On 30 April 1946, the then Minister for Health and Housing, Nye Bevan, sat down to a rapturous reception from Labour MPs after a rousing speech in favour of the National Health Service Bill. Bevan had opened the debate on the Bill’s second reading in the House of Commons with one of his finest performances, displaying a strong grasp of detail and setting out a clear vision.

He spoke for over an hour, dealing comprehensively with questions from MPs, before reaching an inspiring peroration: “I believe it will lift the shadow from millions of homes. It will keep very many people alive who might otherwise be dead. It will relieve suffering. It will produce higher standards for the medical profession. It will be a great contribution towards the wellbeing of the common people of Great Britain.”

Jeremy Hunt asked why nurses are having to go to food banks

Richard Law responded for the Conservative opposition in strident, partisan style, striking directly at Bevan himself: “The right hon. Gentleman the Minister of Health has received an ovation from the Benches behind him for a speech as eloquent, as unconvincing, and as disingenuous as any I have ever heard from him.” A few days later, when the debate concluded on 2 May, Tories voted against the Bill, which passed by 359 votes to 172.

In these circumstances, it took a special degree of audacity for the current Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, to try to steal the credit for creating the National Health Service for the Conservative Party at its annual conference.

Citing the NHS’s forthcoming 70th birthday in 2018, a video played behind Hunt on the platform before he declared: “Nye Bevan deserves credit for founding the NHS in 1948. But that [the person in the video] wasn’t him or indeed any other Labour minister. That was the Conservative Health Minister in 1944, Sir Henry Willink, whose white paper announced the setting up of the NHS. He did it with cross-party support.”

Sir William Beveridge’s scheme of post-war reconstruction had included an assumption that there would be a “national health service for prevention and comprehensive treatment” available to all; this was the idea around which Willink constructed his White Paper. However, the form of Bevan’s National Health Service, introduced four years later, was very different.

Willink would have left voluntary and local-authority hospitals with existing owners; Bevan nationalised the hospitals. To deny this, and to downplay what Bevan achieved between 1945 and 1948 is no more than a naked political attempt by the modern-day Conservative Party to rewrite history to try to hide their error of opposing the creation of the NHS in Parliament.

It was Bevan who piloted the National Health Service Bill through the House of Commons with opposition from the Tories at every turn. In the Cabinet, Herbert Morrison, who, as Leader of the London County Council, had run a successful city-wide health system, had challenged Bevan on his hospital ownership proposals.

In spite of this, Bevan persuaded his government colleagues to nationalise the hospitals to ensure central government responsibility for healthcare and to institutionalise a universal standard of care across the land. It was Bevan, with his drive, determination and tenacity, who spent the best part of 18 months up until the service came into operation, on 5 July 1948, in painstaking negotiations with the medical profession to ensure that doctors participated in the new service to make it work.

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Show all 6 1 /6 Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves The elderly “We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population,” Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs Jeremy Hunt has called for a “honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments”, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4’s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called “very serious problems at some hospitals” by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunt’s plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Simon Stevens, head of NHS England Reports that “key members” of Ms May’s team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Previous health policy, not funding In an interview with Sky News’s Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been “ducked by government over the years”. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a “humanitarian crisis” and said health funding was at record levels. “We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need,” said the Prime Minister. “They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required… Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in.” But doctors accused Ms May of being “in denial” about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise – introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 2000 – should only be for “those who actually need it”. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had “less stringent” rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis – except themselves No one Mr Hunt was accused of “hiding” from the public eye following news of the Red Cross’s comments and didn’t make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying “the public will want to know, Mr Hunt”. “Sorry Beth, I’ve answered questions about this already,” replied Mr Hunt. “But you didn’t answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didn’t want to water it down. Is that what you’re saying?” said Ms Rigby. “It’s very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then won’t answer the question, Mr Hunt”. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in. Getty

Bevan’s achievement changed the national debate on social security. He made healthcare a right that British people could come to expect, based on need, not wealth, and not a commodity only available to a privileged few.

Considering, in contrast, the Tory-Liberal Democrat Coalition’s 2012 Health and Social Care Act, with its section on “competition” in healthcare, and the fragmentation of the modern-day NHS that it has caused in England, no wonder Jeremy Hunt wants to re-write the great Nye Bevan’s part in our history.