In his speech to Party Conference today, David Cameron will move to soothe voter anxieties about the Conservative commitment to the NHS by pledging to protect the NHS budget in real terms.
He will also sum up his vision for a further five years of Conservatives in government by saying that his goal is “to make Britain a country that everyone is proud to call home”.
On the health service, he will again issue a reminder of his own family experience of the health service by referring to the life and death of his disabled son, Ivan.
“I understand very personally the difference it could make,” he will say. “When you have a child who’s so ill and the doctors can’t work out what he’s got or why – you’d give anything to know.
“The investment we’re making will mean that more parents have those answers – and hopefully the cures that go with them.”
“The next Conservative Government will protect the NHS budget and continue to invest more. Because we know this truth…you only have a strong NHS if you have a strong economy.”
On a future second term in Downing Street, he will say that “I didn’t come into politics to make the lines on the graph go in the right direction. I want to help you live a better life.”
“And it comes back to those things that I believe. A Britain that everyone is proud to call home is a Britain where hard work is really rewarded.”
“Not a free-for-all, but a chance for all. The chance of a job, a home, a good start in life – whoever you are, wherever you come from.”
He will say that a second term will be about “you and your family…The past four years have been about laying the foundations for that Britain. The next five will be about finishing the job.”
Today’s NHS budget commitment also seeks to head off the attack that Labour launched over healthcare at its own conference last week.
It follows a pledge by the Prime Minister earlier this week to give everyone access to a family doctor seven days a week by the end of the decade,
He will say today that “from the country that unravelled DNA, we are now mapping it for each individual. Cracking this code could mean curing rare genetic diseases and saving lives.”