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Lib Dems "passionate" about NHS, says Stone


By Staff Reporter

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JAMIE Stone has reiterated the Liberal Democrats’ “passionate commitment” to the NHS and set out the reasons why the party’s MPs abstained in a recent parliamentary vote about the health service.

“Some people have been asking me why the Liberal Democrats abstained on a vote on the NHS,” said Mr Stone, who is hoping to retain his Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross seat in next week’s general election, having served as Lib Dem MP for the constituency since 2017.

“I can assure everyone that the Lib Dems are passionately committed to the principles of the NHS – a taxpayer-funded system, free at the point of use, with access to healthcare based on need, not ability to pay.

“I am also absolutely clear that the Liberal Democrats will hold any government to this and will not support any trade deals which undermine food, safety and environmental standards or that threaten the NHS.

The Liberal Democrats will not support any trade deals that threaten the NHS.

“The Labour amendment to the Queen’s Speech was twofold. Firstly, it safeguarded the NHS against future trade deals which I and the other Lib Dem MPs of course supported. However, the second part of the amendment aimed to repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012 completely and offered no replacement for this legislation.

“This would do no more than create a vacuum in the NHS and prompt a top-down NHS reorganisation which no-one in the NHS wants. We therefore could not support the Labour amendment and abstained.

“But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. When it came to the final vote on the Conservatives’ Queen’s Speech, the Liberal Democrats, along with all opposition parties, voted against it.”


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