Speeches by Streeting.

“I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. This is the point that I have impressed on the chair of the resident doctors committee. This deal is not the end of the conversation about jobs and career development in the NHS, because there are plenty of problems for us to solve. Although we cannot afford to go further on pay th…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. To be honest, the thing that causes me most anxiety is that, although I know that the NHS is on the road to recovery, we are surrounded by an enormous amount of jeopardy. We need, as much as we possibly can, to make sure that we are not inflicting avoidable damage or setbacks on our …”

“I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. I was about to say that it is always a disappointment when Reform and Green Members do not appear in the Chamber, but I would not want to be accused of misleading the House. I am sure they had a better offer, and there is a Christmas party up the road. In all seriousness, my …”

“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I have to confess a sin. Earlier today, in the debate on the Budget, I referenced the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and did not notify him in advance. This was particularly egregious because I was not very nice about him. With that in mind, and out of respect for the …”

“I am grateful to the shadow Health Secretary for giving way. We should be clear that the deal struck with the United States is the first and only deal with the United States that secures 0% tariffs and mitigations against most-favoured-nation pricing. It will ensure that patients get access to good drugs. For the avoid…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Of course, we want to ensure that investment is deprivation linked. We want to reverse the damage the Conservatives did when they pursued what I would characterise as the Royal Tunbridge Wells strategy, when our former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northaller…”

“Gladly. Please do defend keeping children in poverty.”

“Let me say two things in response. I am almost certain that my hon. Friends will be delighted that he has intervened in defence of their plight at the hands of the Labour Whips, but he knows as well as I do that the Whip was removed from some of my hon. Friends not because of the substance of the issue they were raisin…”

“That is a good question, and I give the hon. Gentleman the assurance that my Department is working closely with the Secretary of State for Education and colleagues right across Government to make sure that we get that right. We have growing levels of need for provision for children with special educational needs and di…”

“I can certainly give my hon. Friend that assurance, and I absolutely endorse what she says about our local hospital, which I know very well. I genuinely thank frontline NHS staff, without whom the performance and improvements we are seeing simply would not be possible. Let me turn to the substance of this debate. There…”

“I begin by addressing the British Medical Association’s reckless call for resident doctors to strike in the run-up to Christmas. That is a cynical choice, coming as flu cases surge and we enter the most dangerous time of year for hospitals, and it is completely unjustified. After a 28.9% pay rise, the Government offere…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising some of the practical challenges that stand in our way to improving and expanding the primary care estate. We are looking into the issues that he raises. We want to ensure that we can modernise the estate as effectively and quickly as possible. When there is progress to report, I …”

“I must say that a bout of collective amnesia has swept the Opposition Benches, because the Conservatives seem to have forgotten the absolute calamity of bad industrial relations over which they presided. The difference between Members on this side of the House and the Conservatives is that we have never closed the door…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. More patients are waiting a year for treatment in Ayrshire and Arran than in the entire south-west of England—that is shocking. Thanks to the investment the Chancellor has made, Scotland is receiving an extra £1.5 billion this year and £3.4 billion next year—the biggest funding incre…”

“I am pleased to report that both access to general practice and patient satisfaction with general practice have improved since Labour came to office. Over 75% of patients find it easy to contact their practice —an improvement of 14 percentage points since the general election. Not only have we recruited an extra 2,500 …”

“Well, Mr Speaker, you couldn’t script this! We have a doctor in the House—my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley)—whose phone was alive as this very issue was raised by my hon. Friend, such is the commitment of doctors in our NHS to be available to patients wherever and whenever th…”

“I certainly can, and I am sorry that my hon. Friend’s constituent was let down. Everyone who needs a same-day appointment should be able to book one, and that is what we are working towards. As she says, we are recruiting more GPs. We are also investing £102 million to create additional space for appointments, includin…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member for that question, as this is a terrible situation and one of the many messes that this Government are now working to clean up. I will certainly ensure that the issue she raises is taken up with my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary.”

“In England, for the first time in 15 years, waiting lists are falling. Through record investment and modernisation, we have cut backlogs by more than 230,000, and we smashed our target for additional appointments in our first year, delivering more than 5 million. There is a long way to go, but the NHS in England is on …”

“I was very clear in opposition about the Government’s responsibility to sit down and negotiate, and that is exactly what I have been doing. It takes two to tango. As for the other trivial nonsense the right hon. Gentleman mentions, I have been very clear that I am a faithful. Of course, if he were a gameshow, he would …”