DAVID Cameron was today seeking to make the NHS a Conservative vote-winner, vowing to hike spending on the health service if he wins the General Election.

The Prime Minister was expected to use his conference-closing speech to tell activists: “The next Conservative Government will protect the NHS budget and continue to invest more.”

Aides said the promise was to continue to “ring-fence” the NHS budget from future Whitehall cuts and to increase it above the rate of inflation – “at least in real terms”.

The pledge will be seen as a quick riposte to Labour’s vow, at its conference last week, to put what it believes is an NHS crisis at the heart of next May’s election battle.

Ed Miliband vowed to recruit 20,000 nurses, 8,000 GPs, 5,000 care workers and 3,000 midwives, a £2.5 billion plan funded by tax hikes on the wealthy and tobacco firms.

In today’s speech, Mr Cameron was not expected to set out any specific package for his spending boost, but will instead stress the future of the NHS rests on economic success.

The Prime Minister will say: “We know this – something Labour will never understand and we will never forget – you can only have a strong NHS if you have a strong economy.”

Number 10 aides say NHS spending has risen by £12.7 billion in this parliament, under an original ring-fence, which is 4.4 per cent after inflation, according to independent experts.

This week, plans were announced to deliver seven-day access to a GP across England by 2020, although there were huge doubts about how it will be funded.

Even a pledge to raise spending in real terms is unlikely to satisfy health experts who have warned of a £30 billion a year NHS funding gap by 2021.

The NHS vow will be at the heart of a speech in which Mr Cameron will try to recast his Government away from one driven by the need to deal with the economic crisis.

He will outline his desire to “make Britain a country that everyone is proud to call home”, offering “the chance of a job, a home, a good start in life”.

Mr Cameron is expected to say: “I didn’t come into politics to make the lines on a graph go in the right direction. I want to help you live a better life.

“The past four years have been about laying the foundations for that Britain – the next five years will be about finishing the job.

“Put it another way, if our economic plan for the past four years has been about our country and saving it from economic ruin, our plan for the next five years will be about you and your family – and helping you get on.”