MP anger at Labour "snub" to hospital speech (From Bucks Free Press)

MP anger at Labour "snub" to hospital speech

2:06pm Friday 20th November 2009

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CONSERVATIVE Wycombe MP Paul Goodman has attacked Labour after only two of its backbenchers attended his speech calling for services to return to Wycombe Hospital.

Mr Goodman hit out after telling the Commons about a Bucks Free Press report about two women who gave birth in ambulances because of hospital cuts.

He said: “If only two Labour backbenchers can be bothered to turn up to defend their own Government's programme, what does that say about their faith in it and the current state of the Commons?

“And if they don't believe in it, why should anyone else?”

He told the Commons MPs might be heading to constituencies, where most MPs spend their Fridays. Labour has 350 MPs.

He said: “Perhaps they have come to the conclusion, as we certainly have, that there is nothing wrong with the Queen's Speech that a speedy general election will not put right.”

Mr Goodman said during the 11.30pm to 6pm session that Labour MPs Barry Sheerman and Dennis Skinner were the only members present.

The Commons keeps no official records of attendance. Click the link at the bottom of the story for video of the debate and full text of the debate.

Mr Goodman told the Commons of the NHS cuts: “My constituents will ask the simple question that our party asked during the 2001 general election: ‘Where has all the money gone?’.”

Mr Goodman said the Buckinghamshire NHS is “trapped in a vicious circle” as the county got about 17 per cent less cash from Government compared to other parts of England.

Local managers had a role to play in cutting overspends, he said, but this is “very hard” without the cash.

Mr Goodman said: “There will be a simpler, fairer and independently administered funding formula if a Conservative Government are elected in May, as I believe they will be, and that will greatly help to improve my constituents' situation.”

And he said Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust got foundation status – giving it more financial control – this could bring back services to Wycombe.

The hospital last month lost doctor-led births, overnight care for mums-to-be, children and gynaecology patients.

Mr Goodman said the re-organisation of NHS authorities in the county had not helped.

He said: “For us, the experience of the NHS in Buckinghamshire has been almost like watching permanent revolution in China.”

The MP is to quit at the next election over concerns of the rise of “professional politicians”.

He told the Commons: “The basic question that the House has to ask is whether it sees Members of Parliament fundamentally as citizen legislators who are free to earn and work elsewhere, or as professional politicians.

“Professional politicians are, by definition, not so free to earn and work outside, and are therefore inevitably members of a political class, distinct and separate from the constituents whom they represent.”

He condemned demands for MPs to fill out “time sheets” detailing outside work.

Mr Goodman said: “The Commons should not become a monopoly for the political class who work here, work here only and do not have any outside interests and expertise, whether in dentistry, the law, the City or charities and so on.”

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