Our National Health Service

As your MP, I will always defend our NHS as free at the point of use, owned by us and there for all of us. I am not complacent about the enormous challenges facing the NHS.  

I am a former Shaddow Health and Social Care Minister and led the fight against the Lansley Privatisation Bill.  

I want to see progress continue with maximum waiting times cut from 18 months to 18 weeks. And I welcome the Government’s 10 Year Plan, which will help put our NHS back on track and ensure that treatment is always available based on clinical need, not ability to pay. This plan will set up hundreds of Neighbourhood Health Centres across the country, combining GPs, nurses, pharmacists and care workers under one roof to meet the needs of the local community.  

Like many of you, I am immensely proud of our public health service. Please know, as your MP, I will always oppose any plans that put profit over patients. I believe we must have robust scrutiny of all trade agreements that impact the NHS, and I was pleased to see my colleague Dame Chi Onwurah, Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, request greater detail over the US-UK Pharmaceutical deal from the Minister. You can read about their correspondence here.  

I also want to thank everyone who has contacted me about the PPE Medpro Scandal under the last Government.  

Like you, I am extremely disappointed that PPE Medpro missed the 15 October deadline. Faced with a devastating pandemic, the NHS was in desperate need for personal protective equipment. PPE Medpro and Baroness Mone took advantage of this national crisis, happily taking £122 million of British taxpayers’ money. In return, the last Government received faulty PPE equipment. Yet, instead of returning the taxpayers’ money, the company and Baroness Mone chose to retain the profit before liquidating. This is outrageous, and a great injustice to the country, especially those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. 

The Health Secretary has said we will pursue PPE Medpro with everything we’ve got to get these funds back where they belong, in our NHS. Court-appointed administrators will now be responsible for recovering as much money as possible on behalf of creditors.