UK Parliament / Open data

Health and Social Care

Proceeding contribution from Andy Burnham (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 2 June 2015. It occurred during Queen's speech debate on Health and Social Care.

During health questions, I congratulated the Secretary of State on his reappointment, and I do so again now, but I hope he will not be too offended if I point out gently that it was not universally welcomed in the NHS. In fact, as far as reappointments go, his makes the recent one at FIFA look positively popular. We wish him well, of course, but he has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of staff throughout the NHS, and he should not underestimate the scale of the task.

I welcome all the new health Ministers, but I particularly welcome the new Minister for Community and Social Care, the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt). He did outstanding work during the last Parliament in seeking justice for the victims of contaminated blood, alongside other Members in all parts of the House. I am sure that the victims and their families will see his appointment as a hugely encouraging sign. Let me also say to him that if he wishes to continue to pursue that issue with the same zeal during the current Parliament, he will have my full support.

Our thoughts are with our Liberal Democrat colleagues today, and I want to pay tribute to the right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb), although he has now left the Chamber. He had an obvious commitment to mental health, even if his words were not always matched by Government action. That said, one of the great achievements of the last Parliament was the profound change that we all witnessed in the public and parliamentary debate about mental health. For the first time, Members of the House spoke openly and honestly about their own mental health problems.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
596 c465 
Session
2015-16
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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