Contributions
5,553 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDHealth and Social CareMy hon. Friend is completely right, and I am sure he speaks for Members across the House who have experienced this problem in their surgeries for years. There is a mismatch…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareIt is all in the plan. The overwhelming bulk of the funding begins with support for frontline NHS electives, for nurses’ pay and for vaccines; then, as the social care plan ramps…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI thank my right hon. Friend very much for his support, because it is extremely important, and I think he is completely right. We are trying to make sure that those who can pay…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI thank unpaid carers for everything that they do, and the hon. Member is quite right to point out the huge contribution that they make. What unpaid carers have now is the…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI thank my hon. Friend, who knows a great deal about this issue and the pressures that the sector faces. I can tell him that, yes, of course it covers both residential and…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI disagree vehemently with what the hon. Lady says because the economy is coming back much more strongly than many predicted, including the Office for Budget Responsibility, which…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI do agree with that general proposition, but in the current circumstances, after 18 months in which it has been necessary for the Government to perform the most enormous fiscal…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareYes. I thank my hon. Friend. I have been reading some of his brilliant contributions on WhatsApp groups about this issue, and I share his idealism about the ways in which the…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI do not think there is anything much inherited on the left, the right or the middle of this particular trio. Again, I find it extraordinary that the Scottish nationalist party…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social Careindicated dissent .07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareWhat I say to the hon. Member is that, frankly, she should take that up with the former leaders of the Labour party, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and all the former Ministers…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareMy right hon. Friend has done great work on this subject and I am indebted to him for some of the advice that he has given to me personally about how to proceed in this. He is…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareTime and again, Labour Members have stood up and said that there is a better way to do this, without offering a single idea. A plan beats no plan.07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareMy right hon. Friend makes a very important point. Members across the House will know that the lower limit in Scotland is £12,500 at the moment. Lifting that to £20,000, as we are…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareYes, we cannot simply continue to funnel huge sums into the NHS without getting the productivity gains that I know that everybody wants to see around the country. Of course, we…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareIt would be a great thing if the Labour party would support what we are doing. With the package we have brought forward, we will be able to fix that backlog even faster. If the…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareWith the PFI contracts and the endless borrowing that Labour instituted, hospitals up and down the country are paying the price for the approach advocated by the last Labour…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareI thank my hon. Friend for his thoughtful question. We looked at all those models of course, Mr Speaker, as you can imagine. I think that the problem is that we need to go for an…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareThe hon. Member makes an exceptionally important point. In addition to the £6 billion that we put into supporting local government throughout the pandemic, we are putting more in…07 Sept 2021HANSARDHealth and Social CareMr Speaker, with permission I will make a statement on the Government’s plans for health and social care. Our national health service is the pride of our whole United Kingdom, and…07 Sept 2021