My Question to the Prime Minister

On Wednesday, I was lucky to secure a slot at Prime Minister’s Questions. This was my third time speaking at PMQs, and I wanted to use the opportunity to ask about something that truly matters to all of us in the constituency and the country: our NHS.

I found myself needing the NHS quite urgently last week during Easter recess, after tripping over whilst on a run with my children. It turned out that my sore wrist had endured a fracture, hence the splint and sling I am sporting.

That gave me even more reason to ask my question, which you can read here in full:

I would like first to thank the nurses, the doctors, the radiographers and the receptionists who were not on strike when I tripped and broke my wrist last week. After years of neglect, Labour is rebuilding our NHS, including the West Suffolk hospital at Bury St Edmunds and the new dental school at the University of East Anglia. Does the Prime Minister share my genuine alarm, as a surgeon who has worked at the frontline for more than 40 years, that the vague social insurance proposals of some of our opponents would be the end of our NHS and seriously threaten the health and wellbeing of millions of our fellow citizens?

The Prime Minister, who was very kind in his response to me, agreed with my point and laid it out bare:

I wish my hon. Friend a speedy recovery. He obviously speaks with great authority and experience on our NHS, and he is right to point out that waiting lists are at their lowest for three years, A&E waiting times are the best for four years and ambulance response times are the fastest for five years. That is because of the investment that we put in and the Conservatives opposed. I wonder how much my hon. Friend would have been charged if he had arrived at a Reform hospital under an insurance-based scheme. That would turn the clock back. The NHS is on the road to recovery: do not risk it with Reform.

Under a Reform government, who knows what we would have to pay for simply turning up to the hospital with a broken bone.

Labour is clear: our NHS is not for sale. Moving to a social insurance model risks a two-tier system where ability to pay matters. That is not the principle the NHS was founded on: free at the point of use. And the Prime Minister is right, a vote for Reform puts that at risk.