Introductory remarks by Tony Blair, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, at a press conference on the NHS in Birmingham.

"This morning we continue Labour's campaign on the NHS.

Now is the time for Britain to move forward with a better NHS, expanded, improved and reformed.

And as we face the challenges of this new century, we must now add a new ambition for the NHS. For most of its life, though called the National Health Service, it has been in fact a National Sickness Service.

I want to create a genuine national health service with services that help individuals, families, children and pensioners to keep fit and well, not just a sickness service treating people when they are ill.

I am not talking about a policy which forces people to do things they don't want to do but a policy which goes with the grain of the health choices people are making for themselves.

At the heart of our programme is the health of our children.

We are providing the resources necessary to ensure that by the end of the next Parliament all school children have access to a school nurse.

To improve the diet of our country's children we will raise the quality of school meals, remove fatty and salty foods from the menu and introduce tough new nutritional standards.

To help busy mums and dads make informed choices about food we will introduce clearer labelling and restrict advertising of unhealthy food to kids.

To improve the fitness of our country's children we will invest in new sports facilities in schools and guarantee at least two hours sport a week, and expand wider school activities.

We will bring in new measures to deal with bullying and poor discipline.

We will increase maternity pay, give fathers more opportunities to spend time with their children, and increase nursery provision.

Parents, not governments, bring up children. Government's job is not to make choices for people. But to help people make informed choices for themselves.

This is Labour's new social contract: we help you; you help yourself; your family benefits and the country benefits.

For us, every child matters.

For us, every family is important.

For us, government's duty is to deliver opportunity and security for all in this fast changing world; to help hard working families and pensioners keep themselves fit and healthy; to live the full and fulfilling lives they choose, with the government on their side, not on their back.

If we win a third term the combination of investment and radical reform can make the NHS stronger than ever and equip it for new challenges. We believe that the founding principle of the NHS - treatment according to need rather than ability to pay - is more relevant and more precious now than ever before.

But in this election the NHS is under threat. The Tory patients' passport plan would effectively end the principle of treatment according to need and replace it with treatment according to wealth.

The Conservatives have denied that their policy means charges in the NHS or an attack on its values. But people need to be clear about this. Under their plans, they would take £1.2 billion out of the NHS to help the privileged few jump the queue. That NHS money would be given in vouchers for private treatment. To cash in the vouchers you have to pay a charge. That is the reality of the Conservative policy.

So under their proposals there will be two classes of NHS patient. The first class of NHS patients will be offered fast track private treatment as long as they are willing to pay an additional charge on top of the value of their NHS voucher. And a second class of NHS patients - those who cannot afford thousands of pounds to pay for private treatment - who will have to wait longer for a service that will remain free: one slower route without an additional charge, one faster route with a charge. A policy in which the many subsidise the few.

Mr Howard has asked us to withdraw the allegation about charges. We will not. It is his policy, not ours, and if he is embarrassed by it, it is up to him to withdraw the policy.

He also wants us to withdraw the allegation that a Tory government would cut £35 billion from Labour's forward programme for the country's public services. We will not. Tory cuts are not a Labour allegation. They are a Tory promise.

We will not be withdrawing a single one of our claims about Conservative policy on cuts and charges. Mr Howard has made his policy bed, and he has to lie in it, and we will expose the reality of his cuts and charges plans between now and polling day.

And to people who want to know more about our plans and values for the NHS, and about theirs, I urge them to watch our election broadcast tonight.

New Labour is driven by our values.

If you value the fairer, healthier, more prosperous, more progressive Britain we are trying to build. Then come out and vote for it on May 5th."

labour