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Despite its residential nature, the constituency has a long industrial history, of manufacturing in particular. There is a long-standing theme of the relationship of industry to the welfare of the people that surround it in Wirral, South and more widely. Much of the constituency bears the mark and carries the legacy of the first Lord Leverhulme, notably the attractive industrial village of Port Sunlight.
That is appropriate, as, among the world-class firms in the industrial belt of the constituency, Unilever in its various forms is still the biggest employer. There are many other companies of world class, of which Candy and, in a smaller sense, McTay Marine, are but two. Vauxhall, not in the constituency but on the borders, is of course also a world-class company. All those firms provide wealth to the Wirral as a whole because of the residential spread of their employees.
It may be a statement of the obvious, but without such a competitive and successful wealth-creating sector, we cannot prosper as a nation and provide the quality of services that we would like, be it in relation to the education of our children, the care of the elderly, the provision of local services or health services, including
primary health care. That is why I want to say a few words about the industry of Wirral, South in a debate about health.
Labour is committed in government to a partnership between industry and Government at national level. Such a partnership is just as necessary at local level. We must understand our businesses and be in dialogue with them in order to avoid, for example, the situation in which Ford announced, apparently out of the blue, the moving of the production of the Escort from Halewood and the consequent potential job losses. The situation was alleviated only by the subsequent intervention of Labour Members of Parliament.
I intend to develop a dialogue with local industry and commerce, a role where I hope that my previous experience at the Department of Trade and Industry and as a commercial diplomat will bring extra added value.
Issues relating to the health service and to law and order dominated the Wirral, South campaign. People there have long ceased to trust the Government in health matters. They do not believe that the health service is safe in Tory hands. They are fed up with the sort of creeping privatisation that we have just heard about. They want a change.
The hospitals that serve my constituency, Clatterbridge and Arrow Park, have excellent staff, but are beset by the problems that beset hospitals throughout the health service--the problems of long waiting lists, long waits for appointments, regular crises in accident and emergency departments, poor staff morale, lack of finances, staff shortages and so on. Typically, someone seeking an orthopaedic appointment in my constituency could wait 156 weeks for the appointment, let alone the treatment. In Wirral one in four patients wait at least six months for treatment, and there are 6,000 people on waiting lists. On occasions, patients assessed for medical admission as emergencies cannot be allocated a bed, resulting in unacceptable trolley waits.
People are fed up to the back teeth with the bureaucracy of the internal market. Health services for people in Wirral, South are creaking under the weight of bureaucracy. Patients charter standards for waiting list admissions and cancelled operations are regularly breached. Since the Government introduced the internal market, the north-west has lost almost 4,500 nurses and gained more than 2,500 bureaucrats. An extra £284,000 a day is spent on bureaucracy--enough for almost 300 extra patients to be treated every day.
That is why the people of Wirral, South welcome new Labour's proposals for a reduction of 100,000 in hospital waiting lists by cutting red tape in the health service and switching funds to patient care. They welcome the prospect of putting pride back into the health service--a service that was created by a Labour Government.
Health, Mr. Deputy Speaker, was the most significant concern of the voters of Wirral, South, which is why I sought to catch your eye in the debate today. The constituency has shown that it is also concerned about law and order, particularly youth crime, job insecurity, unemployment and declining standards in education. I intend to focus on all those and other issues, such as the provision of facilities for our youth, as the Member for Wirral, South in this Parliament and the next. I intend to be a strong voice for Wirral, South on all those matters.
When I took my seat, the Prime Minister advised me not to unpack my bags. Well, the bags are unpacked, the suits are in the wardrobe and the socks are in the drawer. I intend to be around for some years, sustaining a Labour Government who are, after my election in Wirral, South, surely coming in a few weeks.
Mr. Frank Field (Birkenhead):
It is a tradition in the House that we welcome new Members, and I do that unreservedly and with considerable pleasure. I could not help reflecting as I heard my new hon. Friend the Member for Wirral, South (Mr. Chapman) make his contribution, that had I managed to make my maiden speech with such style and with resolve, my parliamentary career might have taken a different turn from the way in which it has developed.
I rise not only to congratulate my new hon. Friend--I hope that I will have many opportunities in the Parliament ahead to take pleasure in his contribution--but because it seemed appropriate today, as this was the last occasion on which I could put on the record the sense of loss and grief that I feel at the death of Barry Porter. He was my friend, and one of the many great pleasures of representing Birkenhead in the House was the fact that I was his Member. I did my very best to represent his interests.
If Barry were here now, he would be making some pretty tough comments from the Bench below the Gangway, saying that there was always a danger of my making a meal when no meal should be made, but I am grateful to have had this chance to record my sense of loss at the death of Barry Porter.
Mr. Malone:
I immediately add my warm congratulations to the hon. Member for Wirral, South (Mr. Chapman) on making his maiden speech. Whatever has been said about how temporary or permanent his stay may be was said by the Prime Minister, so I do not intend to add to that.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his words. I also thank the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) for what the House has come to recognise as a typically generous gesture--his remarks about the late Barry Porter. All Conservative Members who knew him well recognised that he was a first-class constituency Member of Parliament and a valued colleague. I am sure that all those who were close to Barry Porter will read what has been said in the debate and will be most grateful for the warm remarks.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Wirral, South on his comments about his constituency. Although he has only recently come to the House, he has clearly absorbed some of its traditions very quickly. He made a first-class maiden speech, on which I congratulate him.
I slightly envy the hon. Gentleman his task in making a maiden speech. When I was elected to the House in 1983, there was no opportunity to make a maiden speech on Report. I was persuaded by my Whips to make a speech on Second Reading of what I was told was an important and interesting piece of legislation called the Telecommunications Bill. After I had sat down, having made my speech, it was vouchsafed to me that the convention of the House, which had not until then been disclosed to me, was that having spoken on Second
Reading, one was expected to serve on the Committee. Many sleepless nights followed for me, so I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on being able to make his maiden speech on Report and Third Reading. I wish that I had been accorded such an opportunity.
During the Bill's passage, we have been through the argument about commercialisation many times. I must tell the hon. Member for Dulwich (Ms Jowell) that, in my opinion, that argument died during the Second Reading debate. The hon. Lady exhumed the corpse on several occasions in Committee, but her attempts to give it artificial respiration failed. Here we have yet another attempt to breathe life into an argument that has long been dead.
In our debates, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have said--frequently, in my case--that we regard primary care as a jewel in the NHS crown. We said from the outset--in all the debates on the introductory White Papers, as well as debates on the Bill--that the whole purpose of the Bill is to enable primary care to be delivered to an even higher standard, across the country, as part of the national health service. From the start, we have taken very seriously any suggestion that the Bill might undermine the key characteristics of our primary care system. We listened to the arguments put to us by, among others, the health care professions and the British Medical Association, and we tabled a series of important amendments--including amendment No. 11--to ensure that we met those arguments.
I think that I can safely say something to the House--if not to the hon. Member for Dulwich, who I know will not accept any undertakings that I may give: she sees plots where there is none and future agendas where there is none. As I think I pointed out to her in Committee, when the argument is finally lost, she is obliged to invent a hidden agenda. Let me repeat, however, that our amendments have dealt thoroughly with the argument.
The amendments attempt to tighten further the rules governing bodies that may provide piloted services and services in permanent arrangements; but, with the exception--for historic reasons of which the hon. Lady will be well aware--of the handful of dental corporate bodies, public limited companies are already explicitly excluded from providing such services by clauses 2, 3 and 21 of the Bill. Those provisions make it crystal clear that the only companies that qualify as members of the NHS family--with the exception of dental corporate bodies--must have all their shares owned by individuals who are members of that NHS family.
In Committee, it was made clear that that was a watertight provision. I cannot see how it could possibly allow public limited companies to provide personal medical services, for example, and I therefore consider the new clause unnecessary. If the hon. Lady is taking her text merely from what she reads in Pulse, she should refer more to the Official Report of the Committee stage, in which she will find more accurate descriptions of the effect of the Bill.
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