Points of Order

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman has just found his own salvation, as the puckish grin on his face suggests he realises.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker, and further to the desire of the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) for veracity and truth, may I get your guidance on Government claims that they are spending an extra £10 billion on the national health service? I asked the UK Statistics Authority to look into this, and when it wrote to me this week it told me that an issue that has

“caused confusion is that while NHS England spending is rising, some other elements of the Department of Health budget are decreasing.”

The authority continues that it

“will be asking that HM Treasury investigate whether in future they can present estimates for NHS England and total health spending separately.”

Given this guidance, and given that there is not one extra penny piece announced by the Chancellor today for health and social care, can you, Mr Speaker, use your good offices to ensure that the Prime Minister and other Ministers desist from using this bogus claim?

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. All Members, including Ministers, are responsible for the veracity of what they say in this House. The hon. Gentleman has formed his own view about this. There are a variety of methods open to him to draw attention to his views, which I know are very important, especially to him, but it is on the whole preferable that it should not be done through incessant points of order for the Chair when, whatever the merits of the case, they are in fact nothing of the kind.