News from Labour Matters

Conservative MP’s survey says Labour’s policies are working

A Conservative front-bencher, recently involved in a row over the use of public money for political surveys, looks set to embarrass his colleagues again after his own survey of local voters showed overwhelming support for Government action in three key policy areas. Owen Paterson recently published the results of a Conservative Party survey of his Shropshire North constituents despite the fact that they show widespread support for choice in education, satisfaction with the NHS, and measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

The Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has a history of trouble with surveys. Last month he was named as one of the Conservative MPs who used public money to pay a private firm for political work which The Times newspaper called “an apparent breach of Parliamentary rules”. Mr Paterson says that he paid over £4,800 of Commons cash to Parliamentary Liaison Services Ltd (PLS) for “annual office and research support”.

But it is his own survey which is causing interest this time. Having asked local people with children if they had “been able to secure a place for them at the school of your choice”, a whopping 81 per cent responded that they had. The positive response to the question “are you satisfied with the service provided by our local doctors and hospitals” was almost as emphatic with three-quarters saying that they were. And almost eight out of ten declared that they hadn’t been affected by anti-social behaviour locally.

A spokesperson for Labour wryly commented that “this is big gaffe I think. One has to ask, if his constituents are so satisfied with the results of Labour action, why bother changing the Government?”

The Conservatives recently attacked the Government over the cost of surveys to test public support for their policies, but in this and another local survey specifically on local healthcare provision, Mr Paterson has demonstrated that the policies are working. In a Healthcare Commission survey asking local hospital users to rate the care they received, orthopaedic care came top with a score of 92 out of 100, with 77 per cent reporting that their care was “excellent.”

“The Conservatives ran the NHS into the ground when they were in power, it’s the Labour Government’s huge investment in healthcare over the last eleven years which has turned things around. Whilst we’re grateful to Mr Paterson for publicising these local surveys, he and his party can claim little credit,” said a Labour spokesperson.