Thatcher ‘no’ to £1bn plea

The Prime Minister yesterday rejected the demand of a Commons committee for an extra £1 billion for the health service over the next two years.

In a letter to Mr Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, she reiterated the assertion of Mr John Moore, the Secretary of State for Social Services, that the £1 billion figure cited by the Conservative-controlled social services committee was arbitrary.

Mrs Margaret Thatcher said there was no analysis to underpin the committee's suggestions about the use to which the money might be put, nor any assessment of what that level of investment might be expected to achieve.

Mrs Thatcher said the committee's call for an immediate injection of £95 million to compensate for underfunding on pay and price inflation this year failed to take account of the £75 million injected in December.

The Prime Minister's response came as the union representing Britain's 30,000 midwives said they may be balloted on whether to lift their no-strike ban after growing unrest over pay and underfunding in the health service.

The move, coming in the wake of a decision by the Royal College of Nursing to ballot its members on its no-strike clause, was disclosed as 300 midwives from all over the country attended a rally in London.

The rally, calling for better pay and more responsibility for midwives, was held by the Royal College of Midwives at the Commonwealth Institute in west London.

Launching a month-long campaign the college said that thousands of mothers had signed petitions which would be be presented to health ministers. Rallies will also be staged in Birmingham and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Miss Ruth Ashton, the union's general secretary, emphasized that there was an increasing use of unqualified staff and a shortage of special baby-care units.

The college meeting foreshadowed today's TUC rally in Hyde Park Corner, which is expected to be attended by tens of thousands of health workers and trade union members.

One hundred nurses and ancillary workers will lead a march, starting at midday, from Victoria, holding a banner emblazoned with the words, “Save your health services” .