Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley yesterday told the Tory conference it was a “disgrace’’ that UK survival rates lagged so far behind those elsewhere in Europe.

“If we were to achieve European averages we would save an extra 24 lives a day. If we achieve the best in Europe, we would save 95 lives a day from cancer,” he said. He added: “It is a scandal that we are the leading European centre for cancer research – funded not least by donations from the British public – and yet Britain is among the lowest and slowest in Europe in the take-up of new cancer treatments.”

A Conservative government would ensure the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence appraised new cancer drugs when they were licensed so effective new treatments could be introduced quickly.

Mr Lansley also announced plans to reform the care of stroke victims, with an increased emphasis on rehabilitation services such as physiotherapy.

There would be much wider use of clot-busting drugs, which in Australia are used to help more than 10,000 stroke patients a year.

Mr Lansley hailed the NHS as the Tories’ “number one priority… I believe we can now say with confidence that the Conservative Party is the party of the NHS’’.