Tory critics of Cameron lead battle to chair overall health decide on committee

Tory MP Sarah Wollaston has spoken out against components of the reorganisation of the NHS. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

Two fiercely independent female Tory MPs who have been strongly vital of David Cameron above factors of NHS policy will do battle this week to chair the potent Commons overall health choose committee in a close contest that is currently being watched nervously by ministers.

Outspoken former GP Sarah Wollaston and MP for Bristol North West, Charlotte Leslie, have both rallied strong cross-party assistance, pledging to champion patients’ interests, rather than be in the pocket of government or the healthcare profession.

The election of a fearless Tory MP prepared take on ministers where necessary and hold the NHS to account, is an uncomfortable prospect for Cameron in the runup to a common election in which Labour desires to make the well being support a central problem.

On the eve of hustings in the Commons on Monday, Leslie stepped up efforts to win backing from Labour and Lib Dem as effectively as Tory colleagues, by tearing into Cameron and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for refusing to fire former NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson, and for allowing him to retire early with a “excess fat pension” following the Mid-Staffs care scandal.

“I believe Cameron and Hunt had been definitely wrong not firing Nicholson or forcing him out,” she advised the Observer. “And I am horrified that he was permitted to retire early with such a large pension (£110,000 a year).”

Among 400 and 1,200 individuals died needlessly at Stafford hospital from 2005 and 2009 as a outcome of appalling care. Leslie also criticised a culture of cover-up in the NHS. “We have had sufficient words. If we want modify, we need to start off implementing some correct disincentives for managers to lie, with total force of the legal method.”

Three other Conservative MPs – former cabinet minister Caroline Spelman, former GP Phillip Lee and David Tredinnick, a keen supporter of alternative medicine, have joined the race to realize success former health secretary Stephen Dorrell, who recently announced he was stepping down as chairman.

Right after the 2010 basic election, the system for selecting select committee chairmen and women was taken out of the gift of get together whips and handed to backbench MPs, who jealously guard their new power, seeing the elections as a chance to express their authority above party hierachies.

Beneath a sharing deal agreed for this parliament, the health committee job is reserved for a Conservative but anybody regarded as a mere government loyalist is unlikely to progress in the race.

Wollaston, the MP for Totnes, is regarded by most MPs as the narrow favourite, possessing brought her expertise of the NHS into parliament and shown herself ready to speak out towards aspects of government NHS reforms she thinks had been unwell-conceived.

She has also criticised the way backbench MPs, especially women, have been locked out of decision making – even when they have personal knowledge of policy places, such as hers in the NHS – and has known as for an end to “posh, male and white” cliques about the leader.

Wollaston has described elements of the authentic NHS reorganisation pushed by former health secretary Andrew Lansley as “fully unrealistic” and “doomed to fail” in terms that infuriated Downing St.

Some senior Tories are attempting to paint Wollaston as “Labour’s candidate” – a move her supporters declare is a clear try to harm her campaign, and misrepresents her backing across the events.

Dr Lee is calling for the committee to be utilised as a cross-party forum in which to produce a consensus on how to accomplish reform of the NHS. He says the political cycle does not permit politicians to strategy for the lengthy term.

Tory critics of Cameron lead battle to chair overall health decide on committee