This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn clash over NHS funding at PMQs - Politics live
Jeremy Hunt apologises for 'truly shocking' deaths at Gosport hospital – Politics live
(35 minutes later)
Bim Afolami, a Conservative, says he shares May’s strong commitment to the NHS. Can she assure him the money will lead to better patient outcomes?
Back in the Commons Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, says this is a shocking report.
May agrees. She does not want to see extra money going in and not being spend on patient care.
He also pays tribute to Norman Lamb.
Here is May on the detention of child refugees in the US.
He quotes from James Jones, the bishop of Liverpool who led the inquiry, saying handing over an loved one to a hospital is a matter of trust. That trust was betrayed.
“This is wrong, this is not something we agree with, this is not the UK’s approach” @theresa_may on children in US detention centres#pmqs https://t.co/y3OmBWEJ5A pic.twitter.com/AHd1xBT6s3
He asks why families who had lost loved ones had to take on such a burden.
PMQs - Snap verdict: That was by no means a classic, but it was one of those PMQs that could in retrospect turn out to be more significant than you might have thought while listening to the rather under-powered ding dong. That’s not because Corbyn won on health, a Labour issue where his emotive complaints about under-funding normally have force. In fact, this wasn’t so much a PMQs about health as about financial credibility - supposedly the Conservative party’s USP for most of its history - and Corbyn clearly had the best of the argument. His questions weren’t particularly flash, but they were were pertinent and reasonable, and May didn’t even begin to answer them. Where will all the money for the NHS come from? What taxes will go up? Will there be extra borrowing? These are proper questions (not loaded PMQs jibes, which the PM can ignore with some justification) and May’s perfectly articulate flannel could not really hide the fact that Corbyn had a point. He is outscoring May on fiscal prudence. The Tories ought to be worried ....
What will the government do to ensure that the voices of families are properly heard?
Corbyn says under Labour the NHS increase would be 5% this year. And what is her offer - a promise without saying where any of it would come from, apart from phantom taxes Hammond is presumably dreaming up now. But there is a human element to this. He quotes from a letter from someone saying her daughter needed a wheelchair but could not get one from the NHS. Does May think standing still is good enough for the NHS?
He asks for an assurance that all the relevant authorities will take this further. And, if there is another police investigation, will a different force be involved?
May says she is putting in extra money. She quotes what Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive said. He said the settlement would provide the NHs with the money it needed. For every £1 extra the government spends on the NHS in England, the Welsh Labour government spends just 84p.
Does Hunt think further legislation is required?
Corbyn says May announced nothing for health or social care. It is not what the NHS needs. A&E waits are their worst ever. There are 100,000 staff vacancies, she says. She says the PM is writing IOUs just to stand still. Until this government can be straight with people where the money is coming from, why should people trust them on the NHS.
Ashworth says the families have suffered a “terrible injustice”.
May says she can tell him why; for 43 of its 70 years, it has been under the Tories. We will now see a 10-year plan to improve services. Corbyn can talk of Labour’s plans. But Labour’s plans would bankrupt the economy. Their plan does not add up. Labour would lose control of the public finances, she says.
He says what happened at Gosport should not overshadow the good work the NHS does. But in this case the system let people down.
Corbyn says May spoke about £600m a week extra going to the NHS. That is over £30bn a year - way more than the UK’s contributions. Her figures are so dodgy they belong on the side of a bus. Why is the PM pushing her own Mickey Mouse figures?
Turning back to the EU withdrawal bill, Sky’s Faisal Islam has this on the apparent government concession.
May says Corbyn should listen to what she said. He claimed that she promised that money by 2023-24. She said more money would be spent on the NHS as a result of her decision, partly funded by the UK no longer being in the EU. The government will be contributing a bit more. Hammond will bring forward plans before the spending review. If Corbyn is so concerned about tax, why did Labour oppose lifting the personal allowance.
Written ministerial statement coming from Government that some in Parliament claim is a “*big* climbdown” after Tory rebels grew overnight - on amendability of meaningful vote resolution... we await the words.
Corbyn says last night May emailed Tory members saying the money from the EU would go to the NHS. But the government’s own watchdog says there will be no extra money until at least 2023. If growth does not meet expectations, will there be extra borrowing, or higher mystery taxes.
John Bercow, the speaker, says some MPs whose constituents are affected by this case cannot speak because they are ministers.
May says the balanced approach she has taken the economy have given her the space to act. The Conservatives believe in keeping taxes low, she says. Let’s look at what Labour offered at the election. It promised 2.2% growth for the NHS, saying that would make it the envy of the world. She chose not to listen. She is putting 3.4% in.
Hunt says the government’s official response will be published later this year.
Corbyn says he is pleased May is reading his speeches. He said EU money should be ringfenced for certain uses. He goes back to taxes. Last year May says firms could not plan on the basis of unspecified taxes. Which taxes are going up and for who?
But he says some questions need to be answered.
May says Philip Hammond will set that out before the spending review. She says she is glad Labour has confirmed there will be money coming back from the EU.
For example, the Baker report into what happened from 2003 was not published for another 10 years.
Jeremy Corbyn pays tribute to his “friend”, the Finsbury Park imam.
And why was the practice of giving opioid drugs in this way not stopped when medical practitioners must have known it was wrong.
He also pays tribute to the contribution of the Windrush generation, and he says he hopes May has put the “hostile environment” policy behind her.
He asks if there was an institutional failure, based on a desire to blame events on one rogue doctor.
Today is world refugee day, he says. All political leaders have a duty to aid refugees.
He says, since these events happened, there have been changes in NHS procedure that would make these events less likely.
He says May said extra money for the NHS would come from Brexit, economic growth and taxes. There will be no Brexit dividend for some years, and economic growth is very slow. So which taxes are going up?
He says families will want to know what must happen next. He says he hopes they understand the need to avoid statements that could prejudice a future case.
May says she was struck when she visited the Finsbury Park mosque by the community work done there.
He says the police will consider whether criminal charges should be brought.
On the NHS, she says she has set out a long-term plan. It will secure the future for the NHS, and as part of the five-year settlement there will be money from the EU. She says various shadow ministers said the Brexit dividend did not exist. But she quotes another frontbencher say Labour would use money saved from Brexit to invest in public services. That was Corbyn, she says.
He says he intends to meet as many of the families as he can before the government publishes its formal response in the autumn.
Simon Hoare, the Tory MP for Dorset North, says Dorset is home to the Jurassic Coast, but is not home to dinosaurs. Will May confirm that the government will ban upskirting?
He says a helpline has been set up for people who think they have a relative who has been affected. It is on the Gosport Independent Panel website.
May says upskirting is a hideous invasion of privacy. The government will introduce a bill banning it. And the worst offenders will be added to the sex offenders’ list.
Hunt says the report out today is “truly shocking”.
Labour’s Alan Whitehead says, after the UK signed up to agreements at the Paris climate change summit, will she sign up to new targets for 2050?
He says there was a catalogue of failings.
May says the government is committed to the Paris accord. The government remains committed to its targets, she says.
He apologises.
Theresa May says yesterday was the first anniversay of the Finsbury Park attack. Today the imam from the mosque is in the Commons, she says.
Had people listened to relatives and whistleblowers, this would not have happened, he says.
She says Friday is the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush. The government has announced an annual Windrush day to celebrate the diversity of the UK, she says.
Hunt apologises to relatives for “truly shocking” deaths at Gosport hospital.
This is from the Times’ Patrick Kidd.
He also pays tribute to Norman Lamb. Lamb was his junior minister, and Lamb persuaded Hunt to overturn official advice and order and inquiry.
Theresa May enters for PMQs with Boris Johnson. A last-minute chat about Trump in expectation of Corbyn going on our view of US immigration?
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is now making a statement about the findings of the Gospital hospital inquiry.
This is from the FT’s George Parker.
Here is our story about the inquiry’s report.
Brexit peace deal in the Commons? ERG Moggites and Grievey rebels appear to be gathering around an Oliver Letwin brokered compromise, pulling party back from the brink. Prob 1: waiting for @theresamay and @DavidDavisMP sign-off. Prob 2: will anyone understand it?
And here is how our story starts.
PMQs is about to start.
More than 450 patients died and possibly 200 more had their lives shortened because of a Hampshire hospital’s practice of giving opioid drugs without medical justification, a major inquiry has found.
Some of the backbenchers who will be called to ask the PM a #PMQs on Wednesday 20 June. Watch live on #bbcdp with @afneil @bbclaurak @Peter_Dowd @JackieDP @BBCTwo 1130-1300 pic.twitter.com/uPkhVtqQRj
The independent report found that Dr Jane Barton, the GP who ran wards at Gosport War Memorial hospital, routinely overprescribed drugs for her patients in the 1990s. Consultants were aware of her actions but did not intervene.
Here is an extract from today’s Times story (pawyall) about the vote.
The inquiry, led by the bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, found that 456 patients died because of the drugs. A further 200 patients may have had their lives shortened, but their records are missing.
Tory whips are said to have “given up” persuading up to a dozen of their own MPs not to vote in favour of an amendment that would give parliament a decisive say on what happens in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
The report says senior nurses were worried about using diamorphine – the medical name for heroin – for patients who were not in pain, administered through a syringe-driver pumping out doses that were not adjusted for the individual’s needs.
Instead they are concentrating their efforts on encouraging Labour MPs in Leave-voting areas to defy their own whip and vote with the government.
Concerns were raised as early as 1988. In 1991, a staff meeting was held that was attended by a convenor from the Royal College of Nursing.
One Labour source claimed that MPs were being promised that the Tories would “go easy” in future elections on those who supported them.
But the nurses were warned not to take their concerns further. They had, the report says, given the hospital the opportunity to rectify the over-prescribing.
Bloomberg’s Rob Hutton has some good advice for those said to be on the receiving end of such entreaties.
Labour’s Angela Eagle says May’s government is not increasing NHS spending as much as Labour did. Why should people be impressed by her pledge to increase spending by 3.4% a year when that is below the historic average?
If any Labour MPs are tempted by the idea that the Tories will "go easy" on them at the next election in return for support on today's vote, there are 49 Lib Dem ex-MPs that they really ought to talk to.
May says Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive, has welcomed this. Unlike Labour’s money, this will go to improve patient care, she says.
Andrew Selous, a Conservative, asks May to ensure patients can always access a doctor on the NHS.
May says she wants all NHS patients to get access to the same services.
Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, says he is glad May said Trump’s immigration policy was wrong. But May should do more. Can she stand up for our values where they are under threat across the world?
May says the government stands up for the fundamental values of democracy and human rights.
Norman Lamb, the former Lib Dem health minister, says the conclusions of the Gosport hospital inquiry, which he set up, are shocking. Does May agree there needs to be a new police inquiry?
May says the events at the hospital were “tragic” and “deeply troubling”. She says the public sector often closes ranks. She pays tribute to Lamb for setting up the inquiry. She is sorry it took the relatives so long to get an answer. This shows why the government is right to put so much focus on patient safety.
