Income Tax (Charge)

Jess Brown-Fuller Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jess Brown-Fuller (Chichester) (LD)]

I start by recognising that this Government face an enormous challenge in clearing up the mess of a decade of Conservative mismanagement in this country, and that failure is nowhere more apparent than in our NHS and care sector. Every day, thousands of patients across the country face agonisingly long waits, often in severe pain, just to see a GP or get an appointment with a dentist.

Yesterday, I met a constituent whose 45-year-old husband—a well-loved, energetic and creative man—never regained consciousness after being left in the A&E waiting room of my local hospital for six hours after suffering a brain haemorrhage. James Palmer-Bullock leaves behind three wonderful children, a loving wife and a devastated community. His wife’s request to me was to ensure that no family ever suffers the same neglect again. I hope the Secretary of State will meet me to discuss the experience that my constituent faced and what can be done to prevent it in future.

New funding for day-to-day spend in the NHS is welcomed across this House, and it is desperately needed if we are ever to address the crisis in the NHS. However, there is no point in pouring money into a leaky bucket if that money does not get where it needs to go.

[Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

It is not just public services that we need to focus on: the third sector provides vital services that many of our constituents rely on, particularly children’s hospices. I would like to highlight to the House the Acorns children’s hospice in my constituency, which provides vital support to many local families in a really acute moment of need. In 2019, NHS England decided to increase the children’s hospice grant—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. That intervention was far too long.

[Jess Brown-Fuller]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. He will be pleased to know that I am going to mention hospices later in my speech.

To fix the NHS, we must fix both the front and the back door. Taking the pressure off secondary care can only be achieved by properly funding primary care. That is why the decision to increase employer’s national insurance contributions is a significant mistake, as it risks worsening the crisis in the NHS and care sector. Increasing that rate will drive up GP surgery costs, significantly raising the annual expense of GP practices. Those practices are not eligible for the employment allowance that protects our small employers, so surgeries in Chichester and across the country will bear the full weight of that rise—a burden that they and my constituents simply cannot afford. Surgeries such as Southbourne surgery, Langley House surgery and Selsey medical practice have already reached out to me with concerns about their ability to continue providing services amid those financial challenges. They all agree that this increase will directly undermine patient access and care.

Charities have long suffered the burden of failing statutory services. Chichester boasts some of the most amazing charitable organisations, and one of the great pleasures of my role is to spend time with the people at the heart of those organisations. Charities such as Stonepillow, which works to prevent homelessness in our area, face an increase in costs of £125,000. I also visited St Wilfrid’s hospice after the Budget announcement—an incredible hospice that provides palliative care for hundreds of people every year, both in the hospice and in the community. It now faces an increased bill of £175,000—money that it needs to find annually, with only 17% of its annual budget covered by the NHS. I urge the Government to consider exempting the health and social care sector from the national insurance rise, so that the Treasury is not giving with one hand and taking with the other.