Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Rutland Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Our deputy leader contest started this week and ends on 25 October. The Conservatives’ leadership contest has been going on for months, and will continue for a very long time. [Interruption.] All this noise from the arsonists while we are putting out the fires that they left behind! Interest rates and waiting lists are down. Wages, investment and deportations are up. Now we are stepping up defence spending, creating new jobs, driving up standards in our NHS and rebuilding our crumbling schools and hospitals. This is a Government of patriots fighting for working people.

[Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)]

Q5. This Labour Government are getting our NHS back on its feet; there are 20,000 fewer patients on waiting lists at my local trust since the election, but there is still more to do, including making it easier to see a GP. Will the Prime Minister set out how the Government will give my constituents in East Worthing and Shoreham access to the healthcare that they deserve?

[The Prime Minister]

I am pleased that we have made progress on the NHS. We promised 2 million extra appointments in the first year of a Labour Government, and we have delivered not 2 million, not 3 million, but over 4 million extra appointments, with 2,000 extra GPs. We are clearing up the dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in our hospitals. The national league tables that we published this week will ensure that investment goes where it is needed most, and our 10-year health plan will see neighbourhood health centres in every community, treating patients closer to home. There is more to do, but we have made a lot of progress.