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David Cameron has defended his plans to reform the police and the NHS at prime minister’s questions today.
Labour leader Ed Miliband asked how much it will cost to change the date of elections for new police commissioners in England and Wales from May next year to November.
Cameron said the switch would cost £25m, but the money will not be taken from police budgets.
Miliband said the change makes a bad policy worse, and suggested the elections could have been put off until May 2013, coinciding with local elections.
Cameron said it is important to get the policy right, and claimed Labour are "frightened" of an election and afraid of "proper police accountability".
Miliband said Cameron has the wrong priorities, and spending £100m on police commissioners, who will be paid £120,000, while cutting police numbers by 16,000.
Cameron said the abolition of police authorities will save money, and former prime minister Gordon Brown was in favour of elected commissioners.
Miliband then turned to the NHS. He said waiting times for operations are up 60 per cent since the coalition government took office.
Cameron replied that more patients are being treated and his reforms will mean more doctors and fewer bureaucrats.
He told the House that waiting times have fallen since the last election.
Miliband said people are waiting longer, with those waiting more than six months up 42 per cent.
Cameron said the wait for outpatient operations has fallen and the target is being met. He added that GPs and nurses back his reforms and accused Labour of opposing all reform and the extra funding for the NHS.
Miliband said the BMA, midwives and Royal College of GPs have all rejected the reforms and called on the prime minister to scrap his "reckless and needless" reforms of the NHS and police.
Cameron said Miliband "does not dare mention the economy". He said Lord Darzai, a health minister under Labour, has welcomed the reforms of the NHS.
"People who work in the NHS support our changes," he told MPs.
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