Oral Answers to Questions

Neil Shastri-Hurst Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a real champion for Airdrie and Shotts. Over 60,000 Scots have been stuck, waiting for tests or treatment for over a year, which is a 46% rise in one year. Almost 50,000 fewer operations have been carried out compared with before the pandemic. To compare what the SNP is doing with what we are doing here in England, we have driven down waiting lists within six months, with six months in a row of reductions, and we have over 3 million extra appointments. Scotland’s NHS urgently needs change, but the SNP has no strategy or plan—it has absolutely no ideas.

[Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst (Solihull West and Shirley) (Con)]

Q10. The danger posed by China to our national security is self-evident. Can the Prime Minister explain why he and his Government have chosen to treat Beijing as a business partner and not as the hostile state that it truly is?

[The Prime Minister]

I have set out our approach to China a number of times. It is not materially different from the approach in the last years of the previous Government, I might add. In relation to Scunthorpe, the deal that we had to deal with during recess was the deal negotiated by the last Government. We have taken sensible decisions in the national interest and will continue to do so.