Oral Answers to Questions

Kelvin Hopkins Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2017 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

1. If his Department will increase the level of funding provided to the Department of Health.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

12. If his Department will increase the level of funding provided to the Department of Health.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

Annual funding to the Department of Health is already being increased by £17 billion by 2020-21. This reflects the priority that the Government put on investing in the NHS.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

OECD statistics show that the Governments of Germany, France, Holland, Sweden and Denmark spend an average of 9% of GDP on health compared with 7.7% in the UK—a massive difference of £23 billion a year. The NHS is desperately underfunded and it is no surprise that it is suffering, so is the Chancellor really going to take this seriously in the Budget?

[Mr Gauke]

I think the hon. Gentleman will find that the OECD has more recently put out revised numbers to show that the UK’s expenditure on health is very close to some of those other countries. The fact is that we can only have a properly funded NHS if we have a strong economy, and only the Conservative party can deliver it—a point that the people of Copeland may have noticed.