I am sure the whole House will share my sorrow at the capsizing of a small boat in the channel in the early hours of this morning, and the tragic loss of human life. Our hearts go out to all those affected, and our tributes to those involved in the extensive rescue operation.
This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, in addition to my duties in this House, including the visit of His Majesty the King. I shall have further such meetings later today.
John Stevenson
A three and a half hour journey takes six hours; a straight journey ends up with two changes and a diversion; a train is cancelled at short notice. This has become the experience of a west coast rail passenger. If Avanti does not get its act together, will the Government cancel its franchise?
I thank my hon. Friend for raising this question, and I share the frustration that this is causing to many in his community and other communities. Our immediate priority is to support the restoration of services before making any long-term decisions on the operation of the west coast franchise, but we will be closely monitoring Avanti’s roll-out of its recovery plan and holding it to account for delivering for passengers.
I join the Prime Minister: our prayers go out to those who capsized in the freezing waters of the channel last night. It is a reminder that the criminal gangs running those routes put the lives of the desperate at risk, and profit from their misery. They must be broken up and brought to justice.
Tomorrow will be the first ever nationwide nurses’ strike. All the Prime Minister has to do to stop that is to open the door and discuss pay with them. If he did, the whole country would breathe a sigh of relief. Why won’t he?
We have consistently spoken to all the unions involved in all the pay disputes that there are, but I am glad the right hon. and learned Gentleman has raised our nurses, because they do incredible work. It is worth putting on record exactly what we have done for our nurses: last year, when everyone else in the public sector had a public sector pay freeze, the nurses received a 3% pay rise. When the Royal College of Nursing asked for more in-work training, we gave every nurse and midwife a £1,000 training budget, and when they asked for nurses’ bursaries, we made sure that every nursing student received a £5,000 grant. That is because we do work constructively, and we will continue to back our nurses.
Nurses going on strike is a badge of shame for this Government. Instead of showing leadership, the Prime Minister is playing games with people’s health, and there is a human cost: Alex from Chester has been waiting for a gallbladder operation for nearly six months. He is in so much pain that he has been off school since then. His operation has already been cancelled twice. His mum, who I spoke to this morning, is worried sick. When she heard that the strikes could be called off, she was massively relieved; she is desperate for the Prime Minister to resolve this. All he needs to do is simply meet the nurses. Alex’s mum is listening to this. She does not want to hear the Prime Minister blaming everybody else; she does not want his usual ducking of the question. She is tuned in now because she wants him to explain: what is he going to do to resolve the nursing strike?
It is not just Alex; there are millions of others across this country who will have their healthcare disrupted because of the strike. The right hon. and learned Gentleman says that we should get round the table, but we all know what that means—that is simply a political formula for avoiding taking a position on this issue. If he thinks the strikes are wrong, he should say so. If he thinks it is right that pay demands of 19% are met, he should say so. What is weak is that he is not strong enough to stand up to the unions. [Interruption.]
In 12 hours’ time, there is a nurses strike. All the Prime Minister needs to do is meet the nurses. His inaction speaks volumes. As ever with this Prime Minister, it is Tory politics first, patients second. We have never seen a nurses strike like this before. They have been forced into it, because the Government have broken the health system. Ask anyone in the NHS, and they will tell you that they do not have enough staff—133,000 vacancies—and there is an obvious solution: scrap the non-dom status and use the money to bring through the next generation of doctors and nurses. That is what Labour would do. Why has he not got the guts to do it?
We are already investing billions more in the NHS. We are already hiring thousands more doctors and nurses. The right hon. and learned Gentleman asks about the backlogs and the waiting times in the NHS, but what he always fails to acknowledge is the impact of covid: that is why we are facing pressures. We do have a plan: not just more money, not just more doctors and nurses, but new diagnostic centres carrying out millions of checks and scans and new surgical hubs delivering more elective surgery. If we had listened to him, the backlog would still be growing, because we would still be in lockdown.
As usual, the Prime Minister tries to blame everyone else. His Department commissioned a report into the NHS that reported on Monday. It said:
“We have…had 10 years of managed decline.”
It was not covid; responsibility is sitting right there. The reason that he cannot choose nurses over non-doms is because he is too weak to stand up to the tax avoiders. For 12 years, Conservative Governments have not trained enough doctors and nurses, so we have the absurd situation of the NHS spending billions on agency workers to fill the gap. Why should the country have to put up with money that should be spent treating patients being wasted plugging gaps instead?
Let me tell the right hon. and learned Gentleman what we are doing. We are actually listening to the independent pay review bodies; the Opposition want to undermine them. We have offered a fair pay deal; they cannot even decide on a number among themselves. We are actually protecting the public; they are protecting their paymasters. For working people in this country, it is Labour’s nightmare before Christmas.
There the Prime Minister goes again, pretending everything is fine. Try telling that to those on waiting lists or those who cannot afford to pay for a next day GP appointment. After 12 years of Tory failure, winter has arrived for our public services, and we have a Prime Minister who has curled up in a ball and gone into hibernation. If he cannot act on behalf of patients or nurses, or everyone who wants these strikes called off, then surely the whole country is entitled to ask: what is the point of him and what is the point of the Government he is supposed to be leading?
The right hon. and learned Gentleman talks about covid not having an impact. Ambulance waiting times for category 1—[Interruption.] Category 1 ambulance waiting times in February 2020 were actually completely on target. Covid has had an impact, and that is why, as the chief executive of the NHS has acknowledged, this Government are
“serious about its commitment to prioritise the NHS.”
But let us have a look at the NHS in Labour-run Wales, shall we? The worst A&E times in the country!
Under the last Labour Government, we had fair pay for nurses and no strikes, so I will not be taking lectures from the Prime Minister about that. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker, this is our final PMQs of the year, so I hope—[Interruption.] Oh, really. Mr Speaker, what I was going to say is that I hope you will pass on all our thanks, at least from those of us on the Labour Benches, to all those who have kept our House and our democracy working.
I want to finish this year thinking about our friends in Ukraine. As a result of Putin’s barbaric assault on their freedom, millions will spend Christmas in sub-zero temperatures, without heating, electricity or hot water. Their suffering is unimaginable, but their bravery is awe-inspiring, so will the Prime Minister join me in saying that, whatever other difficulties and disagreements we have across the Dispatch Box, we are and will remain united in our unwavering support for Ukraine’s freedom, its liberty and its victory?