(2Â years ago)
Commons ChamberThe Tory Government the hon. Member so hates have shown ourselves in the last few days to be willing to take tough and difficult decisions if they are right for the country, so here is a tough and difficult decision for her. Independence will make Scotland poorer in every single way, so why does she not abandon it?
The Chancellor has reversed most of his Prime Minister’s Budget, yet he is still talking about spending cuts to pay for the fine mess his Government have got this country into. Tory austerity broke our precious NHS, which he had a hand in. Now he is in charge of the purse strings, will he put his money where his mouth is, invest in the NHS and implement the workforce plan he knows is desperately needed?
Before I was Chancellor, with great respect to the hon. Gentleman, I think I did put my money where my mouth was. When I became Health Secretary we were funding the NHS at the OECD average and now it is the fifth highest in the OECD, so I have started to fix years of disastrous Labour underfunding.