Labour and the Conservatives clashed over health and education yesterday as the future of public services dominated the British general election campaign.
The Prime Minister, Mr Blair, promised to campaign "day after day" on health and education and accused the Conservatives of having "virtually nothing to say" on the issues. But the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, hit back, insisting he was not avoiding a discussion on public services. He accused Labour of reducing morale among public sector workers "to the lowest we have seen it in a generation".
Rather than be drawn into a clash on Tory claims of European tax harmonisation, Mr Blair highlighted the "central dividing line" between Labour's commitment to invest in public services and what he said were Tory plans to cut public spending to finance tax reductions. Chairing a press conference with the Health Secretary, Mr Alan Milburn, who promised that by 2005 a further 140,000 hip, knee and hernia operations would be completed, Mr Blair accused the Tories of staying silent on public services.
He asked: "How can any party that has moved so far from the central concerns of the British people, so far from the centre ground, lay any reasonable claim to be the government of the day?" Mr Hague said the Conservatives would match Labour's spending commitments on public services and he accused Mr Blair of "plucking a number out of the air" when he made pledges to increase the numbers of nurses and doctors.
"Rather than setting an arbitrary target," he said, "what we should be doing is things that encourage people to stay in the health service."
The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, said 5,000 extra nurses and teachers would be recruited if his party won the election.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that several trade unions are rallying support among their members against the increased role for the private sector in delivering public services planned during a second Labour term.
In a move which will alarm Mr Blair, who has spoken repeatedly of his vision of a modernised public sector in partnership with private finance, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Fire Brigades Union are testing the strength of anti-Labour feeling among members on key areas of government policy.
TUC executives met this week to express their concern over private sector involvement in public services and the Labour-affiliated FBU recently voted, against the advice of its leadership, to support candidates and organisations "who stand in opposition to New Labour".
The union is also unhappy with the role of private finance and the endorsement of the former Tory MP, Mr Shaun Woodward, as a Labour candidate in St Helens.
Moreover, the Royal College of Nursing has said there is "no evidence" that private management will improve the health service.