Anger over winter deaths 'shame'

The elderly are treated poorly, says Mr Kennedy

Liberal Democrats' Leader Charles Kennedy has launched a stinging attack the government for its treatment of pensioners, the NHS and the university admissions row.

Mr Kennedy told ministers they should be "absolutely ashamed" by the fact that 50,000 elderly people were killed by the cold in the winter of 1998-99.

If you want a better health service, we as a country are going to have to be prepared to dig deeper into our pockets to provide it

Charles Kennedy

He accused the government of "gesture politics of the worst kind".

The party leader spoke out as he opened a Liberal Democrat-led Commons debate on equal opportunities.

In this respect, ministers had failed pensioners, school pupils, university students, National Health Service patients and staff, he said.

On the universities issue, Mr Kennedy attacked the chancellor for trying to make general criticisms of the admissions system from the circumstances of just one case, that of Laura Spence, a state-school pupil denied a place at Oxford despite outstanding grades.

'National disgrace'

"It is gesture politics of the worst kind. What does matter is reality and a lot of what the government is talking about ... is not in fact what real life is about."

He said Scottish students' applications were up while those from English and Welsh students were down because of tuition fees.

On the NHS, Mr Kennedy said staff felt "considerable disillusion" at the state of the service.

Charles Kennedy accuses ministers of gesture politics

"If you want a better health service, we as a country are going to have to be prepared to dig deeper into our pockets to provide it and that should be where the political priority lies."

Lifelong Learning Minister Malcolm Wicks insisted the government was tackling the problem of elderly people's deaths by getting more money to the poorest pensioners.

And he condemned the deaths of thousands of elderly people from the effects of cold weather in winter each year as a "national disgrace".

Ministers were doing their utmost to address the "appalling" problem, he said.

Mr Wicks said the government was spending an extra £6.5bn on pensioners during the life of the parliament - £2.5bn more than if it had simply restored the link between pensions and earnings.