Forgive me. Thank you very much, Mrs Harris—I appreciate that reminder. I apologise to those in the Public Gallery for turning my back on them, if I may say that through you, Mrs Harris.
As we are accused of not keeping our promises, I will boringly quote from the manifesto. On new homes, we said:
“Labour will get Britain building again…We will immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework”
to enable us to build 1.5 million homes. We are bringing in the new planning and infrastructure Bill.
We said that we will
“build an NHS fit for the future…Labour’s immediate priority on health will be to get a grip on the record waiting list.”
I will not list all the things we have done; hon. Members can read tonight’s news. We have done masses and masses, including putting £25.7 billion into the NHS from money raised in the Budget. I appreciate that not everybody has liked the way we raised money in the Budget. They do not have to like it—there will always be differences of opinion—but we have taken the money we have raised and put £26 billion into the NHS.
We also said in the manifesto that we would improve inclusivity for children with special educational needs, ensure that
“special schools cater to those with the most complex needs”,
and improve mainstream education for disabled children. Not everybody likes the way we raised the money in the Budget, but £1 million of that money has gone into improving education in mainstream schools for disabled children and children with special educational needs.
We have a problem that people do not have enough money to live on, and the minimum wage is all that many people rely on, so we said:
“Labour will…make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage. We will change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living. Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage”.
We have raised the national minimum wage and the national living wage; that is a pay boost for 3 million people. We said in the manifesto that we would do it and we kept our promise: we have done it. We have
asked the Low Pay Commission to end the discriminatory age bands and to look at including the cost of living. We have talked about Great British Energy; we made pledges there, and we have delivered them by establishing Great British Energy. We said:
“Labour will fund free breakfast clubs in every primary school, accessible to all children.”
We are doing that; we are introducing free breakfast clubs. I am sorry to quote from the manifesto at such length.