Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Steve Brine

Wednesday 19th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have taken responsibility and I have made the right decision in the interest of the country’s economic stability.

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

Every single Member of this House will have constituents waiting for treatment in the covid backlog. The Health and Social Care Secretary’s priorities are absolutely right, including her B—tackling the backlog. Can the Prime Minister reassure me that the Government are committed to the series of elective hubs that we have promised, including at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in my Winchester constituency?

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend the Health and Social Care Secretary has set out her plans to deliver on dealing with the covid backlog. She will continue to work on that and make sure that we deal with what was a massive pandemic that created a backlog. We will deal with it.

UK Energy Costs

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Steve Brine

Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will take a few more interventions in a few minutes, but I ask Members please to let me make progress on my speech.

Secondly, today’s actions will deliver substantial benefits to our economy—boosting growth, which increases tax receipts, and giving certainty to business. This intervention is expected to curb inflation by up to five percentage points, bringing a reduction in the cost of servicing Government debt.

Thirdly, I am announcing today that, with the Bank of England, we will set up a new scheme worth up to £40 billion to ensure that firms operating in the wholesale energy market have the liquidity they need to manage price volatility. This will stabilise the market and decrease the likelihood of energy retailers needing our support, as they did last winter.

By increasing supply, boosting the economy and increasing liquidity in the market, we will significantly reduce the cost to Government of this intervention.

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

It is very kind of the Prime Minister to give way to so many sensible Members.

Today is clearly a big intervention, and the Government are, as she promised, wrapping their arms around my constituents, as we did during the pandemic. Looking to the future, can she confirm that the plans are primarily about domestic supply rather than imported reliance and are therefore in line with the important commitments we made at COP26 in Glasgow and with our commitment to the path to net zero made in our manifesto three years ago?

[The Prime Minister]

I am completely committed to net zero by 2050 and I will be saying more about how we will be achieving that later in this speech.

As well as dealing with the immediate situation we face, we are also dealing with the root causes.

NHS Pensions: Taxation

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Steve Brine

Monday 8th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

As I said, the consultation will be launched fairly soon—the Health Secretary is looking at that—and people will of course be able to feed their views into it.

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

It is welcome to see a Treasury Minister answering this question; it was a Health Minister in the Westminster Hall debate. As a former cancer Minister, I was incredibly proud of our Government’s 75% ambition, and I doubt whether there is a Member in this House who does not support that. The news from my trust is that this pension issue is hitting radiology, which is hitting cancer diagnoses. Theatre lists are being cancelled because we cannot get anaesthetic cover, as my hon. Friend the Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) mentioned earlier, so may I stress to the Minister the urgency of the situation? We need to grip this and fast, because the longer this goes on and the further it falls, the harder it will be to retrieve. Urgency is the key word here.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I can assure my hon. Friend that I spoke with the Health Secretary earlier today. We are seeking to get the consultation out as soon as possible. The Government have been working on this now for a number of weeks.