Clive Jones MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Sept 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  This week I chaired a roundtable with cancer charities and leading clinicians on delivering early diagnosis. Everyone had concerns about NHS workforce shortfalls blocking the progress of the national cancer plan. Will the Leader of the House allow for a debate in Government time to assess what investment is needed in the NHS workforce to deliver the national cancer plan’s ambition of earlier diagnosis?

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I would like to speak to new clause 137. Cancer Research UK estimates that, in the six months since the national cancer plan was published, over 168,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in England. The number of those diagnosed is at a record high and this is projected to continue. Almost one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime, and no one in this country is untouched by the disease. I welcome the Government’s ambition to improve cancer outcomes in the national cancer plan. Alongside my amendment to the Health Bill, my current private Member’s Bill seeks to guarantee that the Government make progress towards delivering these targets and are held to account by Parliament on that. Over the past five decades, cancer survival has more than doubled because of lifesaving research, earlier detection and cutting-edge treatments. However, in the last decade progress has slowed, and the 10-year cancer survival index was better in the early 2000s than in the 2010s, so we are in danger of going backwards. The national cancer plan commits to meeting cancer waiting times targets by the end of this Parliament. The previous Government failed to do that, and I really hope that this Government will manage it. It is also important that these targets are met, alongside a full range of commitments in the plan. The Health and Care Act 2022 required the Secretary of State to include cancer outcome objectives in the annual mandate set by the Secretary of State for NHS England, and those outcome objectives explicitly took priority over other cancer objectives. I have tabled this amendment because the current Health Bill abolishes that mandate, including the previous statutory requirement for cancer outcome objectives to be prioritised over other cancer objectives, and a similar duty has not been replicated elsewhere in the Bill. With the removal of the statutory requirement to prioritise cancer outcomes over other cancer objectives in the health system, there is a very real concern that progress on cancer outcomes risks being deprioritised amid the competing priorities of a Department facing many external pressures. I am therefore seeking assurances from the Minister that, despite the disruption of the ongoing merger and the removal of the cancer outcomes clause, progress on delivering the transformation laid out in the national cancer plan will be delivered, and that it remains a priority for the new Prime Minister and the new Secretary of State. I ask the Minister to guarantee that the capacity needed to drive forward this essential work on cancer is protected.

• 2 Sept 2026 · EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) for securing this debate. The Conservatives’ botched Brexit deal, backed by the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), continues to burden the UK economy. Back in 2016 he, Boris Johnson and others told us that Brexit would lead to a stronger and more prosperous economy. Today, we are confronting the reality that those promises were misleading, with no substance behind them. The botched Brexit deal has cost the Treasury billions of pounds in revenue, held back British business and left our young people without the opportunities they need to begin their working lives and careers. As the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire said, Britain’s GDP is 6% smaller as a result of Brexit—a disaster for families across the country. In my Wokingham constituency, I have heard from businesses that once exported successfully to the EU but, since Brexit, have seen their profits reduced. It is small and medium-sized businesses that have suffered as a result of Brexit. The botched Brexit deal has created almost 2 billion extra pieces of paperwork for British businesses since we left the EU, enough to wrap around the Earth nearly 15 times. That is certainly not the freedom from bureaucracy that the hon. Member for Clacton, Boris Johnson and others promised. I know from speaking to businesses in Wokingham that they are eager to grow again and to rebuild partnerships with European businesses. That is why the Government should listen to the Liberal Democrats’ call for a growth and defence partnership with Europe. Such a partnership would cut trade barriers, reduce red tape and help businesses to grow. It would boost jobs and incomes while giving the Government more money to tackle the costs of living, strengthen the armed forces, and invest in our NHS workforce and hospitals. It might even help to fund a new Royal Berkshire hospital to serve my constituency. Beyond the economic benefits, a new partnership with the EU would bring much-needed stability and security. Trump has proved himself to be an unreliable and erratic partner on the global stage, while Putin has shown no signs of halting his expansion plans in Europe. Now is the time for the Government to show ambition and to rebuild security ties with our dependable European allies.