Business of the House

Thangam Debbonaire Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg)]

Following the statement just made by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on a sustainable plan for the NHS and social care, I should like to make a short business statement regarding business for tomorrow and the rest of the week. The business will now be:

Wednesday 8 September—Consideration of a Ways and Means resolution on health and social care levy.

Thursday 9 September—Motion relating to the second report of Session 2021-22 from the Committee on Standards, followed by remaining stages of the Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill, followed by a general debate on the legacy of Jo Cox. The subject for this debate was determined by the Backbench Business Committee.

Friday 10 September—Private Members’ Bills.

As usual, I will make a business statement on Thursday.

[Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)]

I thank the Leader of the House for advance sight of the statement.

This morning, the Cabinet was bounced into the Prime Minister’s so-called social care plan, and now the Leader of the House is trying to bounce Parliament into accepting it in a vote tomorrow. This is no way to run a Government. It is no way to run a country. This Tory tax rise will not come in till next spring, so why the rush? Does he know that he will never get it past his Back Benchers and through Parliament otherwise? Is he making sure that his own MPs have as little time as possible to consult their constituents or hear from stakeholders and experts? He would not be the first Minister in his Government to forget that emails will be coming into his colleagues’ inboxes right now.

The Leader of the House recently reminded the Prime Minister of the fate of one-term President George H. W. Bush and his words on taxes, which were not heeded. Will the Leader of the House be voting against his Government tomorrow, or was that another example of more empty rhetoric?

The Government are in crisis-management mode, lurching from one disaster to the next. They are trying to cover up the fact that they do not actually have a plan; they only have a tax rise. The haste on this vote is to cover up a litany of broken promises and failures. There is nothing for carers, there is nothing to help people to stay living in their own homes, and there is nothing to help the council funding shortfall that successive Tory Governments have caused.

The Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street two years, one month and 14 days ago vowing to

“fix the crisis in social care once and for all…with a clear plan”

that was “prepared”, but here we aren’t—this is not a clear plan, and it does not seem very prepared. This was just an attempt to fix an NHS funding gap that this Government, and successive Tory Governments before them, caused. Now that we have been waiting for more than two years, why the sudden haste? Today we see why: they just want to rush it through without proper consultation.