Wes Streeting MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  We are so lucky to have my hon. Friend’s scientific expertise on our Benches, and we are also lucky that, despite being elected, she is doing research on behalf of the country in her spare time—goodness knows where she finds it. We welcome her public service. We need to see investment in new medicines and technology as an investment rather than a cost. That is how we deliver better care, better value for taxpayers and better outcomes, and it is how we close health inequalities. This is the most exciting revolution taking place in the world, and it is happening right here in England. We have got to make sure that the NHS benefits from it.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I can absolutely give my hon. Friend that reassurance. It is about time that we design care around the patient, rather than ask the patient to do the running around on behalf of the NHS. That will be a big shift in practice and culture. Of course, as my hon. Friend says, it is only thanks to the decisions taken by the Chancellor that we are able to match the reform and ambition of this plan with the investment we need. That is why I was delighted to be joined not just by the Prime Minister, but by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor this morning in Stratford to kick off the 10-year plan—not least because she is the one who pays the bills, and we are very grateful to her for it.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question: I can tell that she has already read a lot of the plan, not least because she had such a heavy role in shaping it, bringing her expertise to bear as we were deliberating. I also thank her constituents in Shipley, who took part in the engagement and consultation that she did locally; I hope they feel that their fingerprints are on this plan. She talks about the “My Carer” feature of the NHS app, which will make an enormous difference. I hope that the people who tend to be heavier users of health services feel that they have more power, choice, agency and control. That has to be true not just for people with physical disabilities, but people with learning disabilities. We have to ensure that the NHS is genuinely there for everyone, and that everyone has agency, voice, personalisation, power and control—that is what this plan will deliver.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question; he is such a strong voice for the people of Gloucester. We are already delivering improvements in general practice, with 1,900 more GPs employed on the frontline, £900 million more for general practice, and the first contract agreed with GPs for quite some years. We are working in genuine partnership with GPs, who will be at the centre of the neighbourhood health service and of neighbourhood health centres. I am determined to ensure that we do things with our friends in general practice, not to them. Where things are working, I have no interest in going in like a bull in a china shop and imposing top-down change unnecessarily; we learned that lesson from Lord Lansley. I am confident that we have a plan that GPs will relish and embrace, and that they will feel reassured that the future of general practice is bright. After years of campaigning for a Government to rebuild general practice, they finally have a Government who are on their side.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I remember that visit to Barnard Castle—unlike visits by some people from Westminster, I was not there to get my eyes tested and my visit was perfectly within the rules. My hon. Friend is right to emphasise the importance of neighbourhood health, which is in the plan, and of reducing the cost of agency spend in the NHS. I want staff to feel that they are part a team and for there to be more flexible working, so that people do not feel that they have to resort to agency work to receive flexibility. I am proud that within our first year we have saved a billion pounds in agency expenditure, getting better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I have been delighted to spend time with her in her constituency to make sure that this Government understand the needs of every part of the country and different types of community. We need to ensure that, when we think about health services, the pitch we have in our mind’s eye is meeting the needs not just of big cities or large towns, but of rural and coastal communities that have been left behind for too long. I hope that my hon. Friend’s constituents will really feel the benefit of the innovation that is at the heart of this 10-year plan, and of the focus on community services and neighbourhood health. From what they have seen so far, they can trust that if we do not deliver for them, my hon. Friend will be the first to tell us.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  Neighbourhood health cannot just be about large towns and cities. It has to meet the needs of every community, and the approach we are taking, with care closer to home or, indeed, in the home will benefit everyone, but it will disproportionately benefit people such as those in my hon. Friend’s constituency. That is the benefit of having a great Labour MP like her and a Labour Government delivering results.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  As soon as my hon. Friend got to his feet, I knew exactly where the question was going. I was delighted to spend time campaigning for him in his constituency, and I know that the focus on neighbourhood health will be particularly welcome to people living in rural communities just like his. I would be delighted to meet with him to discuss his proposal, not least because he will hound me relentlessly if I say anything other than yes.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s support. Given his expertise, it means a lot. I am especially grateful to the GPs in his constituency with whom he and I spent time; that experience really had an impact on my thinking about neighbourhood health. On cancer, I am happy to look at the issue he raises with the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton). We want to get this right. Cancer alliances have played a valuable role, and we want to see that approach to joined-up working between research, diagnostics and treatment go from strength to strength, so I will happily pick that up.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I certainly can give my hon. Friend that reassurance. We launched the biggest consultation since the NHS began. We had over 270,000 contributions, 250,000 thousand responses and almost 2 million visits to the change.nhs.uk website, so I can absolutely give people the assurance that staff and patients’ fingerprints are all over the plan. That is why we have such a rich plan, in which people can have confidence.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  The NHS leadership are absolutely determined to work with us to reduce waste, inefficiency and bureaucracy. We have in Sir Jim Mackey an outstanding chief executive of the NHS, and he and his team are working closely with Ministers to make sure we achieve that goal. As for the funding model, I just do not know where the Reform party stands from one day of the week to the next. I heard the leader of the hon. Member’s party on the radio this morning doing the dance of the seven veils. He is normally very good at being a straight-talking politician—that is how he likes to present himself—but I cannot follow what the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) thinks about this issue. Does he support a taxpayer-funded universal NHS free at the point of use? [Hon. Members: “No!”] I do not think he does. Does he support the European-style insurance system? I think he probably does—it is the only European thing he has ever supported, by the way. We are in no doubt: the NHS needs reform, but it needs the Reform party like a hole in the head.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to my hon. Friend— I know his constituency well, and he has been a powerful voice for his constituents since he arrived in this place. He is absolutely right that we need good general practice and accessible neighbourhood health services that are available to everyone, especially in areas of high need and health inequalities, as we see in the London borough of Newham. I hope his constituents really feel the impact of this plan as we roll it out during this Parliament and across the next decade.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question—representation duly received. I reassure him that one of the ways we will ease the pressure valve on our hospitals is by doing more neighbourhood health. That helps to drive admission avoidance, speed up delayed discharges, and get much more effective flow of patients through hospitals. That is our commitment. We aim to roll out 40 to 50 neighbourhood health centres over the course of this Parliament, and if we can go faster, we will. I have no doubt that my hon. Friend, as a strong representative for Dartford, will make more representations to us shortly.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right about the importance of dental services, and I hope that his constituents begin to feel the benefit. I also know he is leading the charge on the campaign for Stepping Hill hospital. He regularly raises it with me and other Ministers, and I would be delighted to try to visit his constituency as soon as my diary allows.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We in this place are so lucky to have his expertise and his leadership of the Back-Bench health and social care committee of the parliamentary Labour party. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I am concerned that we do not give enough profile to paediatric waits and mental health waits. With more transparency, information and access, we will be able to demonstrate improvements over the course of this Parliament and the next decade.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am so grateful to my hon. Friend for all the work she does as chair of the all-party parliamentary group, for the personal and professional experience that she brings to this House, and for the wisdom, advice and insight that she has offered to help me make better decisions. I am absolutely determined to work with families, especially those who have suffered such grave injustice at the hands of the NHS. It is a wonderful institution, but sometimes when it fails, it fails spectacularly. The culture of denial and cover-up cannot be allowed to persist, and I will work with my hon. Friend to make sure that we end it. On neighbourhood health, it is so important that we engage with families early, especially where they may be at greater risk of complicated pregnancy or harm, because we know this is an area of grotesque health inequalities. After birth, it is really important that we have strong health visiting, and care in the community and the home that does not just consider the interests of the baby, but asks questions of the mother. How is she feeling? How is she recovering? Is her partner coping? We have to look at the whole family, and I am sure we will get it right. I am determined to get this right, and it will be in no small part thanks to my hon. Friend’s leadership and support.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his service to our country and our NHS. We are so lucky to have his expertise in the House. I am really proud that this Government will deliver mental health support in every primary and secondary school in the country and neighbourhood mental health services in every community. We will also ensure that people who are in mental health crisis do not end up in busy, noisy, overwhelming A&E departments, but will instead go to new mental health emergency departments, which we aim to roll out across 50% of type 1 A&E departments—either co-located or, if not, certainly nearby. I look forward to working with him on that. My hon. Friend is quite right to emphasise the importance of talking therapies. That is how we not only help people to achieve their best when they are young and in education, but ensure that people are supported to stay in the world of work or to find work. We know there is a demonstrable link between mental health and wellbeing, good work and good outcomes. That is very relevant this week.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of screening, and it is brilliant to see him fighting fit. That is exactly the sort of outcome that we want from effective diagnosis and treatment. He is also right to highlight the racial inequalities in this area. It cannot be right in this decade of the 21st century that black men are twice as likely as white men to die of prostate cancer. The national cancer plan will come out later this year, and the screening committee is looking at the case he makes. He will find at the centre of the 10-year plan a commitment not just to diagnose earlier and treat faster, but to tackle the gross health inequalities that blight our society in a way that is simply not tolerable in the 21st century.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am so grateful to my hon. Friend for that question, as it gives me the chance to say an enormous thank you to everyone involved. I hope that people are beginning to feel the benefits and will see the change that comes from having a great Labour MP and a Labour Government who deliver the change that our country desperately needs.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  Given my hon. Friend’s expertise, I am delighted that he has welcomed the plan so enthusiastically. I wholeheartedly agree with what he said. I give him 10 out of 10 for his product placement of the 10-year plan and, in particular, his remarks on the design of the front cover, which I will pass on to the team.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  First, I thank the hon. Member for the Green party’s support for so much of the 10-year plan. She is right to highlight the importance of social care to resolving the NHS crisis. Let me reassure her that we are acting urgently as we await the first report of the Casey commission. The Chancellor did that with the Budget and the spending review, providing £4 billion more of investment. We have done that with the biggest increase in carer’s allowance since the 1970s, and with the disabled facilities grant, which does not just mean more ramps and home adaptations but more freedom, more dignity and more independence for disabled people. The Deputy Prime Minister and I will shortly set out how we will deliver fair pay agreements, and social care will absolutely be part of the neighbourhood health team. I hope that that reassures the hon. Member. Let me also reassure parties across the House that we will wait for the Casey commission to launch. I would like to be able to proceed with the actions we will be taking in this Parliament and, crucially, with the long-term plan for social care in a cross-party way, to build that genuine national consensus—I would be delighted to achieve that.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question and for the leadership she is showing to the Select Committee while the substantive Chair, the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran), is off on mat leave. What a delight it was to see the Committee Chair on the Terrace this week with her new baby. That was really delightful and we wish her well. One of the exciting things for me about today’s launch is just how widespread the support has been from across a range of different organisations that we will need to work with to deliver the plan. Whether it is the royal colleges and the trade unions, the organisations that represent patients, the wide range of healthcare charities or, crucially, frontline staff, everyone is up for this change and everyone is desperate for it to succeed. We will not get everything right and we will make mistakes along the way. We will listen and always learn and reflect. We know in the Government that we cannot do this without effective leadership from Ministers, but nor can Government do this alone. It is now our responsibility to mobilise the more than 1.5 million people who work in the NHS, the more than 1.5 million people who work in social care and our whole country behind a national mission to get our NHS back on its feet, to make sure it is fit for the future and to make sure, fundamentally, that we attack the injustices that lead to ill health, so that we have a fairer Britain where everyone lives well for longer.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am delighted with the work that my hon. Friend is doing to assist us with the development of a new men’s health strategy, including a focus on men’s mental health, which he has raised so powerfully on more than one occasion in this House. I hope he will be pleased with the results. By working closely with him, voluntary sector organisations and the NHS, we will make sure we get it right.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support for the plan. Success has many masters, and I thank him for putting the Carr-Hill formula on the parliamentary agenda through his debate. I can reassure him about a few things. First, what the Chancellor has done in the spending review gives us the advantage of medium-term certainty, so the NHS will now be in the business of medium-term planning with the system, which enables it to make better use of the money that is allocated. Secondly, we are ending Healthwatch—I express my thanks to the people who have worked in Healthwatch for many years—but we are giving power directly to the patients. Alongside that, we are looking at what we can do to strengthen democratic accountability from elected representatives, to ensure that the patient voice and interests are protected.

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for that question— [ Laughter. ] Given that the Bill is still passing through Parliament, assisted dying is not referred to in this 10-year-plan, but I assure both this House and the other place that regardless of different views among Ministers and across the House, we will abide by the law of the land. We will abide by the will of this House and the other place. If the Bill times out in the other place, I have no doubt that someone else will bring it back. I suspect it will not be a Government Bill. It is important that we have the debate and that we scrutinise the legislation well. I am proud of the way the House has conducted the debate. My hon. Friend the Minister for Care, who is not in his place now, along with the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman), have done an exemplary job in supporting people on both sides of the debate to give the Bill the detailed scrutiny that it had here and that it will no doubt have in the other place. That is a credit to this House.