Income Tax (Charge)

James Wild Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)]

This Budget is the moment we turn the page on 14 years of Tory neglect of our NHS, when we begin to fix the foundations of our public finances and public services, when we wipe the slate clean after 14 years of stagnant growth and under-investment, and when we start to rebuild Britain. This Government were elected to deliver change: from economic chaos to stability, from crumbling schools and hospitals to first-class public services, and from short-term sticking plasters to a decade of national renewal.

On Wednesday, the Chancellor took the tough decisions to set our country on a better path to a brighter future. Labour’s manifesto promised to protect the payslips of working people while asking the wealthy to pay more, and the Chancellor delivered. We promised economic stability through new fiscal rules, and the Chancellor delivered. We promised more teachers in our state schools paid for by ending tax breaks on private schools, and the Chancellor delivered. We promised to end the non-dom tax status to fund 40,000 extra NHS appointments a week, and the Chancellor delivered.

Our country, our economy and our NHS were crying out for change, and the Chancellor delivered. She did so against the backdrop of the most appalling inheritance faced by any Government since the second world war—and not just the £22 billion black hole in the public finances. Let me set out for the House exactly what I was greeted with in my Department alone when I walked through the door on 5 July.

The Conservatives had told the country that they were on track to build 40 new hospitals by 2030. The former Health Secretary told the House that the funding had been provided. Putting aside the fact that there were never actually 40 new hospitals planned, I was informed in July not only that the programme was years behind schedule but that the funding was to run out in March. The only place those hospitals existed was in Boris Johnson’s imagination.

The Conservatives promised to cap social care costs by October 2025, just 15 months after the general election, but there was not a single penny set aside to pay for it; the cupboard was completely bare. Within weeks of the general election, councils were warning that it would be impossible to implement the cap by next October because the preparations had not been made. Those were fantasy pledges that the Conservatives never intended on keeping.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

rose—

[Wes Streeting]

I am happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman to tell us why.

[James Wild]

On the new hospital programme, the Government committed in the Budget to move swiftly to rebuild reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete hospitals. The Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn is keen to make progress with its plans. Will he meet me and the trust so that we can unlock the funding and get that hospital ready by 2030?

[Wes Streeting]

That is a commitment that we have made and a commitment that we will keep. I am happy to ensure that the hon. Member can meet the relevant Minister and project team as we get under way on delivering that project.

I did actually go back to check the pledges made by the Conservative party in its 2024 manifesto just to see how extensive the work of fiction was, only to find that the manifesto page on its website now reads “page not found”. The truth is, had the Conservatives won the election, it would have been deleted just as quickly.

That was not all I was told when I became Secretary of State in July. Despite 18 months of strikes in the NHS, there was no funding put aside to end the junior doctors’ dispute. What is more, the previous Health Secretary had not met the resident doctors since March—the Conservatives had given up even attempting to end the strikes. People should remember that this winter. For all the challenges that the NHS will face, this will be the first winter in three years when NHS staff will be on the frontline, not the picket line. That is the difference that a Labour Budget makes.

I was told that GPs would be qualifying this year with no jobs to go into. The Government found the funding and we are hiring an extra 1,000 GPs this year. That is the difference that a Labour Budget makes.