LABOUR'S Robin Cook was in Bolton yesterday to cut a symbolic red tape in a bid to focus the election campaign on "NHS bureaucracy".

The red ribbon was wrapped around boxes marked "invoices" as Labour tried to demonstrate their claim that NHS Trusts issued enough invoices last year to stretch from London to Paris.

Most, claim Labour, were sent to GP fundholders and the party claims they are just the tip of a bureaucratic paper mountain created by the internal market.

Bolton nurse Anne Johnson turned up in uniform to support the stunt with the Foreign Affairs spokesman during his campaigning visit to the town hall square.

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