Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Lincoln Jopp

Monday 19th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

The Prime Minister has announced threat briefings for CEOs from sensitive sectors, including defence and critical national infrastructure operators, to strengthen their understanding of the threats we face and improve our collective resilience. The Government have announced a national resilience public awareness campaign and a wider national conversation on defence and resilience to improve public preparedness. Individuals can play their part by following the preparedness advice on gov.uk, and we will all have a role to play in getting those messages across. Finally, we should be clear that those threats do not come just from overseas and that the aggressive targeting of defence industry leaders by protesters here at home is not acceptable. We will not tolerate the intimidation of people who are doing a job for our country.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

When this issue came up in the Defence Committee last week, the Secretary of State said that the national conversation should leave the public “alert but not alarmed.” I personally think the public need to be a bit more alarmed, so I was reassured when the excellent General Sir Roly Walker said last week that

“very soon, the political leaders of this country will start to have a frank conversation with the citizens of this country about just what is going on, and where the risk lies,”.

When the Secretary of State starts that conversation, will he make it as cross-party as possible? It is important that this House sends a strong message to the country about the threats we face.

[Wes Streeting]

I wholeheartedly endorse the comments made by the Chief of the General Staff, which were widely reported over the weekend. Our armed forces chiefs are some of the most credible message carriers, and the ones the public will trust most. That is not to cast aspersions on Members across the House, but given that our popularity as politicians sits somewhere beneath traffic wardens and estate agents, we should lean in to—[Interruption.] I am not sure the Liberal Democrats want to go there this week.

Let me take seriously the hon. Gentleman’s point about the need to work together on a cross-party basis. I am proud that on issues like Ukraine we speak with one voice and there is total unity, and there is enormous consensus across the House about the nature of the threat we face, the need to invest more, and the type of capabilities we need. That will be reassuring to both the public and our allies, and I would be delighted to work together in that spirit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Lincoln Jopp

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

We are taking action to deal with the over-running of budgets and the reckless spending across the NHS and to bring deficits under control, but I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

Spelthorne residents Emma and John lost Holly to cancer in October last year. They set up the charity Holly’s Heroes in her name. Before she died, Holly was given a wheelchair by the NHS, and Emma and John cannot now give it back to the NHS for love nor money. I have raised this with the chief executive of the trust, but can the Secretary of State reassure me that this practice is not replicated nationwide?

[Wes Streeting]

We absolutely need to look at reducing waste in the NHS, so I would be delighted to pick up that case. Can I also say an enormous thank you to Holly’s family for the work they are doing in such unimaginable circumstances? I really admire people who put themselves forward to serve others in that way after such a painful experience.

New Hospital Programme Review

Debate between Wes Streeting and Lincoln Jopp

Monday 20th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who has raised this issue consistently and persistently with me since she was elected. I can reassure her and her constituents that pre-construction work will begin from 2028 to 2030, with construction starting in 2031 and lasting until 2032. I am extremely sorry that my hon. Friend’s constituents were led up the garden path; I rather feel that they have already rumbled the Conservatives by sending her to Parliament, but for as long as there is a Labour Government, we will deliver for the people of Kettering.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

I will say it, because no one else has: many happy returns for tomorrow. I genuinely thought that you were in your mid-30s—that the Secretary of State was in his mid-30s.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lincoln Jopp]

I also congratulate the Secretary of State on coming to the Chamber with such a massive capital expenditure announcement and eliciting a saving with his answer to the first question from the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh).

One of the plans that went by the board in May, for reasons I have not quite got to the bottom of, was for the Staines health and wellbeing centre, which is one of only six community diagnostic hubs that NHS England has allocated in England. The funding got pulled in May; will the Secretary of State please have another look at it?

[Wes Streeting]

I thank the hon. Gentleman very much for that question. I think he is going to go far in this place, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I would be delighted to look favourably on his representations about his local facilities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Wes Streeting and Lincoln Jopp

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

We all know that general practice is under enormous pressure, and that will be a big part of this Government’s agenda. I reassure my hon. Friend that our view is that there should be patient choice, patient control and different courses for different horses. I value online and over-the-phone appointments, but they will not be right for everyone on every occasion. Patients should have a voice and a say.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

T4. I recently met a GP who was in the market to hire a new seven to eight session GP to meet demand. Following the Budget and the increase in national insurance contributions for employers, he can now only afford a three to four session GP. What advice does the Secretary of State have for my friend the GP?

[Wes Streeting]

I would say to GPs who are thinking about staffing for the next financial year that they should hold tight and wait for funding allocations shortly, so that they can make informed decisions about staffing and care for patients.