Wes Streeting MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Gladly. Please do defend keeping children in poverty.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I have to confess a sin. Earlier today, in the debate on the Budget, I referenced the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and did not notify him in advance. This was particularly egregious because I was not very nice about him. With that in mind, and out of respect for the customs and conventions of this House, I would like to apologise to the hon. Member and put this note on the record. I have, of course, written to him in similar terms.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Of course, we want to ensure that investment is deprivation linked. We want to reverse the damage the Conservatives did when they pursued what I would characterise as the Royal Tunbridge Wells strategy, when our former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), declared with pride to Conservative party activists that he had taken funding from the poorest communities in the country and funnelled it to the richest. There could be no shorter or clearer exposition of Conservative party values and politics in action than that claim. To my hon. Friend’s point, he is absolutely right that within many affluent communities there are also pockets of deprivation, and we have to ensure that the NHS is there for everyone in every part of the country. We are dealing with enormous undercapitalisation in the NHS, totalling some £37 billion as identified by the noble Lord Darzi. It will take time to address that challenge, but I think my hon. Friend’s constituents know from his assiduous hard work and visible campaigning as a constituency MP that he will ensure that their needs and interests are not forgotten or overlooked by this Government. Of course, as we improve the health of our health service, we also need to address the health of our nation. Children in England face some of the poorest health outcomes in Europe. Obesity in four and five-year-olds is reaching record levels—a health time bomb that leaves them at greater risk from cancer and heart disease later in life. What kind of start in life are we giving our children, and if we allow it to continue, what kind of future are we leaving to them? Our children will lead shorter, less healthy lives; our NHS will buckle under a tidal wave of chronic conditions; and our economy will suffer because businesses will be denied the potential of the next generation. This Labour Government are tackling the sickness in our society. Whether it is the extension of the soft drinks industry levy, free school meals, a warm home discount that reaches millions more, the generational ban on smoking, Awaab’s law, cutting pollution and cleaning up the air that our children breathe, we are combating the drivers of ill health in children’s lives: poor diets, damp homes, dirty air and a lack of opportunity. In short, we are tackling poverty, because every child deserves a healthy start in life, and prevention is better than cure. The leader of Reform, the hon. Member for Clacton, says we should instead be educating people to make healthier choices—I assume that he will not be leading from the front on that campaign. But we know that Reform and the Conservatives oppose our agenda to improve public health. They oppose our investment in the NHS. They should just be honest and admit that they now oppose the NHS itself. [ Interruption. ] Conservative Members do not like it, but I challenge them to dispute a single claim I just read. Let me repeat the charge sheet for their benefit: they oppose our investment in the NHS. Have they not opposed every budget spending review since Labour came to office? [ Interruption. ] Honestly, from a sedentary position, the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood), who does not want to intervene because I think he knows he is leading with his chin on this, wants to suggest that somehow the Conservative party left a legacy that they could be proud of. They inherited the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history. They left us the longest waiting lists and lowest patient satisfaction on record. No wonder so few of them have turned up to defend that shoddy record. The Conservatives oppose our public health agenda, do they not? I thought this was an area where we had built consensus, but not under their present leadership. I have already quoted what their leader, the right hon. Member for North West Essex (Mrs Badenoch), has said. Maybe they were not listening—the country certainly is not. I would have thought, though, that their own side would at least listen to what she said. She says she wants a debate about charging for healthcare. I do not know whether they have heard that or whether they stand by it. Maybe we could just see a simple show of hands—how many of her own side want to see charging for healthcare in the NHS? Not a single hand has gone up. That does not bode well for the future of the Leader of the Opposition, but let’s leave the Conservative party to revel in its irrelevance. In fact, I was probably one of the few people who paid any attention to what the shadow Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Daventry (Stuart Andrew), said at the Conservative party conference. I noticed that he did not mention a single policy. I say to the Conservatives: if we are doing such a bad job, why would they not do anything differently? Would they cut the £26 billion this Labour Government are investing in the NHS, and if not, if they oppose this Budget, how would they pay for it? The Conservatives seem to think that the British people are so stupid that they will forget which party wrecked the NHS and led it to the worst crisis in its history. To conclude, this is a Government who are cutting waiting lists, giving children a healthier start in life and lifting 500,000 children out of poverty. In doing so, we are restating the case for universal healthcare that is publicly owned, publicly funded and free at the point of use. We are showing that progress is possible after 14 years of decline, that things can get better. Abolishing the two-child limit is not a handout, it is a hand up. Our country cannot prosper while 6 million people languish on waiting lists, 4.5 million children grow up in poverty and 1 million young people are not in education, employment or training. But if we protect people’s health, give them the opportunities to put their talents to use and give them a strong foundation, they will build a good life for themselves and a better Britain for all, and we can fulfil the lost promise that tomorrow will be better than today.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Obesity robs children of the best possible start in life, hits the poorest hardest, sets them up for a lifetime of health problems and costs the NHS billions, so I can announce to the House that we are expanding the soft drinks industry levy to include bottles and cartons of milkshakes, flavoured milk and milk substitute drinks. [ Interruption. ] We are also reducing the threshold to 4.5 grams of sugar per 100 ml. This Government will not look away as children get unhealthier and our political opponents urge us to leave them behind.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the need to improve the quality of the paediatric workforce. We are considering that as we revise the workforce plan. I am proud that already, with just one decision that we took in the first year of this Labour Government to expand free school meals, we are lifting 100,000 more children out of the poverty they were left in by the Opposition.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am sure that my hon. Friend the Minister for Care would be delighted to meet. The men’s health strategy sets out precisely the challenge in those terms. Through the partnerships that we have already announced, such as with the Premier League, as well as the people who have been knocking on our doors to get involved in such a campaign, I am absolutely confident that together, collectively across the House and across the country, we can tackle this terrible stigma.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Yes, Mr Speaker. [ Interruption. ] Opposition Members do not like to hear it, but we are bringing waiting lists down for the first time in 15 years, patient satisfaction with general practice is rising, and we are delivering the investment, modernisation and change the country voted for.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for that question, as this is a terrible situation and one of the many messes that this Government are now working to clean up. I will certainly ensure that the issue she raises is taken up with my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am happy to report to the hon. Gentleman that we are well on the way towards delivering the 8,500 more mental health staff we promised in our manifesto, with over 6,500 already there. Digital tools can play a role, and I am pleased to report that, given the evolution of our online tools via the NHS app, ensuring that we have high-quality and clinically verified apps will be part of our approach, so that people have access to high-quality digital tools, not ones they have googled on the internet.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I was very clear in opposition about the Government’s responsibility to sit down and negotiate, and that is exactly what I have been doing. It takes two to tango. As for the other trivial nonsense the right hon. Gentleman mentions, I have been very clear that I am a faithful. Of course, if he were a gameshow, he would be “Pointless”.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  If I were the hon. Gentleman, I would be more worried about the situation close to home and the SNP’s abysmal record of failure: while waiting lists are falling in Labour-led England and Labour-led Wales, in SNP-led Scotland they are rising, despite the biggest funding settlement since devolution began. It is a record that should make him and his party blush.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I wish the shadow Health Secretary a very happy birthday—21 again! It is good to see him here. We continue to hold the door open to the British Medical Association. If it wants to engage constructively, we are ready and willing. What we will not do is be held to ransom. What we cannot afford to do is pay more than we already have. What we are able and willing to do is go further to improve their career progression and job prospects, and to work with them to rebuild the NHS, which the Conservative party broke.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Men’s Health Services · Hansard source

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  I join my hon. Friend in commending Lord Cameron on his openness. Raising awareness, as we know, encourages men to come forward and leads to more diagnosis. He has done a great public service in talking about his own experience. We are improving care for men diagnosed with prostate cancer and undergoing active monitoring or treatment. We will be introducing support for individuals who are on prostate cancer active monitoring pathways to enable them to order and complete prostate-specific antigen blood tests at home from 2027. As for screening and the case being made for targeted screening, I await the recommendations of the National Screening Committee. We will study those carefully. We know that this is contested within the sector, so it is important that we have an evidence-based discussion, thrash out the arguments and reach the right way forward.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Men’s Health Services · Hansard source

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  We are expecting the draft recommendations, and then a three-month consultation period will follow, but I want to act quickly on the evidence and what the recommendations contain, not least because we know that as well as it being a prevalent form of cancer, some groups—particularly black men, men with a family history of prostate cancer and men with BRCA gene mutations—are at higher risk. Black men are twice as likely to die with prostate cancer than white men. There is therefore an imperative to act. Whatever the recommendation, we need to do much better on diagnosis and treatment of this terrible condition.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Men’s Health Services · Hansard source

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  May I first commend my hon. Friend not just on leading the recent International Men’s Day debate, but on his courage in speaking so openly about his own experience of sexual assault and the need to tackle the stigma surrounding it? [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] For too long, men’s health has been overlooked, with a reluctance to accept that men suffer specific inequalities and hardships as men and boys. We know that men are less likely to come forward for healthcare. From partnering with the Premier League to rolling out health support in the workplace, we are meeting men and boys where they are and supporting them to live longer, healthier lives.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  Well, Mr Speaker, you couldn’t script this! We have a doctor in the House—my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley)—whose phone was alive as this very issue was raised by my hon. Friend, such is the commitment of doctors in our NHS to be available to patients wherever and whenever they are needed. This Labour Government were elected on a pledge to end the 8 am scramble, and that is exactly what we are doing. We know that not everyone wants to contact their practice online. That is why practices must offer patients the option to telephone or visit in person in addition to online access. I thank GPs up and down the country for the work they are doing and the progress we are making in improving online access, access generally and patient satisfaction—lots done, lots to do.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising some of the practical challenges that stand in our way to improving and expanding the primary care estate. We are looking into the issues that he raises. We want to ensure that we can modernise the estate as effectively and quickly as possible. When there is progress to report, I have no doubt that the Minister for Care will be in touch.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  I certainly can, and I am sorry that my hon. Friend’s constituent was let down. Everyone who needs a same-day appointment should be able to book one, and that is what we are working towards. As she says, we are recruiting more GPs. We are also investing £102 million to create additional space for appointments, including in 21 GP practices in my hon. Friend’s local integrated care board system. Nowhere is the state of the NHS, and the crumbling legacy we inherited, more evident than in the NHS estate, and that is why I am proud that in her Budget, the Chancellor will be setting out plans to roll out a new generation of neighbourhood health centres to deal with the crumbling NHS we inherited and to build an NHS that is fit for the future.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to report that both access to general practice and patient satisfaction with general practice have improved since Labour came to office. Over 75% of patients find it easy to contact their practice —an improvement of 14 percentage points since the general election. Not only have we recruited an extra 2,500 GPs; crucially, more patients are receiving continuity of care, backed by an additional £1.1 billion. Lots done, lots to do, and certainly a long way to go, but general practice is on the road to recovery.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the hon. Member’s constituents will have noticed what an assiduous and active Member of Parliament she has been in actively soliciting their views. I hope that they and she will find it reassuring to know that we are taking action to deal with the very inequalities that she mentions. The Royal College of General Practitioners found that in the poorest parts of the country, there are an extra 300 patients per GP. It cannot be right that the poorest parts of the country receive the poorest service too. That is why we are reforming the Carr-Hill formula so that deprivation is the driver of funding and prioritisation. That will help us to improve services for everyone and to tackle the gross health inequalities that blight our society.

• 25 Nov 2025 · NHS Waiting Lists · Hansard source

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  I said that there is a clock stop.

• 25 Nov 2025 · NHS Waiting Lists · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. More patients are waiting a year for treatment in Ayrshire and Arran than in the entire south-west of England—that is shocking. Thanks to the investment the Chancellor has made, Scotland is receiving an extra £1.5 billion this year and £3.4 billion next year—the biggest funding increase since devolution. Labour is cutting waiting lists in England. Labour is cutting waiting lists in Wales. Why is the SNP failing where Labour is succeeding?

• 25 Nov 2025 · NHS Waiting Lists · Hansard source

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  In England, for the first time in 15 years, waiting lists are falling. Through record investment and modernisation, we have cut backlogs by more than 230,000, and we smashed our target for additional appointments in our first year, delivering more than 5 million. There is a long way to go, but the NHS in England is on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, in Scotland the SNP cannot seem to get the car started.

• 25 Nov 2025 · NHS Waiting Lists · Hansard source

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  I honestly cannot believe the brass neck of Conservative Members; their time in government led to the longest waiting times and lowest patient satisfaction in the history of the national health service. The best news I can offer the shadow Minister, and others like her who are on a waiting list, is that we have a Labour Government who are reducing waiting lists for the first time in more than 15 years.

• 25 Nov 2025 · NHS Waiting Lists · Hansard source

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  A clock stop would be in place from the moment the patient saw the consultant. The reason we have had to do waiting list validation is that, in addition to driving waiting lists up, the Conservative party presided over a total shambles where patients were often waiting in duplicate slots on the waiting list, removed from waiting lists unnecessarily or waiting far too long. That is the mess we inherited from the Conservative party.