Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

Colleen Fletcher Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman). I agree with some of his comments and the facts on smoking and vaping, and I certainly remember his private Member’s Bill.

This is certainly an underwhelming King’s Speech and Government programme. Not surprisingly, it is more notable for what is missing than what is included. Where is the coherent, long-term plan to fix the economy, tackle the cost of living crisis, make our streets safer, achieve net zero and rebuild our NHS? While the country is crying out for change, the Tories are simply offering more of the same: more empty words, broken promises, repackaged policies and sticking plaster politics.

This Government simply do not have any answers for the challenges facing my constituents or the country. Indeed, they are the architects of most of the challenges, due to their failed policies that have precipitated a decade-long national decline. Over the past 13 years, this Government have trashed the economy and eroded our much cherished public services. The NHS is a case in point: after 13 years of Tory Government, it is on its knees. It faces the most profound crisis in its history: waits of weeks and weeks to see a GP; patients finding it impossible to get an appointment with or register at an NHS dentist; ambulances unable to get people to hospital in time to save lives; dangerously long waits in A&E; a workforce crisis; more than 7 million on the waiting list for hospital treatment—it is a system at breaking point. Be in no doubt: my constituents deserve so much better, and so do our dedicated NHS workers, who do such a fantastic job in extremely difficult circumstances.

Just last week, I met staff and managers at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, which I am proud to have in my constituency—it is probably a stone’s throw from where I live. There can be no doubt about the passion and commitment of those workers. The challenges they face, though, are immense. They are now seeing record ambulance and patient attendances daily. There are growing challenges, such as dementia and the crisis in social care, and specific issues in recruiting paediatric nurses. All of that adds to the growing pressure on services.

The staff I spoke with would like to see investment not only in the workforce and buildings, but in new technology that will speed up procedures, decrease waiting times and create better outcomes. What they want is an NHS fit for the 21st century. They must feel very betrayed and demoralised by the Government’s failure to include measures in the King’s Speech to achieve that, and to ensure the NHS receives the investment and reform that is needed to get it back on its feet.

Let us be clear: my constituents and our health workers deserve a Government who will give our NHS the resources it needs, a Government who will build an NHS fit for the future that is always there when people need it, and a Government who have a plan to tackle the immediate crisis in our NHS and address the long-term challenges it faces. They deserve a Labour Government. Sadly, while this Tory Government remain in place, I fear the crisis in our NHS will worsen, and patients and staff will continue to be badly let down. Put simply, our NHS and our constituents cannot afford another five minutes of Tory failure, let alone another five years.

There are a couple of things in the King’s Speech that I agree with in principle, but there is little in it that will make a tangible difference to people in my constituency and they need that tangible difference. Certainly, when it comes to tackling the challenges in our NHS and rejuvenating our health service, the Conservatives are not part of the solution; they are, I am afraid, very much part of the problem.