National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill

Debate between Toby Perkins and Clive Efford

Friday 21st November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Clive Efford]

And then led a campaign to stop his local accident and emergency department closing, having done that for the Government.

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend on his Bill. He also carries the congratulations of 1,924 people from across Chesterfield who have signed a petition asking me to be here to support it. He is not just speaking with people behind him here; people right across the country are saying, “Thank you very much for what you are doing.”

[Clive Efford]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s kind words and for the support of all the thousands of people, particularly health service staff, who have supported the Bill.

Finance Bill

Debate between Toby Perkins and Clive Efford

Tuesday 6th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Clive Efford]

What we have heard in several debates is so much hand wringing that I have almost started to feel sorry for the Liberal Democrats. They must be in agony from all the crushed fingers they have from wringing their hands so tightly in trying to explain away the impact of the VAT increase.

[Toby Perkins]

Was my hon. Friend as surprised as I was that during the Budget debate the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) said:

“Opposition Members have accused us of being ideological about the matter, but how can we be anything else? They are absolutely right, and there is no shame in it”?—[Official Report, 24 June 2010; Vol. 512, c. 515.]

He was clear that it was a Thatcherite Tory Budget that he was proud of. The Liberal Democrats are being used as a sort of human shield to defend a Budget that in other circumstances would have appalled them.