Member

“but, while welcoming measures aimed at upholding standards in public life, which have been neglected under UK, Scottish and Welsh Governments in recent years, humbly regret that the Gracious Speech does not include sufficient measures to address the crisis in health and care, such as the introduction of a legal right to see a GP within seven days, a guarantee for cancer patients to start treatment within 62 days from urgent referral, free personal care in England, better support for carers, and a cross-party commission on social care; and call on the Government to stop the scandal of sewage dumping against which the previous Government failed to take action, including by replacing Ofwat with a new regulator, to support families with the cost of living and to tackle poverty, including by introducing a national food strategy, extending free school meals to all children in poverty, and by scrapping the two-child benefit cap, to ensure that rural communities and farmers receive adequate support, and to reform the system for parliamentary elections by replacing first-past-the-post with proportional representation, so that every vote counts.”—(Christine Jardine.)