Editor's blog Tuesday 7 June 2011: PoliticsHome polling shows Conservative Party distrusted in NHS reform

None of the main three Westminster parties can take immense comfort from the PoliticsHome polling on NHS reform. The full dataset is available here.

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For Labour, it is unsurprising yet still underwhelming that "by 53% to 9%, respondents agreed that 'the Labour Party have not come forward with a viable alternative to the government's NHS reform proposals', including Labour supporters by 31% to 21% ". It is, of course, harder to be heard in the early days of opposition, and health policy is arcane and complicated. It's time to develop some of the 'proposition' stuff, that needs to go alongside opposition stuff.

The Lib Dem position is interesting. The study has found that "by 70% to 8%, voters see the NHS reforms as rushed, and that the 'government should wait as long as it takes to give the plans proper scrutiny' ... a plurality believed the Liberal Democrats were bringing changes to the NHS bill because they were genuinely interested in protecting the NHS, 32% to 23%. A similar number (35% to 23%) felt that they were ensuring the Conservatives weren’t able to do whatever they wanted on the reforms – interestingly slightly more people who recalled voting Conservative in 2010 agreed with this (44%) than voted Liberal Democrat (39%), though 57% of those still sticking with the Lib Dems agreed".

There is scant support for the idea of local counciillors on commissioning consortia boards, opposed by 52% to 19%, including among Lib Dem supporters by 50% to 22.

The Conservatives also face uncomfortable truths: the study finds that those surveyed responded to the idea that " 'deep down, the Conservatives want to fully privatise the NHS', they agreed 59% to 21%. Although it was felt that the party did at least think the NHS should be free at the point use, 38% to 26% (a further 37% didn’t know or were indifferent)".

The study adds, "A large plurality, 45% to 23%, believe that 'any changes the Conservatives make to the NHS will be motivated by a desire to help business rather than patients'. Even 16% of those who recall having voted for the party in 2010 believe this is true".

The article judges that "this points to the failure of David Cameron to truly detoxify his party on healthcare". Many other organisations will be doing similar polls on NHS trustworthiness. A trend will be emerging, one way or another.