Steve Brine spoke in an Urgent Question the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, following a seven-hour joint session of the Commons Heath, and Science and Technology committees, which heard from former Government advisor, Dominic Cummings.
During the session Mr Cummings made a number of allegations about Government failings, many of which were aimed at the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.
Speaking the House Steve summed his view up as “Isn't it the case, Mr Speaker, that far from the world being divided into people who are either useless or brilliant and the British state failing at every turn? We have a government in this country that did its best and a public that came together, as always in the UK, when the chips were down.”
Matt Hancock, who Steve worked with as a minister in 2019, responded “My honourable friend served as a health minister has captured, not just the spirit of what this country has been through in the last 18 months, but also the spirit of the debate today in this House.
“The truth of the matter, Mr Speaker, is that we work best when we work together and we work together when we have a common mission and the common mission has been tackling this virus and it is absolutely true that we must always, always, do that with an open mind to how we do it better in the future, but in my view the attitude you need to take is one where you welcome people in and you take things forward in a spirit of positive partnership. That's how you get stuff done and that's how we've made the progress we've be able to make.”
Matt Hancock is expected to speak in front of a joint session of the Commons Heath, and Science and Technology committees in a couple of weeks’ time.
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