Health and Social Care
Debate between Gerald Howarth and Kevin Barron(11 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Barron
If the hon. Lady will keep quiet, I can tell her that that was what was said, but there are fewer than 8 million Bulgarians living out there. Many Bulgarians have been living and working in this country for many years, because they met criteria outwith the criteria laid down when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. The whole debate is disgraceful, and we should get it into some perspective.
Mr Barron
No, I have given way twice and I am not going to give way any more.
What is not in the Queen’s Speech? Public health has been mentioned by several people. I served on the Bill Committee for what became the Health and Social Care Act 2012. I will leave the reorganisation of the NHS for another day, but at the time the Bill was going through, the defence given by Ministers was, “What we will start doing is putting real measures down, and for the first time ever we will put in statute a responsibility to reduce health inequalities in this country.”
Two policies that most people involved in and concerned about public health thought would be in the Queen’s Speech are absent. One is the minimum pricing of alcohol, which was talked up by the Prime Minister over many months. There is evidence that it will stop some people drinking excessively. I served on the Health Committee in the previous Parliament, and just before the general election we published a report on alcohol. People ought to read it to see exactly what is happening. One of the worst statistics was on the people who are likely to die from alcohol-related diseases—certainly cirrhosis of the liver. Thirty years ago, they were people like me—men in their 60s—but now, men and women in their 20s are dying of that disease. This House has a responsibility to do something about that.
The other area that I wish to discuss briefly is the absence of legislation to bring in standardised packaging of cigarettes. That has also been talked up, not only by the Prime Minister but by others. The consultation on standardised packaging started on 16 April last year and ended on 20 August; now, nine months later, nothing is going to happen. I am deeply concerned, and I will tell Members why, although there can be no surprises about me and tobacco, because I have been on an anti-tobacco crusade in the House for nearly two decades. In my borough—I represent a third of it—there are still some 48,000 smokers, and although the number is declining, it is likely that more than 950 young people between the ages of 11 and 15 will take up smoking this year, and half of them will die a premature death. This year, more than 100,000 of our fellow citizens will die a premature death from using tobacco as instructed to by the tobacco companies. If half that many people were dying of anything else in this country, this House would be up in arms about such a massive number of deaths. In the past few months, what we have had is Ministers talking up the idea of legislation further to protect young children from starting smoking, but none of that has come about.
Sir Gerald Howarth
It is a question of priorities. Our level of aid is such that the Prime Minister can say, with great justification, that Britain has given a lead in the world, but the figure of 0.7% is entirely arbitrary. I would submit that there is no natural level for the amount of aid to be given. I am not an opponent of overseas aid; I just believe that there should be other priorities at the moment.
I do not wish my speech to be a negative one, and it was written not by Mr Lynton Crosby but by myself. I welcome some aspects of the Gracious Speech. The first is the continuing priority to cut the budget deficit. It was pretty nauseating to listen to the shadow Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), and to hear him demand more money here, there and everywhere. He was part of a Government who destroyed the public finances of this country. That is why we have to make cuts. These cuts are Labour’s cuts across the country, because Labour destroyed the public finances by running up an impossible debt.
Secondly, I welcome the confirmation that we are going to pursue further reforms of the benefits system. It has been most encouraging to see how warmly the country has received our changes, particularly the £26,000 limit on families receiving benefits. The Philpott case was an eye-opener to many, highlighting that far too many people in this country are living a wholly immoral lifestyle on public finance, and we need to crack down on that.
Sir Gerald Howarth
As the right hon. Gentleman would not give way to me, I am rather disinclined to give way to him.
Sir Gerald Howarth
I will come back to the right hon. Gentleman in a minute.
Thirdly, I welcome the further attempts to bear down on regulation. We need to do much more to liberate businesses from regulation, but we are, of course, inhibited by Europe, on which I wish to say a few words later.
Fourthly, the reform of long-term care arrangements has not come before time. I recommend to my Front-Bench colleagues an excellent publication from March 1997 called “A New Partnership for Care in Old Age.” We had a tremendous scheme then, which unfortunately we were not able to implement because power passed to Labour, whose Government did nothing in the 13 years when they had stewardship of these matters. I also welcome the measures to tackle immigration, although I suspect they will have limited effect.
Finally on the good news front, I think the Prime Minister has done a fantastic job of promoting Britain’s interests overseas, particularly in developing overseas trade. We have seen some reflection of that in increased trade with non-EU countries, as against trade with the EU, which, as we all know, is in meltdown.
Two issues were not mentioned: gay marriage and Europe. My hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr Leigh) set out why the same-sex marriages proposal is a complete diversion. We should not be doing this: the Government have no mandate for it, it is deeply divisive, particularly among many Conservative supporters, and I think we should drop it here and now.
Immigration is a big issue and it is relevant to this debate, as the Government are seeking to put in place changes to prevent people from benefiting from our taxpayers’ money by coming to this county simply to tap into our health care system. There have been encouraging signs. The observations made by the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) show precisely what has been wrong in this country, in that anybody wishing to speak up on immigration has been told that their tone is wrong, or this is not the right time, or they are insensitive. His Front-Bench colleagues have now recognised that the kinds of policy he supports have been deeply damaging to his party. Labour supporters are as concerned about immigration as Conservative supporters and, I suspect, Liberal Democrat supporters.