Ed Miliband Taken To Task Over Mum's NHS Death

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Friday 24th April 2015

Ed Miliband was taken to task by a woman whose mother died under a Labour-run NHS.

Claire in Manchester was furious that Labour claim to be the party of the NHS, when "systemic" failures left her mother dying in agony.

Speaking to the Labour leader on LBC's election call, she said: "I think it was systemic, I don't think it was one or any case. Inaccuracy, denial, lack of transparency, that's my personal experience watching her die in agony.

"That's irrespective of all the other scandals that have come out, like the Staffs Hospital.

"I actually find it physically repulsive when I get documentation coming through my front door about Labour being the party of the NHS. 

"She suffered totally avoidable, agonising suffering. Labour had been in for the best part of 13 years when she died. Totally inadequate weekend staffing, routine operations prioritised over emergency operations, a total denial of inadequacy.

"Staff totally in fear and unable to whistleblow. Totally poor co-ordination of resources.

"Her death was horrific and I have to live with that every day."

Mr Miliband responded: "We've got a plan for the NHS, but that's not going to help you. I know that's not going to satisfy you.

"I suppose one question I've got for you is - it sounds like an appalling event's happened - was there a system in place to at least get some kind of ability for you to find out what happened, why it went wrong, lessons to be learnt?

"If anything goes wrong in our NHS as it obviously has in your Mum's case, I think the best thing I can say is there have got to be systems where we understand why it went wrong and what we can do to put it right and prevent it happening in the future."

Claire admitted she was frustrated by Labour's refusal to take the blame, stating: "One of the hardesh things for me has been the total denial of Labour about what went wrong.

"I've spoken to my prospective parliamentary Labour candidate and he put the phone down on me because he obviously couldn't answer the question, he just didn't know what to say."

Mr Miliband said: "Well, I won't put the phone down on you Claire," as he offered to speak to her after the show to find out the exact details of the case.

But Claire continued: "Why were those circumstances allowed to happen? You pride yourself being the party of the NHS through the ages.

"Why during 13 years did you let the NHS descend to such a level?"

Matthew Holehouse, the Political Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, said it was the first moment during the election campaign that a leader had been challenged by a voter. He tweeted: 

First proper voter-leader clash of the election: Miliband savaged by grieving daughter who says Labour claims on NHS "physically repulsive"

— Matthew Holehouse (@mattholehouse) April 24, 2015

And LBC pundit Tim Montgomerie said he felt the Labour leader dealt with the call very well.

Confident, warm, relaxed Ed Miliband on #CallMiliband - no clangers - handled difficult NHS call well

— Tim Montgomerie ن (@montie) April 24, 2015

Ed Miliband: Live On LBC - Watch In Full