Speeches by Murray.

“I will give way one more time, and then I will make some progress.”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right that this Bill is about modernising the NHS. As a Labour Government, our priority is to boost investment and to modernise the NHS for the future. It is exactly that combination of investment and reform that will deliver the health service that her constituents need and deserve.”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his words about my taking on this post. I can reassure him that, as I will come to in my speech, the Bill sets out to integrate the national Healthwatch into the Department of Health and Social Care through a new patient experience directorate and to integrate local healthwatch organisati…”

“I reassure my hon. Friend that what the Bill seeks to achieve, through local health watches across the country, is to bring the voice of patients closer to the people who plan and deliver services. Too often, we have not seen action following feedback. We need to ensure that such feedback is integrated into the plannin…”

“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to draw attention to the importance of having the right approach to cancer, and our national cancer plan sets out what we as a Government are doing to achieve that. He is also right to point to the regional variation in different parts of the country, and to say how important it i…”

“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. Madam Deputy Speaker, if you were to ask anyone in Britain what they think about the NHS, I bet they would give you an answer without hesitation. No one would be lost for words, because everyone has an opinion. Regardless of whether they tell you a story about how…”

“I am going to make some progress. The single patient record will mean that wherever a patient is being treated, even if they are not at their local GP or are in a hospital they have never been to before, those caring for them will have access to all the accurate, relevant, up-to-date information they need. Through this…”

“The principle behind the changes to local healthwatch organisations is to bring the voice of patients closer to those who are planning and delivering services. Whether through ICBs or local authorities for health and care, it is an important principle to ensure that feedback is followed by action, and that people can h…”

“As my hon. Friend will have heard, as she listened to the rest of my interview on Radio 4 this morning, the situation with the single patient record is very different from that of the federated data platform, because it is likely that we will let a series of contracts to de-risk the delivery of the single patient recor…”

“Investment in defence under this Government is under way—just look at the contracts. Over a thousand have been signed since the general election: I point the hon. Gentleman, and anyone else in the Chamber, to the billion-pound contract for medium helicopters in Yeovil, the half-a-billion pounds invested in state-of-the…”

“The Chancellor and the Defence Secretary meet regularly to discuss defence, including the defence industrial strategy. As part of those discussions, they recently met leaders from the UK financial sector to discuss how private investment can also be leveraged to accelerate defence readiness, building on the commitments…”

“Whatever the purpose, spending funded from bonds issued by the Government adds to the national debt and so must be considered within the fiscal rules. But the hon. Gentleman is right to point to the importance of research and development within the defence industry to support economic growth. I am proud that last year …”

“I completely agree with my hon. Friend that the UK and Welsh Labour Governments’ generational commitment to the future of rail in Wales is fantastic for her constituents right across Monmouthshire. It is frankly outrageous to hear Reform’s leader in Wales trying to tell people what they want, and even more shocking tha…”

“The Government are acting to ease the cost of living for commuters, including by extending the £3 national bus fare cap to March 2027. We have also frozen regulated rail fares for the first time in 30 years, which will save the average commuter travelling from Worthing to London using an annual season ticket £360 a yea…”

“The Government are investing in Wales’s industrial future and unlocking economic growth, including by providing £2.5 billion for the UK’s first small modular reactor in Anglesey to support up to 3,000 jobs and power 3 million homes. We have also recently agreed a new £50 million defence growth deal for Wales. We are ba…”

“As my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary has already set out many times today on fuel duty, we inherited plans from the previous Government that would have seen fuel costs go up for people across the country. We have extended the 5p cut on fuel duty and extended the freeze, which is an important way of helping people …”

“My hon. Friend is right to make it clear that improving services for passengers is our absolute priority as rail operations come into public ownership. When Southern rail is brought into public ownership, it will be expected to focus relentlessly on improving passenger experience, reliability and punctuality, and it wi…”

“Those on the Opposition Front Bench have some cheek. The hon. Gentleman is sat next to the hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride), who oversaw the biggest increase in welfare spending on record, with a £33 billion increase in welfare spending in the last year of the Conservative Government. This Government are …”

“The UK has already signed up, with Finland and the Netherlands, to the multilateral defence budget, with this Chancellor taking a lead. I know the importance to this Government of security, which is not just something that we can achieve on our own but by working with allies to ensure that we are safer in future. I wil…”

“Businesses in the hon. Lady’s constituency, and indeed across the country, can know that, whatever instability we face in the world in the months and weeks ahead, the Government have done the right thing for the economy by bringing down inflation, interest rates, borrowing, debt and debt costs. All that puts us in the …”