Labour will make the NHS a key theme of the campaign to retain the Heywood and Middleton seat left by the death of Jim Dobbin earlier this month.
The party opened their campaign office this week with candidate Liz McInnes joined by Gloria De Piero, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, and Jonathan Ashworth, one of the co-ordinators of the party’s campaign for next year’s General Election, and himself the victor of a by-election in Leicester in 2011.
Ms McInnes used a speech to the Labour Party Conference in Manchester to blame the Government’s reforms to the health service for a rise in waiting times for seeing GPs.
She told Conference delegates that 23,000 people in the constituency, which covers the west of Rochdale as well as the towns of Heywood and Middleton, had had to wait longer than a week to see Doctors.
“I know that this party will fight to the end to defend the NHS. Unlike the out of touch Tories, we know the pain, worry, and concern caused when people have to wait too long for a Doctor’s appointment,’ she said.
“The choice is clear, a Tory Party who have implemented a top-down reorganisation which has led to more cuts, fewer services, and greater privatization or a Labour Party that will defend, protect and support our NHS, recruiting 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 more homecare workers, and 3,000 more midwives.”
Labour Leader Ed Miliband had earlier used his Conference speech to say that a Labour Government would spend more money on staff for the NHS which would be raised largely from a proposed ‘mansion tax’ on homes costing over £2 million.
Saying that the NHS was ‘under attack’ nationwide, Ms McInnes added that voters in the constituency had expressed concerns about services at hospitals in the area including Rochdale Infirmary and North Manchester General.
Ms McInnes was also keen to stressed her knowledge of the NHS, having worked for the health service for 30 years as a scientist specialising in healthcare.
Despite the focus on the Conservatives, Labour’s main opposition in the seat is likely to come from UKIP whose party leader visited the seat to campaign last week, telling Mancunian Matters UKIP was primed to replace Labour in Greater Manchester, with their ‘man of the people’ candidate, Cheshire businessman John Bickley.
The Conservatives have chosen Iain Gartside, a Conservative councillor in Bury who works as a financial adviser as their candidate, while the Liberal Democrats have selected Anthony Smith, an IT Director for a local company.
The Green Party’s Abi Jackson, a postgraduate student studying Psychology and Counselling, completes the field of five.
