6. 6. Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS Privatisation

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 10 May 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:28, 10 May 2017

Well, you’ve heard the First Minister set out our position on a number of occasions about the relationship with the customs union in relation to having a joint ministerial committee to take those matters forward. We do need a proper voice for Wales in the future, and we will continue to set our priority for the exit and future trade deals through a joint ministerial committee. We’ve also been clear that, under the devolution settlement, any powers in devolved fields currently held at European Union level must be exercised at devolved level. And, unless there’s clear and unequivocally an agreed reason for them to be exercised by the UK Government, those powers must come to this place first without flowing through the UK Government. Any other position simply will not be acceptable.

Turning to some of the comments made, just, I think, clarifying some of the misunderstanding about what happens within the health service here in Wales, and the comments made by the UKIP spokesperson, because I think that the reference to a private involvement in the national health service gets us a significant distance away from privatisation that we do understand—. It’s not difficult to understand the distinction and the difference. Neither I nor the movers of this motion say that we should try and remove those people in the private sector who developed medical goods, medical equipment, medical devices, or all the other forms of treatment and improvement that we see our national health service taking advantage of. That is a significant distance from the reality of privatisation, of course. The current UK leader of what is left of UKIP has, on many occasions in the past, stated his belief that the national health service is a barrier and impediment to competition, and he would see it downgraded and removed.

We do not support the Conservative amendment, which is a fairly obvious attempt to remove reference to Tory privatisation in England. This Welsh Government is committed to a high-quality national health service in public hands, and I am proud to say that we will continue to stand up for Wales and we will continue to stand up for the national health service.