Burnham or Lansley - who would you believe?

It's been revealed that former health secretary, Andrew Lansley, received a letter from a grieving parent, whose baby son had died from an infection at Furness General Hospital. 

“In order to save lives in the NHS and react more quickly when things go wrong, it is clear to me the system in place at the moment needs to change.  I hope you agree that stories such as Joshua’s demonstrate why the NHS must continue to improve the effectiveness of regulation of the NHS.” wrote the infant's father, back on June 4th, 2010.

In an attempt to deflect criticism away from Andrew Lansley, Tories have come out claiming Labour health secretary, Andy Burnham "lent on" Care Quality Commission (CQC) staff to suppress information, so that Morecambe Bay NHS Trust could be given a clean bill of health in 2010, the period leading up to the general election, despite a series of deaths of mothers and babies.

Andy Burnham denies any involvement in a cover up, and in his response states,
"When I was appointed in June 2009, one of my first decisions was to appoint Robert Francis QC to conduct an independent inquiry into what went wrong at Stafford.  Separately, the Department raised concerns with me about the effectiveness of CQC and I began taking steps to deal with it. In late 2009, when problems emerged unexpectedly at Basildon and Thurrock Hospital, it became clear to me that an in-depth look at all hospitals in England was needed so that all problems could be flushed out, action taken and reassurance given to the public," concluding, "far from covering up any problems at hospitals in the pre-election period, I hope you can now see how was actively working to identify them."

Andy Burnham is a politician who tends to be held in high regard, specifically because of his ability to empathise with the feelings of ordinary people, such as at the 20th anniversary memorial service for victims of the Hillsborough disaster.  He was visibly moved by fans shouting their disgust at successive governments failing to investigate what really went on that day, and then breaking out into unified song, afterwards he called for full disclosure of all unseen files relating to that day, a move previously ruled out by former Home Secretary, Jack Straw and the previous Tory government.

Andrew Lansley, on the other hand, far from trying to convince anyone he's in touch with the concerns of the public, tends to be known for his enthusiasm for breaking up the NHS while he was secretary of state for health.

The mainstream media are bound to play this out their own favoured pro-Tory way.  But it comes down to this  simple question really - Burnham or Lansley - who would you believe?

Update:  Watch Andy Burnham's brilliant interview on Sky News here: http://news.sky.com/story/1107123/nhs-cover-up-burnham-denies-pressuring-cqc  He came out on a Sunday morning to defend his record and his integrity and to once again ask that the government publish the NHS Risk Register!

He also gave an interview on Radio 4.

At the time of writing, Sky News, BBC News etc, seem reluctant to talk to Andrew Lansley, who was contacted about these concerns back in June 2010 and it's been reported that Mr Lansley is reluctant to go before the media at this time.

You have to ask why the mainstream media is attacking Andy Burnham and giving the Tories no criticism at all.  I think this is because they fear this story involving the NHS, has the power to inflict a mortal wound on Cameron's government, and the mainstream media do not want to enhance Labour's chances of election success in 2015, in my personal view.

Keep posting your views on this, keep this particular story very much alive on Twitter.  And keep asking,

"Where's Andrew Lansley?!!!"