Row over Labour's decision to use a hospital to launch manifesto

Apr 13 2010 by Jonathan Walker, Birmingham Mail

GORDON Brown chose Birmingham’s new £547 million superhospital to launch his bid for a fourth term – and immediately found himself under fire for “exploiting” the NHS.

Labour’s manifesto was launched in the new state-of-the-art facilities of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston, a key marginal constituency where Labour and the Conservatives are fighting tooth and nail.

It gave the Prime Minister a chance to highlight his commitment to the NHS – and the improvements he claimed a Labour government had made.

The precise location of the manifesto launch had been a closely guarded secret, but Conservatives launched furious protests as details began to emerge yesterday.

As Mr Brown was due to speak, the accused him of breaking NHS rules by holding a political event in an NHS hospital.

But when he was challenged, Mr Brown shrugged of the complaint – pointing out that the building had not formally opened as a hospital and was still under the control of a construction firm responsible for building it. In his speech to Labour activists to launch the manifesto Mr Brown said: “For those who say that the promises made at election time never come to pass – I say just look around you at this building, a new acute NHS hospital that will open within weeks.”

Challenged on whether he had broken NHS rules, he insisted the Conservatives were merely “complaining” because Labour had found a “wonderful building” to stage the launch.

“This is a building that is held by the construction firm, that will be passed on to the NHS in the next few weeks,” Mr Brown said.

Conservative Shadow Health Minister Andrew Lansley said: “Labour have exploited a loophole in the law so that they can exploit the NHS, which is supposed to serve everyone in the country not serve as a prop for Gordon Brown.”