In Defence of Andrew Lansley

Shed a tear for Andrew Lansley. Genuinely, do.


This is not a blog post about the current Health and Social Care Bill going through Parliament - that is a weighty topic with many considerations - but about the man who is responsible for it. 


In the past few days, the self-proclaimed voice of the conservative grassroots ConservativeHome have published two articles; one calling for the Bill to be dropped, the other calling for Lansley to be. The war of words between Lansley's supporters and his new critics has become increasingly bitter. And increasingly unfair on the man caught in the cross-fire.


Nobody doubts Andrew Lansley's passion for the NHS (those who do treat their politics too cynically and have misread the situation entirely, in my opinion). The NHS is part of Andrew Lansley's lifeblood. From its inception in 1948, his dad worked in the NHS. His first wife was a doctor. In 1992, he suffered a stroke and experienced the NHS firsthand. And upon joining Parliament as the MP for South Cambridgeshire in 1997, he immediately became a member of the Health Select Committee. His exposure to and interest in the NHS and the people who work in it has been second to none amongst many Parliamentarians.


He's also been thinking about the future of the Health Service, and how he could be the man to deliver it, since 2004. He's held the Health brief for his party longer than Cameron has been leader, Osborne has been Chancellor/Shadow Chancellor and even before Cabinet Ministers like Michael Gove were in Parliament. Lansley is a man committed to his brief. And this has been recognised by the Labour Party. Despite his current criticisms, Andy Burnham has said in the past (I cannot find the source, so I paraphrase) "nobody cares more about the future of our NHS than Andrew Lansley." He's right; nobody does.


But things have gone wrong for Lansley recently. What is increasingly clear is that he is not the best communicator of the policies he is aiming to introduce (although public sector reform can be so complex it is difficult to articulate effectively without cheapening it). But this is not sufficient for having him "taken outside and shot." The ability to communicate effectively, whilst important, must be second to a politician's ability to get the right policies in place.


The current Conservative infighting about Andrew Lansley should come to an end. There are lessons to be learnt from this past week (for example, other Cabinet ministers should be out there making the case for NHS reform, too). But he must now be left to get on with the job he's trained so long to do. To do otherwise, and waste so much knowledge, interest and passion would be a sad day for the Cabinet, for British politics and, most importantly, for our NHS.