Business of the House

Julian Lewis Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

My hon. Friend has been an assiduous campaigner for his local hospital; I know that he has raised his concerns in the House many times, and I pay tribute to him for that. We are committed to community diagnostic services, with a £2.3 billion investment, providing the NHS with the tools it needs to deliver 9.5 million additional tests by 2029, but I will ensure that he gets a meeting with the relevant Minister to bring his concerns forward.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

In such troubled political times, it is reassuring that the House can unite in appreciation of the fine public service of Alex Younger and Meta Ramsay at the Secret Intelligence Service, and Alan Haselhurst, Jeremy Hanley and Gladys Dickson in the service of Parliament. In that spirit, may I appeal to the Leader of the House to use his considerable common sense and influence to get the Government to revisit something that was not in their manifesto—namely, local government reorganisation—and to come forward with a statement that recognises the huge opposition, with nearly 23,000 signatures online so far, to the tearing apart of the New Forest at the behest of party politicians in Southampton city? I would love to be able to go to the New Forest Association of Local Councils AGM tonight and tell them that the Government are going to reconsider this partisan matter for which they had no mandate at the general election.

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I cannot give the right hon. Gentleman that assurance to take back this evening, but I can assure him that if he wishes to raise that directly with Ministers, to put right a wrong, as he describes it, I will arrange a meeting.

I should have said this earlier; it was remiss of me not to do so: the shadow Leader of the House and I read out a long list of people who unfortunately have passed, and the common thread that runs through that list is public service. It is a remarkable list of people, and it is sad that sometimes it is only when we are reading out a list of people whose lives have ended that we recognise the importance of public service. There are lots of very, very good public servants out there doing a good job day in, day out, and I pay tribute to every one of them.