Bit of a slip by Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, in the Commons on Wednesday. As the Tory opened an Opposition day debate on the NHS, Tooting's Labour MP Sadiq Khan intervened to ask: 'Can the Honourable Gentleman confirm that, despite all the cuts that he claims will be made, staff will be safe and no jobs will be lost under a Conservative Government?' Preparing to slap down the interjection, Lansley began: 'I am interested in what the Honourable Gentleman says. He will forgive me if I am wrong, but I think that his local hospital is part of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Is that right?' Amid cries of' 'Tooting', the Tory frontbencher was forced to correct himself. But what was he thinking of? Surely he hadn't mistaken Khan for fellow Labour MP Shahid Malik, whose Dewsbury seat is indeed in Mid Yorks? (When he got around to answering Khan's question, Lansley admitted: 'I cannot, of course, make that promise.')
