Oral Answers to Questions

Dennis Skinner Excerpts

Wednesday 7th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

In offering him best wishes for his birthday on Sunday, I call Mr Dennis Skinner.

[Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab)]

Q6. I didn’t know about that. I don’t celebrate things like that—I don’t think you should celebrate age.Anyway, there is another group of people who need help, and they are the people who work in the national health service. What they told me last week was that the best period they ever experienced was under a Labour Government when they had the money increased from £33 billion in 1997 to £100 billion in 2010. That was a golden period. Why did that Government do it? How did they do it? The then Chancellor of the Exchequer put 1% on national insurance and, in hypothecation terms, that went directly to the health service. It is called long-term stability. Under this Government, people do not know whether they are coming or going. It is high time that this Government did the same as we did between 1997 and 2010—get weaving!

[The Prime Minister]

And happy birthday, Dennis.

The hon. Gentleman asks why the Labour party was in a position of being able to spend more on public services. I will tell him why: because a Conservative Government had left a golden economic legacy.