Streeting: New hospitals, extra appointments and smoking ban will be delivered

The Health Secretary told the Commons he intends to go into the next general election with a record the Tories “could only dream of”.

This comes as shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins branded Mr Streeting more “anchorman” than “action man”, while she criticised him for refusing to set a date for the delivery of extra NHS appointments.

Ms Atkins said: “In the last five weeks I have asked (Mr Streeting) 29 questions at this despatch box, yet he’s managed to answer only one, for the rest he’s tried to bluster his way out of his own policy decisions, as indeed we’ve seen this morning.

“So let’s try again, which is the first week that his promised 40,000 more appointments will be delivered?”

During health questions, Mr Streeting replied: “After the performance I had to put up with when she was at this despatch box, she’s got some brass neck turning up at that despatch box complaining that I’m not answering her questions.

“She will know that we are working at pace to stand up 40,000 more appointments every week as our first step, as promised in our manifesto, and we will deliver. And more than that we will go into the next election with a record she could only dream of.”

Ms Atkins then said: “So after 14 years of opposition, two-and-a-half years of which he’s been sitting on these benches, travelling around the world funded by other governments to look at their healthcare systems, and over 100 days in this Government, he doesn’t even know the start date of his own flagship policy.

“He’s no action man, he’s anchorman.”

Elsewhere, Mr Streeting promised a “stronger” Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which he claimed Rishi Sunak was “too weak” to deliver.

The Secretary of State said: “If it was such a priority, why did they leave the Bill unfinished?

“I’ll tell him why: because his party was divided on the issue and the prime minister at the time was too weak to stand up to his own right wingers who are now calling the shots in their party.”

“The smoking bill will be back, it will be stronger and, unlike the previous government, we will deliver it,” he added.

This came in response to shadow health minister Ben Spencer, who questioned why the Bill was yet to be introduced, adding: “They like to talk about their record of their first 100 days in office, and according to data from Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), 280 children under the age of 16 take up smoking in England each day.

“That’s 28,000 children in England in his first 100 days.”

Later in the session, Mr Streeting confirmed that the Government is committed to the hospitals programme and it will be delivered on a “credible” timetable.

The Government announced in July that all projects within the programme promised by the previous Conservative administration would be placed under a spending review, with 25 schemes still under consideration.

On Tuesday, Conservative former minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith asked for Whipps Cross Hopsital to receive money to prepare a full business case ahead of a decision to avoid losing the necessary architects and builders, adding: “I beg him to look at that carefully.”

Mr Streeting noted a proposed redevelopment is “desperately” needed for the hospital in east London, which serves his Ilford North constituency.

He added: “That is why, in common with so many Members right across the House, I am absolutely furious that the previous government had a new hospitals programme whose timetable was a work of fiction and where the money runs out in March.

“The assurance I can give him, his constituents, my constituents and the constituents of every other MP across the House whose constituents are waiting for news on the new hospitals programme, is we will deliver that programme, we will deliver it on a timetable that is credible and a programme that is funded, giving our constituents the clarity that they deserve, the consistency that they deserve and also rebuilding faith in government amongst our construction industry and supply chain.”