7th September, 2022
UK’s Prime Minister Liz Truss held her first Cabinet meeting with her new team on Wednesday morning at 10 Downing Street.
She announced mostly new team of cabinet members on Tuesday immediately she assumed office as Prime Minister.
Many have argued that the new PM looked at loyalty in appointing her new cabinet rather than on merit.
Theresa Coffey, new Health Secretary and Deputy PM said after the meeting that Truss’ spending on health and social care would stay ‘exactly the same’ despite health and social care levy being scrapped.
She confirmed Truss would set out a plan to deal with the energy bills crisis later this week, claiming that spending on health and social care would remain “exactly the same” despite Truss’s pledge to scrap the health and social care levy (the national insurance increase), that was introduced to raise money for the NHS, and then social care.
According to her, instead of having in effect a ring-fenced levy, “we will be funding that out of general taxation, so the investment going into health and social care will stay exactly the same.”
Coffey added that the government would not charge people to see a GP.
The UK Guardian reports that in 2009, before she became an MP, Truss was deputy director of a thinktank that proposed charging to see a GP in a report she co-authored.
Coffey said she accepted the NHS needed to improve quickly.
A Catholic, Coffey voted against same-sex marriage in 2013 and extending abortion rights in Northern Ireland.
Asked about her stance on abortion on Sky News, she said: “I’m conscious I have voted against abortion laws. What I will say is I’m the complete democrat and that is done, so it’s not that I’m seeking to undo any aspects of abortion laws.”