Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gareth Snell and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I thank the hon. Member for her question, and for making everyone aware of the powerful protest taking place today, which so visibly reminds us that lots of people’s voices may not be heard if they cannot participate in person. It is a reminder of the challenges that people face. I will undertake to raise her concerns with my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary, and I give carers across the country the assurance that we are working as fast as we can. Having delivered the biggest expansion of carer’s allowance since the 1970s, we want to ensure we deliver for this extremely important group of people, whom we are lucky to have in our society.

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

T3.   My constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central has some of the deepest ingrained health inequalities anywhere in the country. My constituents are just as deserving of first-class healthcare as anyone else, so can the Secretary of State set out how the 10-year health plan will help reduce those health inequalities and ensure that, across Stoke-on-Trent and north Staffordshire, my constituents have the healthy lives they should expect?

[Wes Streeting]

I can absolutely give my hon. Friend that reassurance. It was appalling that the previous Government not only cancelled lots of the deprivation-linked funding put in place by the Labour Government but threw all that progress into reverse. That is not the approach that this Government will take. We will have funding based on need, not pork barrel politics. I can assure my hon. Friend that his constituents in Stoke-on-Trent will benefit from our sincere commitment to tackling health inequalities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gareth Snell and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I absolutely take the point the hon. Gentleman is making about the importance of place-based leadership. That is why one thing we will be looking to do, as part of the 10-year plan process, is to clarify roles and responsibilities in different parts of the system to ensure that we have better strategic place-based leadership.

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

T9.   The Royal Stoke hospital is leading the way when it comes to treatment for stroke patients, but as with so many illnesses, prevention is better than cure. Can the Minister set out what this Government are doing to minimise the number of people affected by these life-altering events?