Oral Answers to Questions

Rushanara Ali Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)]

I am concerned about the quality of services that patients and their families receive. In my constituency, 100 jobs are already going, and I am worried that the cuts in staffing will have an effect on the services that are available. Can the Minister guarantee that front-line services will be protected, because the reality is that, in constituencies such as mine, staffing is crucial to ensuring that decent services are available?

[Mr Burns]

I have to tell the hon. Lady that, in this very difficult financial situation, which we inherited from her Government, it is only by making efficiency savings and getting rid of excess bureaucracy that we can generate the income to reinvest to save front-line services—[Interruption.] She and the Greek chorus in front of her must understand that, if we had not been left in this mess in which £43 billion a year is being spent on the interest on the debt that we inherited, we would not have the problems that we now have—