8. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The health and social care workforce

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:56 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 5:56, 20 June 2018

I was, indeed, coming on to deal with that. The Government identified, I think, two sources of funding: firstly, the, I think, £20 billion gross, £10 billion net we give currently to the EU—a significant proportion of that would be redirected in future to the NHS. But in addition to that, and I think this is a really significant thing politically for a Conservative Government at Westminster, they said that the rest would have to be funded through tax rises. But because of the value we put on the NHS, not only are we redirecting funds that we currently pay to the EU, but in addition, at least for England, taxes will be increased.

What I think NHS staff in Wales would like to have seen, and what they would have been listening for when they tuned in to the news that night and the days ahead is what the Welsh Government is going to be doing. Did they value them in the way that the UK Government was? All they heard, instead of anything from the Labour Government about what they wanted to spend on the NHS or how they valued NHS staff—all they heard was whingeing about Brexit. They don't like Brexit very much. Wales voted for Brexit, but these Ministers don't like it. So, all they got were carping comments about, 'Oh, we're not sure the money's going to be there, so we're not going to give any commitment at all.' What our staff need to hear is that they are going to be valued at least as much in Wales as they are in England. I look to Ministers in the Welsh Government to do that—