Wanless inquiry 'an excuse for tax rises'

The Tories accused Gordon Brown yesterday of planning to use a new inquiry into the National Health Service as an excuse for a further rise in tax.

Liam Fox, the shadow Health Secretary, seized on a report in The Independent that the Treasury had asked Derek Wanless, a former chief executive of NatWest, to update his report on health service funding.

His review last year paved the way for Mr Brown to pump an extra £40bn into the health budget over five years, paid for partly by the penny-in-the-pound rise in national insurance contributions that took effect this month.

Dr Fox told BBC Radio 4: "It looks as though the NHS is going to be the excuse that the Chancellor uses in the future to tax us even more heavily ... There is a major black hole in the public finances and the taxpayers are being asked to pay for the Chancellor's mistakes."

He claimed the NHS remained "fundamentally unreformed" despite a pledge by Mr Brown that his money would be accompanied by change.

A Treasury spokesman said: "The Wanless report recommended more resources combined with reform. We have delivered the biggest ever increase in health spending and the Government has begun to implement reforms. This [the new report] is to check that the reforms are on track."

Paul Boateng, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, hit back at Dr Fox, saying: "The Conservatives are the only people who think that you reform the NHS by cutting it. They are committed to cutting public spending across the board by 20 per cent – including the NHS."