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Rifkind, Rt Hon Malcolm

Robathan, Andrew

Roberts, Rt Hon Sir Wyn

Robertson, Raymond (Ab'd'n S)

Robinson, Mark (Somerton)

Roe, Mrs Marion (Broxbourne)

Rowe, Andrew (Mid Kent)

Rumbold, Rt Hon Dame Angela

Ryder, Rt Hon Richard

Sackville, Tom

Scott, Rt Hon Sir Nicholas

Shaw, David (Dover)

Shaw, Sir Giles (Pudsey)

Shephard, Rt Hon Gillian

Shepherd, Colin (Hereford)

Shepherd, Richard (Aldridge)

Shersby, Sir Michael

Sims, Roger

Smith, Tim (Beaconsfield)

Soames, Nicholas

Spencer, Sir Derek

Spicer, Sir James (W Dorset)

Spicer, Michael (S Worcs)

Spink, Dr Robert

Spring, Richard

Sproat, Iain

Squire, Robin (Hornchurch)

Steen, Anthony

Stephen, Michael

Stern, Michael

Stewart, Allan

Streeter, Gary

Sumberg, David

Sweeney, Walter

Sykes, John

Tapsell, Sir Peter

Taylor, Ian (Esher)

Taylor, John M (Solihull)

Taylor, Sir Teddy (Southend, E)

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Temple-Morris, Peter

Thompson, Sir Donald (C'er V)

Thompson, Patrick (Norwich N)

Thornton, Sir Malcolm

Thurnham, Peter

Townend, John (Bridlington)

Townsend, Cyril D (Bexl'yh'th)

Tracey, Richard

Tredinnick, David

Trend, Michael

Trotter, Neville

Twinn, Dr Ian

Vaughan, Sir Gerard

Viggers, Peter

Walden, George

Walker, Bill (N Tayside)

Waller, Gary

Ward, John

Wardle, Charles (Bexhill)

Waterson, Nigel

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Watts, John

Wells, Bowen

Wheeler, Rt Hon Sir John

Whitney, Ray

Whittingdale, John

Widdecombe, Ann

Wiggin, Sir Jerry

Wilkinson, John

Willetts, David

Wilshire, David

Winterton, Mrs Ann (Congleton)

Winterton, Nicholas (Macc'f'ld)

Wolfson, Mark

Wood, Timothy

Yeo, Tim

Young, Rt Hon Sir George

Tellers for the Noes: Mr. David Lightbown and Mr. Sydney Chapman.

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Question accordingly negatived.

Question, That the proposed words be there added, put forthwith pursuant to Standing Order No. 30 (Questions on amendments) and agreed to.

Madam Deputy Speaker-- forthwith declared the main Question, as amended, to be agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House notes that since the introduction of the Government's health reforms, over one million more patients are treated in hospital every year and waiting times have fallen to the lowest on record; welcomes the Government's commitment to a strong and stable publicly-funded NHS where trusts and general practitioner fundholders are free to build further on these achievements; and condemns the inadequate, inconsistent and incoherent policies of Her Majesty's Opposition, which would destroy the key features of the new NHS, would undermine patients' interests and would throw into reverse the progress of recent years.

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PRIVATE BUSINESS

Queen Mary and Westfield College Bill ( By Order ) Order for Third Reading read--Queen's consent, on behalf of the Crown, signified.

7.13 pm

Mr. Peter Brooke (City of London and Westminster, South): The right hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore), who moved the Bill's Second Reading, is abroad on parliamentary business and is therefore unable to be present tonight.

The Bill is promoted by three colleges of the university of London, of whose council I am a member, an interest which I declare. In the era of the ultra cautious, I should perhaps add that my mother, who is entitled as a noble Baroness to sit in another place, has been an honorary fellow of Westfield, and I learnt to play tennis upon its courts. One of the colleges, St. Bartholomew's hospital medical college, is in my constituency.

The Bill is designed to bring about the merger of those three colleges. Two of them, Bart's and the London hospital medical college, are medical colleges, the third, Queen Mary and Westfield, is a multi-faculty institution. It is the fourth largest college of the university of London. The Bill is designed to bring those three colleges together into one institution in line with developments across London, which are integrating medical and dental education and research within multi-faculty institutions. Those developments enjoy the widest measure of support in the academic and medical worlds. The Bill received overwhelming support on Second Reading after a speech of great length and admirably consistent relevance by the hon. Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch (Mr. Sedgemore). It has passed its Committee stage and I hope that hon. Members will support its Third Reading.

It is now some five years since the three colleges joined together in the City and East London Confederation for Medicine and Dentistry, when the pre -clinical departments from the two medical colleges were transferred to Queen Mary and Westfield college. This has been successful, but it is now agreed that the process needs to be taken further. To be able to educate those medical and dental students with the widest curricular opportunities; to give them a much fuller experience of being educated alongside students of other subjects; and to strengthen research both within medicine and across disciplinary boundaries, that union of the colleges is imperative. Is the Bill needed for that purpose? The answer is an unequivocal yes. The colleges have powers to co-operate and collaborate. They could create a joint school of medicine and dentistry, but without the Bill they cannot come together as a single institution with one governing body and single administrative, financial, managerial and academic structures. No misuse of the royal prerogative is involved: only legislation can bring about the full legal merger of the colleges. A number of consequential changes are then needed to the statutes of Queen Mary and Westfield college, which require the approval of the Privy Council. Those amendments will not come into force until the Bill is enacted.

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How do the Bill and the merger proposals relate to St. Bartholomew's hospital? Hon. Members will be aware of my views about the decisions relating to St. Bartholomew's hospital to transfer its activities to the Royal London hospital at Whitechapel. The three colleges each concluded, prior to the decisions on the future of St. Bartholomew's hospital, that their merger and the creation of a new school of medicine and dentistry was unquestionably the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do even if St. Bartholomew's hospital were to remain. The new school of medicine and dentistry would then teach its students and conduct its research at the Royal London hospital at Whitechapel and St. Bartholomew's hospital in West Smithfield in the City.

If Bart's closes, teaching and research will have to take place elsewhere. I still entertain the hope that, despite the decision earlier this year, Bart's will escape closure. If that is so, the new college and medical school will take full advantage of the facilities and activities at West Smithfield. If the hospital ceases its activities, it is absolutely vital that the new unified school is brought into being and the education of students and medical and dental research are able to carry on unimpeded elsewhere. Does the Bill involve the destruction of Bart's medical college, as was alleged on Second Reading? Saving the grace of my parliamentary neighbour, the hon. Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch, it does not. A medical school or, indeed, any other academic institution, is not just the physical buildings in which it operates. It is, above all else, people working in an environment which has, over the years, developed certain characteristics, reputation and ethos.

St. Bartholomew's hospital medical college, like the London hospital medical college, will certainly undergo change in the process of amalgamation. But the same number of medical and dental students will be educated, at least the same amount of research will be prosecuted, all the staff will continue to be employed and, overall, the facilities and opportunities secured by the merger should be greater.

The process of bringing together three separate institutions such as this is not without its difficulties and the process is a challenging one for all involved. But opportunities are offered here, and all three college councils are convinced that it is the right way forward.

The Bill is important for London and for medical education generally. As can be seen from the Second Reading debate, no coherent arguments can be advanced against it. The proposal even enjoys the support of The Times Higher Education Supplement , although some might think that that is a poisoned chalice. I commend the Bill to the House.

7.20 pm

Mr. Brian Sedgemore (Hackney, South and Shoreditch): I am delighted to follow the right hon. Member for City of London and Westminster, South (Mr. Brooke), who spoke with his usual charm, grace and conciseness-- perhaps that will be a lesson to me as I spoke for two and a quarter hours in the previous debate on the subject. I shall not do that tonight. The right hon. Member for City of London and Westminster, South certainly draws the short straw. Only a week ago he was introducing in the House a private Bill that he apparently found so disdainful that he never pressed it to a vote.

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My right hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore), who moved the Second Reading of the Bill, has found it such a poisoned chalice that he has this evening absented himself on a parliamentary visit. I wonder what procedural device the right hon. Member for City of London and Westminster, South will use to block the Bill tonight.

Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Janet Fookes): Order. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would come to the subject of the debate.

Mr. Sedgemore: Of course, I shall, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was trying to give a charming and easy introduction to put everyone at ease.

We meet on a tumultuous evening, with historic events about to take place tomorrow. People are naturally asking me what the link is between the Queen Mary and Westfield College Bill and the election of the leader of the Conservative party. I imagine that it is precisely because there is a link that the Chairman of Ways and Means has tabled the Bill for debate tonight. There is such a disruptive campaign taking place that we all expect an election, probably by Christmas--by spring at the latest--which, of course, the Labour party will win. That means that St. Bartholomew's hospital will be saved. After the hospital has been saved, we shall look again at the position of the medical colleges of St. Bartholomew's hospital and the London hospital.

I am told that there is only one unifying force in the extraordinarily disruptive campaign involving the Prime Minister, the right hon. Members for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), for Enfield, Southgate (Mr. Portillo) and for Henley (Mr. Heseltine). If we look at the list of proposed Cabinets, we see that the Secretary of State for Health does not appear in any of them. That makes a difference to us because perhaps after this week we shall be able to discuss the future of St. Bartholomew's hospital and its medical college in rational terms--something which we have not been able to do. I wish to make a plea to two sets of people tonight. First, I wish to ask Conservative Members to vote down the Bill. Secondly, I wish to make a plea to peers of the realm in another place. Should the Bill receive a Third Reading in the House, I ask them to block it, delay it and vote it down when it comes to its Second Reading in the other place.

I ask Conservative Members to think back to that great Conservative philosopher, Edmund Burke--perhaps the greatest Tory philosopher there has ever been. Edmund Burke based his theory on the virtues of custom, tradition, stability, continuity, renewal and excellence. St. Bartholomew's hospital and its medical college stand for all those virtues.

I could understand it if the Labour party in the 1960s proposed to abolish St. Bartholomew's hospital and to merge its medical college with the Royal London hospital. I cannot understand how the Conservative party in the 1990s should be advancing that proposal. I ask Conservative Members to stand back, think of the great Conservative philosopher and reject barmy 18th century notions of classical liberalism that appear to form the theory driving the two proposals.

I suppose that it may be impertinent for a mere commoner, dressed in a shabby lounge suit, to tell peers of the realm what to do. However, I ask them to come to

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