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Mrs. Beckett: I can reassure my hon. Friend that the Government are studying the matter very carefully. We will do as much as we can, with the assistance and support to which he has referred. I have no doubt that he will continue to keep us up to the mark.

Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West): Can the right hon. Lady find time for an urgently needed debate on ward closures in the national health service,

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with particular reference to this week's announcement of the decision to close two of the three wards at Altrincham general hospital? The announcement was made following no public consultation whatever; it was made three days after local elections that were very closely fought; and the community health council is now seeking, possibly, to mount a challenge to it.

I understand from the chairman of the community health council that the chief executive of the trust made it clear that the closures were due to the need to find extra funds because of the Government's failure to finance the nurses' pay award. Given the circumstances, I suspect that we shall see more hospital closures around the country. It is vital for us to have a debate; may we have one soon?

Mrs. Beckett: I cannot undertake to find time for that special debate, but the hon. Gentleman can seek to raise the matter on the Adjournment. I advise him to remember when he does so that the Government did fully fund the pay award, which contrasts with the Conservative party's record on both the granting of awards and the funding of them. As for the notion that local authority elections in some way governed a decision made by a health authority, there is no relationship between the two. I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would know that. Local authorities do not run hospitals.

Mr. Phil Hope (Corby): Will my right hon. Friend find time for a debate on NHS waiting lists? That might be a more fruitful subject.

Despite the financial pressures, Kettering general hospital, which serves my constituents, has met its targets in regard to waiting lists. It was announced this week that waiting lists had fallen by nearly a quarter of a million since May 1998. During the debate for which I have asked, Labour Members might like to reflect on the fact that we are only 15,000 short of the pledge made in May 1997 to cut waiting lists overall by 100,000. I should particularly like to hear the Opposition's views on waiting lists and the national health service: I should like to know exactly what their policies are on public spending and private health care.

Mrs. Beckett: My hon. Friend makes a strong case for a debate, which tempts me. He is entirely right: not only have waiting lists fallen substantially, but, as a result of tremendous achievements by health service staff, waiting times have as well. The Government clearly have a great deal to boast about.

I fear that I cannot promise my hon. Friend an extra debate, but he may have noticed that the Opposition have decided to debate these matters next week, and he may bear that in mind.

Mr. Howard Flight (Arundel and South Downs): In view of yesterday's particularly strident address to London by Commissioner Monti, will the Leader of the House please ask the Chancellor to make a full, clear and unequivocal statement about the Government's policy on the proposed European Union withholding tax?

Mrs. Beckett: I did not hear the Commissioner's statement, but "strident" does not sound like Commissioner Monti to me; he has always struck me as a remarkably quiet man.

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There is no doubt--as the Chancellor has repeatedly made clear, and will go on making clear--that we are fighting hard to defend Britain's national interest, and will continue to do so.

Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham): The response of the Leader of the House to my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Mr. Flight) was almost as risible as the Chancellor's response at Question Time.

Will the right hon. Lady reconsider, and arrange an early debate in Government time on the proposed withholding tax on savings income? Does she understand that such a debate would give the Chancellor an opportunity to declare unequivocally that he will veto--a word that he declines to use--any such proposed withholding tax, on which Mario Monti is insisting? Does the right hon. Lady recognise that no pathetic compromise whereby exchange of information between European Union member states is countenanced, or even whereby large-scale institutional investors are exempted, would be satisfactory to Conservative Members? We do not want this tax, which threatens 10,000 jobs including a number of my Buckingham constituents who work in the City. Say no, and veto.

Mrs. Beckett: I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman was in for Treasury Questions, although I know he normally is, but my understanding is that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer answered a question on the matter and made the Government's position plain, as he has repeatedly. The Government are, of course, sympathetic to the aim of dealing with tax evasion and are prepared to enter into discussions on those matters, but we have made it absolutely plain that we do not support the imposition of such a tax; that we are very concerned about damage to the national interest; and that we will defend that interest. As for the notion of accepting a pathetic compromise, the Conservatives were the experts at that.

Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley): Would it be possible to arrange for an early debate on local government and the denial of democracy, so that I could raise the issue of what is going on in Preston council? At the beginning of the year, two Labour councillors defected from the controlling group and the Labour party lost overall control. A few days later, a Liberal Democrat defected to the Labour party, by which the Labour party regained control.

At the elections on Thursday, the result was no overall control. On the night of the count--indeed, at the count--a Liberal Democrat defected to the Labour party and the Labour party regained control. The next day, the same defector became an independent and a Liberal Democrat joined the Labour party.

All I can say is that, at 11 o'clock today, the state of play was that Preston council was under no overall control, but I am conscious that more than two hours have elapsed, so anything could have happened. Is it not a denial of democracy to the people of Preston that their wishes are being totally ignored while their elected representatives are playing political musical chairs?

Mrs. Beckett: I sympathise with the hon. Gentleman over the fact that, after all his campaigning, the

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Conservatives did not succeed in taking control of Preston council. I am sure that he is terribly upset about that, but I fear that I cannot find time to debate it.

Mr. Keith Simpson (Mid-Norfolk): Will the Leader of the House please make time for either the Foreign Secretary or the Secretary of State for Defence to come to the House and to brief us on this morning's reports in the paper that the joint Liberal-Labour Cabinet sub-committee appears to be taking forward policy on European defence? That is not only a discourtesy to the House, but very strange when NATO is attempting to carry out military action against Serbia. Can we please have a statement as soon as possible on that matter?

Mrs. Beckett: I do not think that there is any need for a statement. There is no dispute that NATO must remain the bedrock of our security. Nothing in the announcement about how we should pursue European defence co-operation is in any way distinct from what was said, for example, in the recent Washington summit declaration. In consequence, the House will be conscious that that is a reaffirmation of the importance of joint work on the matter.

Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire): Since the reality of the arrival of the new Assembly in Wales and the Scottish Parliament has sunk in, many people in the border areas who live near me have asked what the role of Members of Parliament for constituencies in Wales and Scotland will be? May we have a debate on the three Rs: the role, responsibility and remuneration of Welsh and Scottish Members of Parliament now that so many of their tasks have been handed over to the Members of those new institutions?

Mrs. Beckett: I am not sure where the hon. Gentleman was, but I think that his party had a debate on the matter--or some party had a debate on it--this week. I cannot offer to have another in the near future.

Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East): The Prime Minister said yesterday that he is pondering the consequences of the electoral system that the Government have introduced in Scotland and in Wales. Does the Leader of the House think that she could find time next week for the Prime Minister--if he has completed his ruminations--to share his conclusions by explaining in a statement to the House what is fair, representative and democratic about a system that evidently is enabling the party that came first to abandon manifestos, shed commitments, carve up power and distribute ministerial posts not to the party that came second, or even to the party that came third, but to the party--the Liberal Democrats--that came a very poor fourth?

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