Today’s Guardian lays bare the opportunities for the Liberal Democrats at the local elections because of the failure of the Government to settle nurses’ and junior doctors’ pay claims.
Campaigners in the so-called blue wall seats – where affluent, liberal Tory voters have been drifting away from the party – have already reported their surprise at finding that the NHS has emerged as the main concern on the doorstep rather than more familiar issues in the seats, such as tax cuts.
“The NHS is the most salient issue on the doorstep for 2019 Tory voters, and now their failure to manage it will be on the front of newspapers day in, day out,” said a senior Lib Dem source. “My personal view is that the reason they keep going for immigration/asylum seekers is that they basically think anything is better than the story being the NHS.”
There is no sign that public support for the nurses and doctors is waning. It helps that that their union leaders, including the RCN’s Pat Cullen who has given a very good interview on Laura Kuenssberg, are calm, articulate and persuasive. It’s a far cry from the angry union firebrands of the 70s and 80s.
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