happened in the past, he says.

Q: Are you relaxed about fewer NHS contracts to private firms. Why not cap the involvement of private firms in the NHS?

Miliband says Andy Burnham has led on calling for an integrated service. A fragmented service cannot be an integrated service.

It is right to cap profits because the NHS should not be losing money through excess profits. This is a common sense measure. He hopes other parties will adopt it.

Q: How do you rate your performance last night?

Miliband says he will leave the “scores on the doors” to others. He valued the chance to speak directly to the people. That is what he will be doing over the next six weeks.

Miliband says he is just taking a couple of questions.

Q: Jim Murphy said today Scotland could pick the winner of the campaign. Are English voters being frozen out?

Miliband says the one way to get the Tories out is to elect a Labour government. The only coalition he is interested in is a coalition of working families.