Dawn Primarolo MP, Labour's Health Minister, said:

"On a day when the Tories are talking about responsibility in public spending, it's astonishing that they have produced a new unfunded £1.57bn spending commitment on single rooms in NHS hospitals.

"And in a major u-turn, after running campaigns against local clinically-led service changes, the Tories have now dropped their commitment to oppose all reconfigurations of A&E and maternity services. Having realised their mistake in opposing the Darzi review, the Tories are trying to catch up with the lead Labour has set on the NHS, but they can't sound convincing.

"They still want to scrap Labour's guarantees that suspected cancer patients wait no more than two weeks to see a specialist and start treatment within a month of diagnosis, that nobody waits more than 18 weeks for their operation, and that nobody waits more than four hours in A&E.

"Their plans to make it harder for people to see their GP in the evenings and at weekends show that the Tories still aren't on the side of patients."