Tory tape fuels NHS funds row

A row over NHS funding erupted today as the Tories accused Labour of a dirty tricks campaign.

In a leaked tape recording of a private meeting, Tory health spokesman Dr Liam Fox floated plans for more patients to pay for their own healthcare.

Labour seized on the tape as evidence that the Tories want to scrap the NHS as a tax-funded service free for all users.

But the Conservatives said they were still drawing up their health policy with greater use of health insurance and self-funded care. In the recording, Dr Fox briefed Torysupporting doctors about his ideas.

He set out a plan to convince voters that the NHS cannot carry on as a monopoly healthcare provider, funded solely from the public purse.

Dr Fox said: "We have got a problem in this country where the NHS and healthcare have been synonymous. We're here to break that. That means we get money, raise money from people through tax, certainly by health insurance and even more so it means from self-pay.

"The big growth market in the United Kingdom is people paying from their own savings."

Tory chiefs refused to confirm the authenticity of the recording, which was leaked to a red-top tabloid.

It came as Chancellor Gordon Brown prepared to unveil tax rises in next week's Budget, with the extra cash intended to deliver on Labour's promise of a better NHS.