Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Andy Burnham Excerpts
Tuesday 28th February 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Jane Ellison Portrait Jane Ellison
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I understand my hon. Friend’s core point. The Government have taken action to ensure that the NHS has the funding it needs by increasing its annual budget by £10 billion above inflation by 2020-21. We are mindful of the long-term challenges. The issues were recently highlighted by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which laid them out quite starkly in its latest fiscal sustainability report. On depoliticising the debate, I would say that backing the NHS’s own plan for its own future in the way we have done is the best way of doing that.

Andy Burnham Portrait Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab)
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Back in 2010, to meet the rising costs of social care I proposed a compulsory care levy on all estates. From memory, the Conservatives produced an election poster with gravestones on it and called it a death tax. I read in The Times today that Ministers are now considering exactly the same proposal. Can this possibly be true?