Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 7th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

T10. The Chancellor recently claimed that £100,000 a year is not a huge salary. Does he realise how out of touch that sounds to families in my constituency who are working hard, earning much less than that and really struggling because they are paying 25% more for their weekly shop than they were two years ago, and whose mortgages soared after the Tories crashed the economy?

[Jeremy Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that he has taken my comments out of context. I will tell him what is really out of touch: the shadow Chancellor saying it is not a big deal if inflation falls.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 19th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

Because the way we return the overseas aid budget to 0.7% is to grow the economy. By cutting national insurance, we put nearly 100,000 more people into the national workforce, filling nearly one in 10 vacancies in companies up and down the country.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

7. What recent steps he has taken to help ensure people have access to banking services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

T6. The head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said of the Chancellor:“Continuing to muddle through, massage the figures, and implement poorly designed policies will only make the problems worse.”That is a pretty damning verdict on his Budget, is it not?

[Jeremy Hunt]

It would be if his comment had not been quoted out of context, as the hon. Gentleman just did, because he also said that he could see in the Budget a growth plan and he strongly welcomed measures such as the childcare reform.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

Last November, the Health Secretary committed to ending out-of-area mental health placements by 2020, but the number of people placed more than 100 km from their home rose by 65% over the past year. The earlier response from the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price), was no answer, so what are the Government actually going to do to turn the situation around?

[Mr Hunt]

There are record numbers of tier 4 beds, and we are putting record amounts of money into mental health.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend, who has a lot of experience of working in the NHS, is absolutely right. The new Care Quality Commission inspection regime is designed precisely to identify good, strong leadership, because that has the best impact on staff and, through that, the best impact on patients.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

9. What assessment he has made of the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on the level of funding for drug treatment services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to talk further with my hon. Friend. He knows that this is a local matter. It was, I think, looked into in 2014, but if the pattern of demand changes it should be kept under review.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

11. What assessment he has made of the effect of changes to local authority social care budgets on the demand for health services.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeff Smith and Jeremy Hunt

Thursday 11th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

It is because an agreement cannot be reached that we have to take the measures that we are taking today. The bits of the new contract to which the hon. Gentleman draws attention are the bits that will have the biggest impact on the morale of junior doctors, because we are saying that we do not think it is right for hospitals to ask them to work five nights in a row or to work six or seven long days in a row. We are putting that right in the new contract. That will lead to less tired doctors and better care for patients.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

I met a large group of junior doctors in my constituency to discuss the new contract. They were highly professional and totally committed to the NHS, but for the first time some of them were considering working abroad. One of them told me that, although she loved her job, she would never let her daughter train as a junior doctor now. Does that not demonstrate that the low morale—the despair, frankly—and the likely flight of junior doctors as a consequence of imposition is a huge threat to the future of our NHS?

[Mr Hunt]

The biggest threat to morale for doctors is not being able to deliver the care that they came into the profession to deliver. That is why we are sorting out a proper seven-day NHS, particularly for junior doctors who work in A&E departments at weekends, where they often do not have the support they would get during the week and do not have as many consultants around as there would normally be. That is what we are trying to put right. I appreciate that it is very difficult when the counter-party in the dispute does not want to negotiate, but in the end Governments have to decide what is right for patients and what is right for the service, as well as what is right for doctors.