Speeches by Stafford.

“I beg to move, That this House has considered UK-China relations. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I welcome the opportunity to raise in this House the opportunities and implications of our relationship with China. I declare an interest as a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on Chi…”

“The Government have said they are going to cut the total number of staff at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care by 50%. What impact might that have on frontline services and the staff who work on the frontline?”

“Just to push you, practically what?”

“Are you confident that the proposed changes will increase accountability, or do you have a fear that we may replace one bureaucracy with a new bureaucracy?”

“To pick up on your last point, the rationale behind the supposed merging is to remove duplication within the two organisations, which most people would agree with. There may be a lack of awareness that NHS England at the moment is not just a policymaking organisation. As you have mentioned, it is probably one of the la…”

“Looking at the potential opportunities that some of you have touched on, what few specific things would you like to see come out of the merging of the two organisations, practically, that would make lives better for staff and patients?”

“Thank you. You have all given me relatively broad “nice to haves”. I am not sure that I fully understand what it is you think NHS England or the Department of Health—whatever it is going to be called when merged—would actually do. I will ask the question a different way: what would you say is the primary purpose of thi…”

“Should it be this new organisation? Should it be the performance manager of primary care trusts, hospital trusts, mental health trusts, community settings and social care?”

“I shall leave it there because I am sure other colleagues will want to pick it up. Thank you very much.”

“I thank the Minister for giving way so early in his speech. I just want to understand very clearly why the Government think that the NHS, under the banner of NHS England, should—rightly, in my opinion—be exempt from national insurance contributions, but that other parts of the NHS, such as GP surgeries, dentists and ho…”

“My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point, echoing one made by the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan). That is correct: there will inevitably be a net cost to the Exchequer because of this policy. He is right that home care has not been touched on but will be affected. Home care companies in m…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point, which has been made by Opposition Members on numerous occasions. It does not surprise me that Labour Members do not understand the economy. I did hope that they would understand the care sector, which has been telling them time and again that this national insurance increase…”

“You do not need any convincing of this, Madam Deputy Speaker, but were you to, the Lords amendments demonstrate why we need a House of Lords. They are the ones standing up and delivering the amendments that this Government are trying to wriggle out of this afternoon. Amendments 1B and 5B, which the Government are tryin…”

“On the environment, national parks are rightly protected, so when the Government impose housing targets on east Hampshire, all of that housing will have to go in the bits that are not part of the South Downs national park, increasing the housing pressures on what is essentially green-belt land but is not in the park. W…”

“This afternoon I was contacted by the father of Theodore, who lives in Grayshott in my constituency. Theodore wants to go to the Army Foundation College in Harrogate in September, but Capita has not sent the request for his medical record to his local surgery. Will the Minister look in general at how Capita is performi…”

“As a former NHS employee, I was shocked to hear that the Community Security Trust has found that the number of complaints of antisemitism in the NHS tripled in the 17 months after 7 October 2023. What steps are the Government taking to crack down on antisemitism in the NHS?”

“I entirely agree with everything the hon. Gentleman has just said, but I am sure that, like me, he has received hundreds, if not thousands, of messages from pensioners saying that they are suffering and cannot heat their homes. If his point is one of principle, then clearly he must vote to overturn this policy so that …”

“I do not know whether it is incompetence, pig-headedness or callousness, or indeed all of the above, that has led this Labour Government to take the winter fuel payment away from some of the poorest in society. So often today from the Government Benches we have heard about tough choices, but tough choices do not automa…”

“rose—”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”