Southern Cross Healthcare

Ian Lavery Excerpts
Thursday 16th June 2011

(13 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. I am keen to accommodate remaining colleagues, but may I remind them of the merits of brevity?

Ian Lavery Portrait Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)
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Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Residents in the six Southern Cross care homes in my constituency will be horrified by the Minister’s opening remarks. He said that this is a commercial problem to be dealt with by the commercial sector, which is absolutely outrageous and will frighten the wits out of each of those 31,000 residents. This is a society problem, and it should be dealt with by the Government. What small crumbs or words of comfort can he give to people in my constituency? When will we stop abusing elderly people and using them as marketplace commodities?