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Business of the House

First, the right hon. Lady referred to the Budget debate. There will be a debate today, which will continue on Monday and Tuesday. There will therefore be every opportunity for hon. Members to raise any issue that they wish, not least the excellent funding that the NHS receives. As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor made clear, an extra £6 billion will be put into the NHS next year and a further £6 billion the year after. If Conservative Members genuinely believe that that extra money should not be spent on the health service, they need to make it clear—rather clearer than the shadow Chief Secretary, the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers), speaking on Sky News yesterday. When she was asked:"““So therefore compared to what he””—" the Chancellor—"““is planning on spending you would be spending less?””" the hon. Lady replied:"““Um . . . It’s . . . It would certainly . . . Yeah, yeah, undoubtedly that could be a possibility””." What a lamentable performance from someone who apparently aspires to run the British economy. Perhaps that explains why she has been pulled from the Budget debate and is not replying to it, as traditionally happens. Indeed, the shadow Chancellor, the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Osborne), is not opening the debate either, as would normally be the case. Instead, we have the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin)—I am delighted to see him on the Front Bench—who will no doubt be declaring his considerable interests when he gets up to open the debate, having refused to abandon his connection with the City when he moved jobs. It would seem that he is now back in the same job, without having given up his interests in the City, so we are not going to take any lectures from the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) about interests. She referred to the chairman of Capita, and we know that he made a loan to the Labour party—because the Labour party published that information. If the Conservatives are so keen on transparency, perhaps they should publish their list of donors. So far, however, we have not heard from them. The right hon. Lady asked for a debate on mental health. The Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster, Central (Ms Winterton) has issued a written ministerial statement on that subject, as has my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on the subject of independent advisers. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made clear yesterday the Government’s commitment to reducing the gap in women’s pay, which we have consistently been committed to doing.