NHS: Winter Preparedness

Adnan Hussain Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I certainly hope that when making the decision about whether to go to work this week, resident doctors bear in mind the pressures that the NHS is under, the consequences of their actions on their colleagues not just this week but in the coming weeks, and—crucially —the impact that risks having on patients, which is the most important consideration. I ask resident doctors to bear in mind that we offered the BMA the chance to postpone the strike action into January. I think that is a reasonable offer, and the BMA’s rejection of it shows how thoroughly unreasonable it is. I follow what resident doctors say, and I worry that too many seem to think that these strikes are consequence free for everyone but the Government. If only that were true, and if only the strike was not placing intolerable pressure on other NHS staff, and an intolerable risk to patients, which I think is unconscionable.

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

Coroners have warned that without change, unsafe pressures and delayed care at Royal Blackburn hospital risk further deaths. Blackburn also has one of the worst GP-patient ratios in the country, with over 3,000 patients per GP, leaving many of my constituents unable to access early care and pushed into A&E out of desperation, not misuse, only to face fear and delay. With winter admissions rising, what targeted support for staffing, bed capacity and GP access will be provided to places such as Blackburn? Does the Secretary of State accept that winter resilience is impossible without fixing primary care in the hardest hit communities, such as Blackburn?

[Wes Streeting]

Thanks to the decisions taken by this Labour Government, we have increased funding for general practice by £1.1 billion, we deployed not just 1,000 more GPs to the frontline in our first year as promised but 2,500 and, through reforms to the Carr-Hill formula, we are restoring the deprivation link to health funding. As a result, the poorest communities with the greatest needs are receiving greater care, support and investment. All this is undoing the damage left by 14 years of Conservative government and it is only possible because people chose to elect Labour MPs.

Budget Resolutions

Adnan Hussain Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Imran Hussain (Bradford East) (Lab)]

The reality is that, as we take part in this debate, the wealth of billionaires continues to soar while ordinary families in our constituencies continue to struggle with a cost of living crisis that is not of their making. That is the legacy of 14 years of the Conservative party, which has decimated our services and devastated our communities.

Perhaps the cruellest of all the Conservatives’ policies was the two-child cap, which put millions of children on our streets and into poverty. Even today, we have heard Conservative Member after Conservative Member oppose the scrapping of the policy. They should be ashamed. In fact, many of them made their speeches and then ran out of the Chamber, because they cannot face the fact that they put millions of children into poverty.

This Budget finally abolishes the cruel two-child policy. I opposed the policy from day one and, frankly, it should not have taken 18 months for this Government to scrap it, but I am none the less pleased that we have. After years of campaigning, the full removal of the two-child limit is hugely welcome. It is a clear vindication of the stand taken by me and other colleagues.

What matters most is that with this Budget, at long last, the cruelty that put millions of children into poverty ends. As colleagues have said, the decision will lift millions of children out of poverty. In my constituency, 6,300 families and 22,500 children will benefit. That is a huge step forward and is long overdue, and it is a direct result of relentless pressure from campaigners and MPs who refused to back down. Not once today have I heard tribute paid to the many campaign organisations that relentlessly put the case forward and lobbied MPs to scrap the cap. I pay tribute to them, and thank them for all their hard work.

This Budget contains some welcome steps—modest moves on redistributing wealth, a tourist tax and a youth guarantee scheme, as well as many other measures—but, frankly, they do not go far enough. This Government have still failed to adopt a genuine wealth tax, and as a result, living standards for most people continue to decline and the cost of living crisis remains unresolved. We could have done so much more in the past 18 months; instead, far too much time has been wasted. That is why I back the plan for a proper wealth tax.

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

I have heard from many constituents that things just do not change for them. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that for real change in constituencies like ours, we need a needs-based, targeted funding approach?

[Imran Hussain]

What we need is a wealth tax. Working families need help now. The Government could raise more than £50 billion a year through a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 million, equalising capital gains with income tax, cracking down on corporate tax avoidance and implementing a windfall tax on record bank profits—these are modest, moral and reasonable steps. They are what is needed to fund immediate support for struggling families. With that revenue, we could deliver emergency measures immediately to alleviate the cost of living, including not only scrapping the two-child cap, but having direct cost of living grants, introducing more free school meals, tripling the household support fund and relinking local housing allowance to real rents, together costing just £23 billion—less than half of what fair taxation would raise.

Frankly, we need to go further. The measures I have outlined would provide a lifeline to struggling families in all our constituencies. It is what our constituents expect of us, and it is about time we delivered that for them.

Spending Review: Health and Social Care

Adnan Hussain Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

My hon. Friend has been such a strong advocate for Watford since he came into this Chamber, and in particular for ensuring that that hospital is in the new hospital programme. I look forward to visiting his constituency soon, because I know we lost some time.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I do not know if he knows this, but others will have heard me say before that one of the terrible consequences of the Lansley reforms was that they made me so angry as a manager in the system that I decided to become a Member of Parliament, and here we are today. We have learned from the lack of focus on the frontline and on patient care. That is why we are so clear—whether in the reforms we have put forward on elective care and urgent emergency care, or in the planned reforms on dentistry and primary care, in the 10-year plan and on social care—that we have to keep a relentless focus not just on taxpayers’ money, but on patients. The people’s priorities are clear. They want the NHS to do better, but they are clear in their demands that we make it work better for them and make sure that every single pound of taxpayers’ money is working to the best effect.

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

I welcome the Minister’s statement and this Government’s commitment to investing in the NHS, but she did not address how that funding will be allocated across the country. My constituency of Blackburn has one of the worst GP to patient ratios, with more than 3,200 patients per GP. That is placing immense strain on primary care and pushing patients to an already overstretched hospital that is frequently on red alert. Will the Minister ensure that areas with such disparities, like Blackburn, receive targeted support? Will she meet me to address these long-standing imbalances in healthcare provision?

[Karin Smyth]

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point on primary care, which sees 90% of contacts with the NHS and is where most people experience the NHS. That is why it is very much in our sights to support that work. As part of our 10-year plan, we will bring forward the neighbourhood health service to make sure that people can be seen more locally. That will be built around using primary and community care to best effect. He makes a point about funding formulas. We had a long debate about that yesterday in Westminster Hall, and it is an area of huge controversy. He will see over the coming weeks how the funding is allocated. NHS England did issue—if he has not seen it, I will make sure that he has access to it—guidance on the funding formula and where the different systems are in relation to that. We want to move everybody towards that target, and I am happy to discuss that with him once he has had a look.

Income Tax (Charge)

Adnan Hussain Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

While this Budget has some welcome measures, including adopting Liberal Democrat proposals on increasing the earnings limit for carer’s allowance, others raise serious concerns. The previous Conservative Government left our NHS on its knees. People in Thornbury and Yate are fed up with struggling to get a GP appointment or register with an NHS dentist, so I will be holding the Government to account to ensure that the extra funding actually delivers for patients.

On that note, I am deeply concerned about the knock-on impacts of raising employer’s national insurance contributions on those parts of the system that are not in the public sector. GPs and pharmacists play a vital role in preventive health and in detecting serious problems early, yet because many are privately run businesses, they will be left footing a huge new tax bill. I have been contacted by several concerned local GP surgeries. One told me that as it had a large number of part-time workers who were previously exempt but will now be eligible, the national insurance increase alone will wipe 2.5% off its top-line budget. Another told me:

“This change will have a significant financial impact on general practices, including my own, and can only serve to directly undermine access and patient care”.

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

Blackburn has the third highest number of patients per GP. Does the Member agree that, despite the ringfencing of the funding that GP surgeries get, the increase in national insurance will essentially reduce the number of available appointments at GP surgeries?

--- Later in debate ---

[Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)]

I congratulate hon. Members who have made their maiden speeches in the House today. The first Budget of a Labour Government in nearly 15 years is definitely an improvement on the 14 years of Tory austerity and waste, but it is a missed opportunity to bring about the transformative change that the country needs. I welcome the increases in the national minimum wage and carer’s allowance, but it is disappointing that those changes have been accompanied by cuts to social security and disability benefits.

I am grateful for the long-overdue investment in hospitals and the NHS. However, the Government must guarantee that those resources will go into our NHS and not into the pockets of private shareholders.

Some 4.2 million children are growing up in poverty and a quarter of a million people are homeless; meanwhile, we are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. Those crises demand bold solutions. The Government could have implemented wealth taxes and closed corporate tax avoidance loopholes to bring about a more equal and sustainable society. Instead, they have chosen to bake in decades of inequality by feigning regret over tough choices they do not have to make. Those include keeping the two-child benefit cap, cutting the winter fuel allowance and increasing the bus fare cap by 50%. At the same time, the Government have committed to an additional £3 billion of military spending.

I echo the comments of my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) on the link between housing and health. While I welcome the measures in the Budget to increase funding for housing, I am concerned that they do not go nearly far enough. Real security is when everybody has a decent home, and we will solve the housing crisis only with rent controls and a huge council house building programme.

The Government will be aware that plans to freeze the local housing allowance will have a detrimental impact on hundreds of thousands of families struggling in temporary housing or facing eviction. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, if the LHA remains frozen over this Parliament, private renters on housing benefit will on average be about £700 worse off.

If the Government are serious about tackling child poverty and homelessness, they need to start by ending the LHA freeze and linking housing costs to housing support. While I welcome the commitment from the Deputy Prime Minister to deliver 5,000 new social and affordable homes, that is only scratching the surface.

[Mr Adnan Hussain]

On the winter fuel allowance, does the hon. Member agree that freezing pensioners will only increase the need for NHS resources when hospitals are already struggling?

[Iqbal Mohamed]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I completely agree that there is a direct link between pensioner poverty and demands on the NHS.

The Government’s proposals in the Budget do not go nearly far enough. The situation is simply not sustainable. The ability to provide the bulk of its citizens with a roof over their head is a litmus test for the success of any state. Unfortunately, that test has been failed by successive Governments. Without more radical measures to increase the stock of affordable housing, I fear it is a test that this Government will also fail.