Speeches by Streeting.

“No, I really don’t accept that at all. Mental health spending is going up in real terms. If it was not going up in real terms—if the actual spend in mental health was falling backwards—that would be a fair charge, but that is not the case. For 2025-26 we will be spending just shy of £179 million on mental health servic…”

“That is all subject to the spending review. I will add the other caveat that if you think about the investment we have just put into general practice—the £889 million that is going into general practice—although it would not be classified in these numbers as mental health spend, it is an important part of the mental he…”

“The proportion has decreased by 0.07%.”

“Yes, I think so. I think we are seeing some signs of the NHS’s recovery, and we are seeing radicalism from the Government in terms of reform. We are seeing that welcomed across the party political divide. That is a good thing, and we will continue to work in this spirit. I have been delighted, informally as well as for…”

“No Parliament can bind its successor, but I thought it was encouraging how many of my predecessors—Labour and Conservative—were, to different degrees, welcoming of the changes we are making, some more cautiously than others, and some emphasising different opportunities or risks to different degrees. Broadly speaking, w…”

“There is different appetite from some of our mayors as well. Andy Burnham recently put out some interesting ideas and is doing some interesting work, particularly in the prevention space, that I think we should look at. One of the many interesting things about Andy is that he has sat in my chair before and is now drivi…”

“I do not want to set any new hares running.”

“I think I said OHID had been abolished, and it was the other way around.”

“I will say two things about this. One is that with the level of capital underinvestment, which was identified very starkly in the Darzi Report, I constantly feel pressure from parliamentarians, who are constantly under pressure from their constituents about not only the new hospital’s programme but the crumbling hospit…”

“We are at the beginning of the process now, but in terms of what the impact of the changes will be, that will depend very much on how we constitute the new organisation and what it looks like.”

“Throughout the process, but I can report back to you in more detail down the line.”

“In the way that the Government normally do, we will certainly do an impact assessment of changes, and we will be looking at impact through a range of lenses.”

“It is disruptive, certainly. Is it necessarily a distraction? No. We have to remember that the reorganisation of two entities, the Department and NHS England, which have just under 20,000 people working there, is in the context of a system where more than 1 million people work. On the day we announced the abolition of …”

“I will say two things in response to that. One of the interesting things in the aftermath of the announcement about NHS England, aside from one or two people—my favourite one was the anecdote of someone who was in A&E sat next to someone who turned to them and said, “Enjoy this while it lasts, because Wes Streeting is …”

“Proceed carefully, even if you are acting radically. We came into office with a whole set of things we wanted to do and where we have hit the ground running, and we are beginning to see some of the fruits of that with falling waiting lists, increasing GP numbers and the impact of the decisions that the Chancellor made …”

“I should also mention I am a member of UNION, GMB and Community.”

“I will say a few things on this front. This is why we do not take these decisions lightly; I am very conscious that there are a number of people now who are anxious about their jobs and their futures. I am genuinely sorry about that, because I do not want people to have to worry. We would not be doing this unless we ge…”

“We are reviewing the workforce plan in the context of not only the 10-year plan but, frankly, the blindingly obvious problems that we have in the NHS today in terms of workforce planning. Some of the complaints that we have heard from resident doctors in particular about their future career prospects, the lack of speci…”

“Absolutely. I had a deputation of the Leeds mafia to see me, or ambush me, here in Parliament only recently. That was a delegation of MPs from the city and the region but also from the NHS Trust and the city council. As you would expect, Tracy Brabin has been banging the drum very loudly for her region and its science …”

“I will say two things about functions and skills specifically, and then about Leeds. First, we are still in the foothills of one of the most exciting revolutions taking place in the world, which is the revolution in life sciences and medical technology, as the Prime Minister announced this week with the establishment o…”