Milburn denies he boosted rating of hospital

The Tories and Liberal Democrats demanded an official inquiry yesterday into allegations that Alan Milburn used his position as Secretary of State for Health to boost the star rating of a hospital that serves his and Tony Blair's constituents.

The Government was on the defensive over a leaked internal Department of Health e-mail that appeared to show Mr Milburn intervened to ensure South Durham Health Trust was upgraded to the top three-star rating in 2002.

The Health Service Journal said it had seen an exchange of correspondence between an aide to Mr Milburn and Department of Health officials, just before the ratings were to be announced, in which the aide queried why South Durham had fallen from a three to a two-star rating.

A day later, the ratings appeared to have been recalculated, with South Durham's increased to three stars.

Tim Yeo, the Tories' health spokesman said the upgrading could have been worth £1m in extra funds to the trust. If the star ratings "are going to be manipulated on the basis of how important the MP which represents the hospital concerned is, that completely destroys any confidence the public could have in the whole system", he said.

Mr Milburn, who resigned from the Cabinet in June and is now advising the Prime Minister on Labour's general election manifesto, dismissed the claim as "complete tosh".

He said: "There's a world of difference between asking why a trust has gone from three stars to two and giving an instruction."

Mr Blair's official spokesman said that Downing Street was not involved in the rethink.

"As I understand it, Mr Milburn queried the star ratings for a number of hospitals. In some cases, star ratings changed, in other cases they didn't," he said.