Oral Answers to Questions

Feryal Clark Excerpts

Tuesday 18th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

I thank my hon. Friend, who is pushing me constantly to improve access for her constituents, but can I reassure her that the announcement, the funds and the support are making a difference? In November last year, there were on average 1.39 million general practice appointments per working day, compared with 1.31 million in November 2019, but crucially, 62.7% of those appointments were face to face, so this is really making a difference for patients.

[Feryal Clark (Enfield North) (Lab)]

A nurse wrote this week about working on covid wards during the height of the pandemic:

“There were no vaccines or treatments then and we worked for hours in full PPE to protect ourselves and try not to bring the virus home to our families. There were no after work drinks for us…It is clear that there was a culture inside Number 10 where even if rules were not technically broken, the spirit of the rules were, and this is completely unacceptable.”

The nurse is the Minister. Surely she must agree that the Prime Minister should now resign.

[Maria Caulfield]

I am very disappointed by the hon. Lady’s question. Serious issues are facing the NHS and patients, and instead of playing party politics at the Dispatch Box, perhaps she needs to ask her own leader what he was doing in May last year.