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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sorry. I did not particularly look for the hon. Gentleman earlier; I apologise if he was here for the whole debate. My attention was, of course, on Front Benchers. Next time, during the Front-Bench speeches, I will look in his direction to make sure that he is here. Oh, now he is leaving the Chamber. That is why I was confused—he keeps changing his position. He needs to have a fixed position, not just in the House, but on issues. I will come to my point about health and education in a moment, but first let me say that the Budget will be warmly welcomed, because it will build on the stability of the past 10 years. We should thank the Chancellor for what he has done. This will obviously be his last Budget, because he will be a candidate in the leadership elections, and I hope very much that he will take over as Prime Minister; he certainly has my support. We would then know that, over the next few years, we will continue to have stability. Let us look at health, because the hon. Member for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns), who was a Health Minister in the last Conservative Government, mentioned it. We have benefited a great deal in Leicester from a huge injection of cash. Some £760 million will go towards our new pathway project. Leicester general hospital will be rebuilt and changed substantially, and Glenfield hospital and Leicester royal infirmary will benefit, too. Three brand-new hospitals will benefit the people of Leicester, East. Only a few weeks ago, the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), visited my constituency to launch the new local improvement finance trust centre in Charnwood, which has received £12.8 million. Another centre is being built in the Humberstone and Hamilton area of my constituency, which did not exist when I became a Member of Parliament 20 years ago, because it is new build. There is a centre, too, in Belgrave in the heart of the inner city of Leicester, East. That shows a real commitment to the health service. Of course, I have raised concerns in the past, and I did so two weeks ago, as one of my constituents, Mark Golding, had waited for four months for a double hernia operation. I understand that it is a very painful condition. The hon. Member for West Chelmsford nods—he may well have suffered from it himself. Mr. Golding was in great agony, and he had to wait, which is wrong. We have spent a great deal of money on the health service, so why should people have to wait so long for operations? Lo and behold, after I raised the matter in Health questions, the next day, Mr. Golding received an appointment for a hernia operation. Obviously, we do not want people to keep writing to us all the time. [Hon. Members: ““Oh!””] We want to them to write to us with their concerns, but we do not want them to believe that just by our raising the matter on the Floor of the House they can get their operation, as there is a system in place. I am making the point that a lot of cash has gone in: what we need to look at is the delivery of services, which is up to the local primary care trust, not the Secretary of State for Health. I do not expect her or her junior Ministers to conduct those operations, but I do expect them to set the overall framework so that the local delivery of health services is as effective as possible.