NHS

John Bercow Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I advise the House that I have selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

Perhaps I may help my right hon. Friend by saying that the campaign in North Norfolk began on the Minister’s website after the excellent campaign run by the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate, Denise Burke, who pointed out how deficient local services were—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I have been watching carefully. Dr Coffey, I fear that you are catching what I can describe only as Gove-itis. You are normally regarded as a rather cerebral soul, and I invite you to try to contain your irascibility for a period, if you can.

[Mr Slaughter]

Will my right hon. Friend join me in condemning the Government for still classing A and Es as such when, like the one at Charing Cross, they are in practice closing and turning into GP-run clinics? The Government are still calling them A and Es, and people are misled. That will lead them to go to the GP-run centres when they should be going to properly staffed A and Es, and we will get tragedies such as the one at Chase Farm.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andy Burnham]

The hon. Gentleman should climb off his high horse for a moment. In answer to an important point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green), I pointed to the increase in cases of scurvy, rickets and malnutrition. If he wants—[Interruption.] If he wants to deny that that is the case, that is up to him—[Interruption.] If he speaks to A and E staff, he will hear that people who are not eating properly are turning up in ever greater numbers—[Interruption.] I have answered his point and I will now make some progress.

It is the case that too many older people are arriving at hospital in the first place. A recent Care Quality Commission report found avoidable emergency admissions for pensioners topping 500,000 for the first time—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The exchange between the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) and the hon. Member for Taunton Deane is most unseemly. I remind the latter that he is a distinguished former member of Her Majesty’s Government and he should comport himself with appropriate dignity. That is what we look for in an hon. Member who aspires to be a statesman.

[Andy Burnham]

I suggest—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am not dismissing the statesmanlike potential of the hon. Member for Taunton Deane, but I think his journey has some way to go.

[Andy Burnham]

The beard is certainly helping. I suggest that the hon. Member for Taunton Deane (Mr Browne) visit Liverpool Walton, because he will see more food banks there than anywhere else in the country. He will meet families who cannot afford to put enough food on the table to give their kids a decent diet. He will see the direct effects of some of his Government’s policies on some of the most deprived communities in the country.