---

Health and Social Care Bill

No. I am going to make some progress. The Labour party, when in government, pioneered patient choice; Labour said, ““We must have patient choice.”” I remember John Reid, when he was a Member, saying that the articulate and the well-off negotiated their way through the health service, and that he wanted to give choice to everybody in the health service. He was right. The social attitudes survey in 2009 found that more than 95% of people felt that they should have more choice, but that fewer than half of patients actually experienced it. The Labour party started down the road of extending choice; we will complete that journey.