Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 01 September 2020
Before I move on to a national care service, I will go back to the point about tenants. Richard Leonard used the expression “crumb of comfort”. It is of more help and comfort in the immediate term, in the face of a crisis, to have a £10 million fund than to wait six months for legislation. We are acting now to protect tenants, and we will, of course, continue to consider other suggestions for the longer term.
Richard Leonard did something on the Scottish child payment, and he is perhaps about to do it on a national care service. He spends weeks calling for something and, as soon as we commit to it, instead of welcoming that, he decides to grump and groan about it.
We will get on with the detail of that. I want to see a national care service. The vision of that should inspire and excite all of us. However, the difference between calling for something in opposition and delivering it in government is that, in government, we have to work out the detail, get it right, and implement it properly. That is why we will establish the review immediately and call on it to give an initial report by January so that we can begin to act on its recommendations. I hope that all the Opposition parties in the chamber will be listened to and that soundings will be taken from all of them in that review.
We can use this moment to continue to disagree on the details of that or to come together. I am not sure that all of us will be able to come together on these things, but those of us who broadly agree can come together and try to seize the moment as a chance for genuine transformational change. I hope that Richard Leonard will be in the latter camp.