Health and Social Care

John Leech Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) and the hon. Member for Bosworth (David Tredinnick), who care passionately about health care in its widest and broadest sense.

This Gracious Speech is unprecedented. I cannot recall in all my years of working in this place, dating back to 1977, another instance of a Prime Minister saying it is okay for their party to vote against the Government’s programme. I cannot see the late Baroness Thatcher condoning such a move. This coalition Government are in meltdown, and the public must be wondering whether any of the proposals in the Queen’s Speech have the wholehearted support of their Members.

That said, there are measures in the health Bill that could and should be shaped and improved on a cross-party basis. It is therefore important that adequate time be allotted for the various debates and the Committee stage. The proposed programme is hardly onerous, so the guillotining of Bills should not be required—unless the Government decide that they dare not encourage full debate, and chicken out. We shall see.

Before moving on to the health-related elements of the Gracious Speech, I would like to mention the draft consumer rights Bill because it revisits the private Member’s Bill introduced by my father—Michael Ward, who was a Member of Parliament—which became the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. He was supported by the late David Tench in enacting what was groundbreaking consumer legislation. Lord Denning, the then Master of the Rolls, described it as

“the most important change in civil law”.

My father would, if he were alive, be very keen to ensure that the streamlining and simplification process in bringing together so much consumer legislation does not water down consumer rights.

There are a number of health-related proposals in the Queen’s Speech. In Plymouth—a mesothelioma hot spot because of the nature of its industrial base—people will welcome the further progress that has been made on speeding up the process through which insurance companies accept liability and pay compensation. However, for too many of my constituents progress has been tragically slow: they have not survived this awful disease long enough to benefit from the legislation. We have a moral duty to do everything we can to support the victims, and we need to ensure that the Bill, which has had a very slow gestation—it was discussed under the last Labour Government—does what it says on the tin and guarantees faster pay-outs. The failure to address other asbestos-related diseases is also giving rise to concern.

Those who are more fortunate are now, with support, living into grand old age, and we have to resolve the issue, which has dogged successive Governments, of providing care for our older citizens, as well as younger people with illness or disability. The care and support Bill should be welcomed as a step in the right direction, but I fear it will not be enough and, rather than having a full-blown national care service, we will end up with a piecemeal one. The level of the cap has been set too high—higher than Andrew Dilnot recommended—and without investment in local services the Bill will have serious consequences, as clearly set out in the opening speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham).

To deliver much of what will need to be delivered, local authorities will therefore be required to step up to the plate—the joined-up care that the Secretary of State talked about. Yet we know that many are having to dismantle the architecture upon which good care and support is offered—as we are seeing in Torbay, an exemplar—because of the deep cuts being made to their budgets. Can the Government please be clear about who will be running these care and support networks? If it is the private sector, how will they ensure that there is not a postcode lottery?

Oddly, earlier the Secretary of State was behaving like one of those nodding dogs we see in the backs of cars when it was pointed out that hospitals are under pressure and staffing levels are not all they should be. However, he has provided no real answers in this Queen’s Speech.

At long last, after almost four years, we have a Bill paving the way for a potentially dramatic change to the way defence procurement is carried out. There is consensus across the political divide that successive Administrations did not sufficiently reform defence procurement. Equipment programmes were overheated in respect of funding, and the Ministry of Defence was underpowered in the skills required to deliver increasingly complex programmes. There are too many questions that need to be asked for the time available, and today is not about defence, but we will need to come back to those questions. The themes, however, are the accountability of the proposed GoCo —Government-owned, contractor-operated organisation —and where the risk lies. For example, does it lie with the taxpayer or with the private company? Warning bells are already ringing around Westminster about the management of risk. We know from successive Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office reports that the MOD struggles when it comes to assessing risk. We need to know whether the Ministry of Defence, like the Department of Health, is producing legislation that removes the Secretary of State’s power to intervene and take responsibility.

Finally, I come to the Bills that were not mentioned. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition emphasised the missing legislation in his response to the Loyal Address. The cold hand of the Prime Minister’s henchman, whose links to the tobacco industry as a lobbyist are well documented and who has accepted major donations to his campaign in Australia from British American Tobacco, is writ large on this Gracious Speech.

[Mr John Leech (Manchester, Withington) (LD)]

I agree that not having legislation to introduce standardised packaging for tobacco products is the wrong decision, but does the hon. Lady agree that it is appalling how the unions, too, have tried to stop this legislation?

[Alison Seabeck]

People work in those industries, and, understandably, the unions representing them have to consider the membership’s point of view. Among the unions as a whole, there is a broad range of views, very much reflecting those in this place today.

Returning to my point, perhaps that is why No. 10 has U-turned, from a position where it was wrong for children to be attracted to smoking by glitzy designs on packets and there were statements that children should be protected from the start, to the obverse position, where we are not being allowed to have legislation that would have a beneficial impact on the future health of our population and on the NHS budget. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) said, we need to know who is pulling the strings in setting Government policy. The Government have bottled it; they are in thrall to their right wing. Young people in Plymouth, particular our Youth Parliament members and those in our youth cabinet, who wanted very much to see this change brought forward, will feel that they have been sold down the river. Many young people are asking what is in the Queen’s Speech for them; there is nothing to protect their future health and nothing to help them into work.

If the Government were serious about improving the health of the nation, we would have given these measures a fair wind. They would have had broad support from the Opposition, as would investment in other areas, such as housing that is affordable to rent, because good housing equates to good physical and mental health. Nothing has been said on those issues. The Queen’s Speech is a huge missed opportunity, and it is simply not good enough.

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

It is a delight to follow the hon. Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter). I might not have agreed with everything he said, but he was right to point out that away from this place people’s concern is about economic growth. Sadly, the Queen’s Speech does not adequately address that concern.

Some of the less thoughtful contributions have demonstrated just how deeply divided this Government are—not between parties, but within the main party of government. The Prime Minister is unable to command the support of his own party. When he makes a decision, it is often the wrong one, putting party squabbles before national interest.

Just for one moment, let us imagine the scene in Washington today. The Prime Minister is there to seek the ear of the President on the EU-US trade deal, which is hugely important to this country and worth £10 billion a year. As the President received his pre-meeting briefing, I wonder what his advisers would have been saying: “Don’t waste time on this Prime Minister, Mr President. He has only two years left. He can’t even command the support of his own party. His Cabinet members are speaking out against him as they jostle for succession, and he has even told members of his own Government that they can vote against him on the Government’s programme. We will have to talk to the people who count in Government—ignore this one.” As Barack Obama raises his eyebrows in incredulity, British influence disappears out of the window because of the weakness of this Prime Minister.

That situation is also demonstrated in the Queen’s Speech, and as much by what is not included in it as by what is. When the Prime Minister makes a decision, too often he buckles under pressure from the wrong people, backing powerful vested interests against those of ordinary people. As a number of my colleagues and a number of Government Members have done, I want to highlight the absence of the promised legislation for standardised cigarette packaging, which sacrifices the health of our children in favour of the profits of the big tobacco companies.

Back in February, the Prime Minister talked clearly about introducing legislation for standardised packaging. The papers reported that

“Ministers are convinced that the ban is necessary to take the next step to reduce smoking in the UK.”

Those reports were confirmed by a senior Whitehall source, who said:

“We are going to follow what they have done in Australia.”

The source correctly went on to say:

“The evidence suggests it is going to deter young smokers. There is going to be legislation”.

That was what we were all expecting, although perhaps some of us were surprised that the Government had actually got it right on this issue and were putting people first—that was, until just a few days ago. I do not know whether they were under the influence of Lynton Crosby—bear it in mind that he earned considerable sums of money from the tobacco lobby, and that he failed to win the argument against standardised packaging in Australia before bringing his toxic approach to politics here—or perhaps they were just running frightened from the UK Independence party’s opposition to public health measures against smoking.

[Mr Leech]

I note that the hon. Gentleman does not mention the intervention of the unions and their support for retaining the existing system of packaging. Would he like to condemn the position that the unions have taken on standardised packaging?

[Paul Blomfield]

My understanding is that the majority of unions would support standardised packaging. I deeply regret the fact that the tobacco giants use some individual trade unionists as de facto lobbyists.

The Government surrendered to the tobacco giants. What message does that send to the country? This Government are prepared to see people die and, as the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) said, die horribly, and in their hundreds of thousands, to prop up the profits of the tobacco industry. There are no industries like the tobacco industry—the more cigarettes it sells, the more money it makes and the more people die.

Since science confirmed the link between smoking and lung cancer, the tobacco industry has opposed every single measure to reduce smoking. We all know that smoking is the largest preventable cause of cancer; it is responsible for four out of every 10 cancer deaths. According to Cancer Research UK, tobacco is responsible for 100,000 deaths in the UK every year. We have made huge strides with the measures that have already been taken against smoking, but as we have encouraged people to stop smoking, the tobacco giants have been building their market among young people. A report from Cancer Research UK in March showed that the number of children smoking had risen by 50,000 in just one year.