Steve Barclay denies that PM blocked the re-building of hospitals hit by crumbling concrete
HEALTH Secretary Steve Barclay has denied that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak blocked the re-building of RAAC-affected hospitals when he was Chancellor.
He told GB News: “When I saw that story, I was actually in the Treasury with the now Prime Minister then the Chancellor, and I know that’s inaccurate…
“What we did in the spending review in 2020, it was a one-year review, not a three-year review, we announced funding to put in place two new hospitals where it was clear the RAAC required a full hospital rebuild.
“But we also commissioned [consultant] Mott MacDonald to do, in line with the Institute of Structural Engineers, a full survey of the additional hospitals because as the Institute for structural engineers say, you need to assess it, monitor it, and only if there are concerns around the RAAC then to replace it.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “It’s right that we look at that so we balance the needs of the RAAC programme within our wider hospitals upgrade programme. That’s exactly what we did.
“We put several hundred million pounds over four years into the RAAC replacement programme. So we’ve been on this issue early and, after the further work, those five additional hospitals were brought into the new hospitals programme and of course that is the biggest ever investment in the NHS.
“Over £20 billion of investment in the NHS, so this government is making the biggest ever investment in our hospital building programme. But it’s right that we look at the evidence and we follow the guidance from the Institute of structural engineers and that’s exactly why we commissioned Mott MacDonald to do the survey that they did.”
Asked about reports that Labour would do a deal with the EU to take in migrants, he said: “He wants to give control back to the EU to decide on quotas.
“We’re making progress in terms of reducing crossings, there’s been a 20% reduction in crossings to the UK, whereas in Europe there’s actually been a 30% increase, so who wants to give control of that immigration across to the EU?”
