16.11.16
MPs call on Hammond to fulfil Leave camp pledge with £350m NHS boost
The government should act to fulfil a pledge by the Vote Leave campaign in the EU Referendum for an extra £350m a week to be spent on the NHS, Labour MP Chuka Umunna argued yesterday.
In a House of Commons debate he called, Umunna said he was part of a cross-party coalition who had written to chancellor Philip Hammond asking him to use the Autumn Statement on 23 November to set out how he will “put the government on a path” to fulfilling the Leave campaign pledge.
Throughout the referendum campaign, Leave supporters argued that the UK currently sends £350m a week to the EU, which could instead be given to the NHS, and displayed the figure prominently on a campaign bus.
Umunna, who played a prominent role in the Remain campaign, said more than 40 MPs and the BMA had backed the pledge for introducing the promised funding in addition to current spending on the NHS.
But since the referendum, some Leave supporters have tried to distance themselves from the issue.
Nigel Farage, the interim leader of UKIP, called the claim a mistake, and Chris Grayling, now the transport secretary, said the actual ‘proposal’ was to spend an extra £100m a week on the NHS.
However, Umunna insisted the pledge should still be fulfilled, saying: “All those key Vote Leave campaigners, whether they were ministers or not, were members of this House. If our democracy is to mean anything, it must mean that members are answerable to the electorate for their policies, and held to account in the House for the things that they say.
“People cannot go around the country casually promising the world and betraying people by failing to deliver, but then expect to get away with it. We will not forget; we will not let up.”
Lilian Greenwood, another Labour MP who supported the debate, said failure to deliver the additional money would be “dangerous and damaging” to the morale of NHS workers.
She also warned that the NHS “could actually be worse off” following the decision to leave the EU, because a reduced exchange rate could make it more expensive to purchase products from abroad.
Greenwood then expressed concern that the DH had been unable to tell her how much of the total NHS budget is spent on imports.
Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, chair of the Health Select Committee, switched sides from Leave to Remain shortly before the referendum, saying that leaving the EU could harm the NHS financially.
In response to Umunna’s calls, care minister David Mowat said writing to the chancellor on the issue seemed “somewhat symbolic”, because the financial bonus when the UK no longer has to give money to the EU will not appear until after the country leaves.
Mowat insisted that the government could not comment because it does not know what its final deal with the EU will be, how much money it will gain from leaving, and how that money will be spent.
The minister, who also supported the Remain campaign, admitted that Brexit “introduced a number of variables” for the NHS, including the impact on the exchange rate, the impact on the wider economy, and the risk of discouraging overseas staff.
However, he insisted that the government had made a “commitment and priority” to ensure that Brexit did not affect NHS spending, and had promised the service an additional £10bn in funding.
But the Health Select Committee has criticised the government for using this £10bn figure, arguing it was reached by adding an extra year to the spending period and excluding cuts to other DH services.
(Image c. Stefan Rousseau PA Wire/PA Images)
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