Oral Answers to Questions

Richard Burgon Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

It is absolutely the role of the hon. Lady’s local integrated care board to ensure that it involves all partners, particularly primary care, in the exciting roll-out of neighbourhood health services, which I think they welcome. I am happy to discuss that further with her.

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)]

14. What steps his Department is taking to tackle wasteful spending in the health service.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

As well as the record investment that we put into the NHS, we are ensuring that we get a better bang for the taxpayer’s buck. Under the Conservatives, for example, the NHS was paying £3 billion to recruitment firms for agency shifts. We have cut agency spending by a third and are abolishing it altogether, with the savings reinvested in staff pay and treatment for patients. That is just one example of how our reform agenda is good for patients and for taxpayers.

[Richard Burgon]

Private finance initiative deals did huge damage to NHS budgets. Despite receiving just £13 billion in assets, NHS trusts were saddled with more than £80 billion in PFI debts—most of that is still being paid back. We have even seen some hospitals spending more on PFI debts than on medicines. If they really want to cut out waste and avoid a PFI-style disaster 2.0, will the Government rule out using private finance for the new network of new NHS clinics, as has been floated?

[Karin Smyth]

As I answered in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery), we will absolutely ensure that we learn the lessons of the last Government’s failure.

Baby Loss

Richard Burgon Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Milne]

I thank my hon. Friend and fellow Sussex MP for her intervention, and I very much agree with her. Donna is a midwife herself, and she has been personally involved with the families in Sussex.

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)]

The points that the hon. Member is making about the choice of people to oversee the review or inquiry reflect the points made to me by two of my constituents, Amarjit and Mandip, who would have their daughter with them today were it not for failures at the Leeds general infirmary. The point they made to me is that they want any review or inquiry to be clearly and demonstrably independent from the people who had a role in running the Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust in the past. Does he agree with me and my constituents on this point, and does he share my hope and trust that the Secretary of State will weigh that request very heavily before he meets the families?

[John Milne]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, and yes, that sounds like a very similar situation. As I have said, this is all about trust.

I understand that concerns have been raised about Donna’s workload and the risk of relying too heavily on one person, but Donna has indicated that she is willing to participate. I am sure that she would not say so unless she were confident that she could give this task the care and attention it needs. Unless we restore trust, we risk further harm, further delays and further grief, which none of us wishes to see.

Income Tax (Charge)

Richard Burgon Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Ind)]

The Budget is a welcome break from more than a decade of austerity, and especially from the Tories’ slash-and-burn plans announced at their last Budget, which would have meant even more deep cuts. It is good to see public investment being emphasised, as that is key not only to rebuilding our public services but to driving growth and better living standards. Likewise, the boost in day-to-day spending for public services over the next couple of years is welcome—for example, we are funding 40,000 extra NHS appointments a week and recruiting 6,500 new teachers. Having campaigned against poverty pay for many years, I welcome the boosts in the minimum wage, although there is more to be done.

The Budget included positive measures for those like me who want the wealthiest and tax dodgers to be made to pay their fair share. That is why we have heard so much squealing from the Tories and the right-wing press in recent days. It seems that defending the super-rich is the main reason why they get out of bed in the morning. Progressive taxes, achieved by ending the non-dom scheme—why on earth would they have a problem with that?—having higher capital gains taxes, and extending the windfall tax on oil and gas profits, are what we need to fund our services. We need more of that, because public services need more funding. The increases announced in the Budget, after the initial boost over the next couple of years, will not be enough to repair the damage done by a decade of Tory cuts. The Government should grasp the nettle and introduce a series of wealth taxes, starting with a 2% tax on wealth above £10 million, which would raise billions more for our public services.

I would have liked the Budget to do more on tackling poverty. I am concerned that real-term cuts to benefits next year appear to be planned. That must not happen, and disabled people must not be subjected to more cuts and attacks. The two-child limit needs to go, fast. A Labour Government should eradicate child poverty, not allow more children to fall into poverty. The last Labour Government lifted many children out of poverty, and that is what we want to see again. The winter fuel allowance cut should be reversed. That cut makes no sense morally, politically or even economically, and it is not too late to think again and scrap it.

The Budget is a welcome break from a decade of austerity. It contains progressive tax measures, but more needs to be done now and going forward on poverty reduction. It was put together following the toxic inheritance from the Conservatives. It would be good to see more than a handful of Members on the Opposition Benches. Who knows? They might be able to learn something.

Children’s Hospices: Funding

Richard Burgon Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Ian Byrne]

I thank my hon. Friend for her excellent intervention; I wholeheartedly agree.

We had to raise £5 million in 30 days to give Zoe’s Place a future, so I asked the trustees to let us give it a shot, harnessing the spirit of the city, which has been galvanised since people heard the news, and the love for this wonderful institution. We put the call out in Liverpool, and I have never seen a response like it in my life. It has been my great city at its very best, for the world to see. We have had kids going door-knocking with fundraising buckets, raising money because one of their friends is being supported by the hospice; parents who turned to Zoe’s Place in times of need organising fundraising walks and sponsored motorbike rides; and support from MPs, such as my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) promising to carry on playing his unique take on “You’ll Never Walk Alone” on his trombone if we did not raise the funds—the city has spoken, John, and I’m saying no more. Cafés have pledged their takings to the campaign, running raffles to raise money, and local businesses have got involved, donating tens of thousands of pounds, and their time and expertise, which will never be forgotten.

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Ind)]

Will my hon. Friend accept from me the congratulations of the people of Leeds, who value Martin House Children’s Hospice in Wetherby so highly? Many people in Leeds will look to Liverpool with great admiration at the incredible fundraising efforts, which have impressed and inspired so many. They have also led people to conclude that we cannot allow places such as Zoe’s Place to go to the wall, and that guaranteed full funding for palliative care and children’s hospices is a must.

[Ian Byrne]

I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent intervention, with which I wholeheartedly agree. Former football stars from Liverpool joined the efforts, donating more than £150,000. The local paper, the Liverpool Echo, and its staff led by Liam Thorp, have thrown their weight behind the campaign, doing everything they could to save the hospice. On Monday, we had the incredible news that Liverpool-based company Home Bargains was pledging £2.5 million to the campaign, bringing us within touching distance of the total.

The tireless and wonderful work of so many has been invaluable over the past few weeks. There are so many to thank, if I had the time, but I must pay tribute to the wonderful comic, Adam Rowe and fellow funnyman, Willie Miller, who have done so much to raise this issue both publicly and behind the scenes, and John Gibbons from “The Anfield Wrap” for his tireless efforts over the past few weeks.

There are still 10 days to go, and we are not over the line yet, but we are proving that if any city can do it, Liverpool can. The community, the solidarity, the togetherness—I have never been prouder to be a Scouser. Today, the plans for the future are coming together. Last week, we announced what the new Zoe’s Place Liverpool would be like, operated and run in Liverpool, putting it on a footing to care for kids from across Liverpool and beyond for generations to come. I am really optimistic that we will do it.

But the truth is this: talk to the families who rely on Zoe’s Place and Claire House, see the support that those hospices give to seriously ill children, babies and families, and you will know that that support is not a luxury—it is essential in a modern, functioning society. They provide a vital service that should not require charity to keep it going. Everyone who needs it should have access to high-quality palliative and end of life care, but that is not happening at the moment. Not just Zoe’s Place, but children’s hospices across the country are in crisis, with many more fearing for their future.

That is why today’s debate is important to families up and down Britain. Despite children’s hospices providing an essential service, they are overwhelmingly funded by charity. Less than a third of their income—around 30% —is public money, with the remaining 70% coming from charitable donations. That is a broken model. Let me be clear that I have the utmost respect for people who give up their time and money to support our hospices, but as one constituent said to me recently:

“We shouldn’t have to sell charity cupcakes to make sure kids are cared for”.

But that is what is happening at the moment.

The public funding element of children’s hospices is both inadequate and messy. Most of it comes from the children’s hospice grant. Introduced by the previous Labour Government, it was designed to provide direct funding to children’s hospices. Today, it stands as a £25 million grant, but it has an uncertain future. It was renewed by the previous Government for 2024-25, but the new Government have not yet said whether the funding will continue. According to the charity Together for Short Lives, if the grant is not renewed, there will be a profoundly negative impact on lifeline care and support. Eighty-two per cent of children’s hospices told the charity that they would have to cut or stop providing respite care or short breaks; 70% said they would have to cut or stop providing emotional and psychological support; and 45% said they would have to cut end of life care.

Will the Government commit to maintaining the £25 million children’s hospice grant as a ringfenced fund in 2025-26 and for the long term? Will they commit to making it centrally distributed once again? Many care homes have said to me that they are opposed to the integrated care board model that NHS England is using, as it has led to delays in children’s hospices receiving money.

The next biggest pot of public money for children’s hospices comes from integrated care boards, which have a legal duty to commission palliative care, but the funding is patchy and falling. Research shows that the funding per child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition varies wildly across the country. It is just £30 per child in Northamptonshire but £397 in Bristol, north Somerset and south Gloucestershire. In my area, Cheshire and Merseyside, it is slightly above average at £206, but there should be no postcode lottery in funding care for kids. And the funding is falling—last financial year, children’s hospices on average received almost 10% less funding than the year before, and almost a third less than the year before that. What are the Government doing to make sure that every seriously ill child and their family, regardless of where they live, have fair and equal access to palliative care?

Local authorities have a duty

“to provide services designed to assist”

family carers of

“disabled children to continue to”

provide care

“or to do so more effectively, by giving them breaks from caring.”

Local authorities, which are under immense pressure, account for just a small fraction of children’s hospice public funding—about 2.5% of the total. The funding fell by 26% from last year to this year, and more than half of children’s hospices received no funding at all from their local authorities. What conversations is the Minister having with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that local authorities meet their legal duty to provide short breaks for disabled children who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions?

The funding streams are insufficient for children’s hospices at the best of times, but we really are at crisis point. That is why we are all here today. With public funding falling, charitable donations squeezed as the cost of living crisis bites—the cost of living crisis, again, is affecting us all— and increased energy prices, children’s hospices have seen their income fall. That is having grave consequences. More than half of children’s hospices in England ended the last financial year with a net deficit, and it gets worse: next year, more than two thirds of children’s hospices forecast a deficit. Unless more public money is found, more and more children’s hospices will have to cut back, more services will be reduced, more kids will miss out, more families will have nowhere to turn and more children’s hospices will be put at risk, just like Zoe’s Place in Liverpool. Extra funding is needed just to stay still, let alone to build the world-class care system that our constituents deserve.

According to research from Together for Short Lives, the NHS needs almost £300 million extra to meet the standards for children’s palliative care set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. That is the inheritance of 14 years of Conservative chaos, with deeply damaging NHS reforms and chronic underfunding of our public services. Our new Labour Government promised change, and that must be delivered. Will they use the opportunity of the NHS 10-year plan to fill the almost £300 million gap in funding for children’s palliative care?

Let me remind everyone that there is money in this country to fund children’s palliative care. Our problem is not a lack of wealth, but its extremely unequal distribution. In the run-up to today’s Budget, I was one of the MPs who called on the Chancellor to raise taxes on the richest, with policies such as a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million, which would raise £24 billion a year—enough to meet the palliative care funding gap 80 times over. That is why I introduced a private Member’s Bill yesterday that would launch a review of the funding for children’s hospices and guarantee high-quality care for all seriously ill children and their families. I really hope that the Minister will take up that call.

In Liverpool, the people have risen to the challenge, and we are on the cusp of saving Zoe’s Place. Now this place has to rise to the challenge as well, and we have to give children’s hospices the funding they need to survive. The children and families who rely on these incredible institutions do not have time to waste.