NHS and Social Care Commission

Mary Creagh Excerpts

Thursday 28th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

After your intervention on the Minister, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will ensure that I keep my remarks extremely brief. For those who have been here throughout the duration of the debate, it is probably time to have something to eat.

This has been an extraordinarily good debate and we have heard very well informed contributions. I absolutely agree with the hon. Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) that we should be ambitious and that we should have the mindset that what happens at the moment is not good enough. We should aspire to have the best health and care system imaginable and in comparison with other European countries.

I suppose that what is behind my plea for a commission, which I will continue to make, is the brutal truth that our political process has let people down. The hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) made the point that an elderly person who does not get the care they need suffers when the political process fails. In a way, partisan politics has ducked the big issues, despite what some hon. Members have said about big political issues being determined in a partisan way. That has failed and let the people of this country down.

The shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander), in many ways gave a thoughtful speech, much of which I completely agreed with. She had a little go at me about social care funding, but the truth is that none of the political parties confronted the funding needs of social care at the general election. There was a bit of a race over health funding, but social care was neglected, as it has been again and again. Until we confront that, people in this country will continue to be let down.

Opposition Members can choose to say, “It is all the Government’s responsibility.” The Minister clearly wants to keep it that way, and we could just attack for the next five years. When things get really difficult, we can go for the failures of the system. Alternatively, we could adopt a different approach and recognise that these are profound issues that, in a way, have not been thought about comprehensively since the foundation of the system back in 1948. In ’48, there was a process that garnered cross-party support, despite what the shadow Secretary of State said about that being impossible.

Sometimes, this country needs to reach big decisions together, whether it is about pensions or climate change, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg) was saying, or about how we cope with an ageing population. I believe that this is the moment when it is necessary for us to come together to confront those issues. It is in the Government’s interest to think again and embrace the proposal. It is foolhardy to reject it, because I suspect that, with the projections that we all know about, during this Parliament, things will get very messy.

I will continue to campaign and I am very grateful to Members on both sides of the House for supporting that proposition. I thank all hon. Members for their contributions to the debate this afternoon.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House calls for the establishment of an independent, non-partisan Commission on the future of the NHS and social care which would engage with the public, the NHS and care workforces, experts and civic society, sitting for a defined period with the aim of establishing a long-term settlement for the NHS and social care.

[Mary Creagh (Wakefield) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. In the past hour, we have had the news that the Lord Chancellor has scrapped the Government’s proposed legal aid reforms, which had drawn such huge protests from criminal solicitors across the country, including in my constituency. We had a debate on prison and justice issues for three hours yesterday, which would have given him ample opportunity to tell the House of the news. May I use your good offices, Mr Deputy Speaker, to ask whether it would be appropriate for the Lord Chancellor to come and make a statement to the House tomorrow, which is a sitting Friday?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I have been given no notice today of any statement, and it is very late in the evening and we are about to finish. What I can say is that it is certainly on the record and the Government are certainly able, if they wish, to make a statement tomorrow. The hon. Lady is able to put in for an urgent question if she feels it is appropriate. I cannot promise anything, but those avenues are open to the Government and to the hon. Lady.