Labour revives famous Tory attack ad to claim dentistry isn’t working
The Labour Party has repurposed the “Labour Isn’t Working” Tory attack ad to criticise the Conservative party over its record on dentistry.
Saatchi & Saatchi designed a famous poster for the Tory Party ahead of the 1979 general election, which saw Margaret Thatcher run against Labour prime minister James Callaghan.
Playing on the Government’s record on unemployment, the poster showed a snaking queue of people waiting to collect government benefits outside an unemployment office, beneath the phrase “Labour Isn’t Working”.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party this week revived and repurposed the ad design, instead showing the lengthy queue outside St Paul’s Dental Practice in Bristol.
Police were forced to intervene on Monday afternoon to send people home after hundreds lined the pavements to wait to sign up for the new practice. Hundreds queued again on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, unveiled the new Labour attack ad featuring the queue, with the heading: “Dentistry Isn’t Working”.
It comes as a row is emerging between the two parties over the Government’s newly unveiled dentistry policy, with Mr Streeting claiming that much of it had been “lifted” from Labour’s plans.
Dentists will be paid ‘golden hellos’ worth £20,000 to move to rural areas where there is a shortage of NHS appointments and specialist dental vans will be dispatched to in-need areas.
Roving dental teams will work in schools and nurseries and there will also be a new Smile For Life initiative to encourage healthy tooth-brushing habits.
Labour’s plan proposed that supervised tooth-brushing be introduced in schools for children aged three to five.
Mr Streeting, speaking outside St Paul’s Dental Practice, said: “What the Government’s announced today, much of which has been lifted from what Labour has announced as an emergency dental rescue package, will go some way to plugging the immediate shortfall.
“But what it doesn’t do, and what the dentists are crying out for, is reform of the dentist contract so we can recruit and retain the NHS dentists we need.”
But when asked about claims of similarities between the two policies, Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, insisted they were “really different”.
She told Times Radio: “I’m so glad you brought that up, because Labour seems to think that no parent can be trusted to brush their children’s teeth.
“We do not take that approach. We say the overwhelming majority of parents do a great job looking after their children.”
