Staffordshire scandal 'could happen again under Labour', claims Health Secretary in major escalation of row over NHS care failings Jeremy Hunt launches devastating attack on Labour for not apologising for scandal which saw 1,200 people die needlessly from 2005-09 Ministers still refuse to sack NHS chief Sir David Nicholson who has admitted that that patients were not the main priority Row marks the end of cross-party consensus in response to Francis Report which found no former ministers were to blame Labour accuses ministers of 'shabby' attempt to politicise the issue Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt stepped up the political attack against Labour over its handling of the NHS scandal The care scandal at Stafford Hospital could be repeated if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister, Jeremy Hunt claimed today in a devastating attack on Labour's handling of the NHS. The Health Secretary demanded a public apology from Labour for the catalogue of failures which saw 1,200 patients die needlessly. Without a "proper account" from Labour, voters will "reasonably conclude" that similar events could happen again if the party regained power, Mr Hunt claimed. The outspoken comments mark the end of a cross-party consensus on the response to the Francis Report which exposed chronic failures of care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust from 2005 and 2009. Tonight Labour dismissed the attack as a 'cheap and shabby attempt to politicise the tragedy of Mid-Staffs'. NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has faced faced growing calls to stand down after it became apparent that he failed to intervene while patients were dying of neglect in Stafford during his spell on a string of Midlands health authorities. However, he has apologised - something Labour has so far failed to do. In a highly-politicised article, Mr Hunt condemns Labour's "deafening silence" on its responsibility for a catalogue of failings in its management of the National Health Service. Mr Hunt writes: "David Nicholson has made his apology - it is time for Labour to make theirs. I would go further and say that unless we hear a proper account from Labour, the public will reasonably conclude that similar events could easily happen again if Labour regained power - because the party that used to claim the NHS was safe in its hands is proving by its silence the exact opposite,' Mr Hunt wrote on the ConservativeHome website. Sir David Nicholson faces growing calls to resign for his role in the Mid Staffs scandal The Francis Report stated that ministers at the time were not personally responsible for what happened. But Mr Hunt insists: "Labour ministers did make three catastrophic policy mistakes for which they bear direct responsibility - all of which are having a direct impact on the lack of compassionate care in parts of the NHS today." Mr Hunt warned: "Labour can and will be held accountable for what happened at Mid Staffs." He said the culture of targets at any cost, the flawed star rating system for hospitals and the "bureaucratic morass" which is the current Care Quality Commission combined to have a devastating impact on care in the health service. And in a direct attack on shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, he added: 'Labour's targets at any cost culture led to a top down, command and control approach where centrally prescribed targets too often became ends in themselves. As David Nicholson described it, "you hit the target but miss the point." Warnings about this were suppressed at the time, including in three separate reports from experts in 2008, which were only made public in 2010 after a Freedom of Information request. 'In fairness, Andy Burnham has accepted that that targets culture under Labour went too far - but there has still been no apology for his government's total failure to set up proper checks and balances to stop managers going too far and ignoring the interests of patients in the process.' The remarks signal an escalation in the political row, hours after David Cameron defended Sir David against calls for his resignation, but said that "others" should be considering their positions in the wake of last month's Francis Report. Aides to the PM declined to confirm whether Mr Cameron was referring to former Labour health ministers, including Mr Burnham. But Labour accused the Prime Minister of a "shabby" attempt to politicise the Mid-Staffordshire health scandal. Mr Cameron insisted at Prime Minister's Questions that Sir David - who was in charge of the Strategic Health Authority covering Mid-Staffordshire at the time of the scandal - had already "frankly and candidly" apologised for failings that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of patients. At Prime Minister's Questions today David Cameron said 'others' needed to consider their position, which was seen as a swipe at shadow health secretary Andy Burnham The Prime Minister added: "Everyone has to think of their responsibilities with regard to the dreadful events that happened at the Staffordshire hospital, including the fact that part of the problem was people following a very top-down, target-led agenda which led to patient care being put on the back-burner. David Nicholson has made his apology and wants to get on with his job of running an excellent NHS, and other people frankly should be thinking of their position too. The comments struck a much more party political tone than his immediate response to the Francis Report last month, when he told MPs that there should be no hunt for "scapegoats" for the failings at Stafford Hospital, where there were up to 1,200 excess deaths between 2005 and 2009. A senior Labour spokesman described the PM's comments as "a fairly shabby attempt to politicise the Francis Report." The spokesman added: "The Francis Report specifically said that no ministers were to blame. Cameron said in his statement afterwards that he wasn't going to scapegoat people. This was a little cheap. Sir David was chief executive of three strategic health authorities, including Shropshire & Staffordshire, for 10 months between 2005 and 2006 - the height of the failings in care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust. Relatives of those who died have repeatedly called for him to be sacked as NHS chief in the wake of the Francis Report. But Mr Cameron has insisted he is doing "a very good job" and should be allowed to stay. Sir David himself yesterday told the Commons Health Committee he was "absolutely determined" to stay in his job despite admitting failures over the Stafford Hospital scandal. But he was accused of presiding over of a "see no evil, hear no evil" culture in the NHS.