Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 23 May 2018.
That's an utterly speculative accusation to make—that there are hundreds of millions of pounds being siphoned off—by an unnamed national newspaper looking at a wholly anecdotal exercise. If we want to get stirred and stoked up into this, we can all follow where this leads. I am not at all interested in diverting attention away from the NHS doing its job to properly service the needs of the public and, yes, to properly think about dealing with fraud where it exists, but I'm not going to be led by the nose by a right-wing campaign that is all about our relationship with Europe. Our NHS relies on its relationship with Europe, not just for staff, but the way that we share knowledge, the way we share regulation, medical devices—our exit from the European Union on the terms that are potentially available at present with the chaos in the UK Government would do great and lasting damage to our national health service. That is the biggest barrier, the biggest challenge, to our national health service and our continued relationship with Europe.