Long-term Plan for the NHS

Lord Warner Excerpts

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Warner (CB)]

My Lords, could the Minister say something about the economic literacy of this announcement? As I understand it, the Conservative chairman of the Health Select Committee, Dr Sarah Wollaston, has said that the Brexit dividend idea is “tosh”. If we write that one out of the script, can he say something about what economic assumptions the Government are making on the growth of GDP in each of the next five years?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I know that the noble Lord no longer serves the Labour Party, but he might be interested to know that the Labour leader said in February that,

“we will use the funds returned from Brussels after Brexit to invest in our public services”.

Clearly, we are not alone in believing that, once we leave the European Union—and, as a party, we are committed to leaving the European Union—we will no longer be sending subscriptions to Brussels but using them for the NHS. For further detail on the funding settlement, the noble Lord will need to wait until the Budget, when the Chancellor will outline the plans.