Labour puts focus on healthcare at launch of UK election campaign

LONDON (Reuters) - Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband launched his bid to become Britain's next prime minister on Friday, putting the future of the treasured but expensive health system at the heart of his campaign to oust Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. Polls put Miliband neck and neck with Cameron ahead of what is set to be the tightest election in a generation, the outcome of which could influence whether Britain leaves the European Union or Scotland launches a fresh bid for independence. A day after a poll showed he was bested by Cameron in a live TV contest, Miliband, flanked by senior party members, kicked off his campaign for the May 7 vote with a tub-thumping speech painting his party as the trusted guardian of the National Health Service (NHS). "We need to rescue our NHS from this government, and we will," Miliband said, speaking at the viewing platform of a monument overlooking the London 2012 Olympic park. "With a Labour government, there will be a new double lock to protect our NHS: guaranteeing proper funding and stopping its privatisation," he said, drawing cheers from the gathered audience of activists. Polls show voters rank the NHS as one of the most important election issues, and that centre-left Labour is more trusted by voters than Cameron on the future of the service, which provides free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare. Miliband pledged Labour would prevent contracts being forced out to private tender and would cap at 5 percent the profits that private companies could make when providing services to the NHS. (Reporting by William James; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)