THE CHAIR of the Health Select Committee has blasted the circus surrounding the Covid inquiry.
Steve Brine, who oversees the influential group scrutinising the Government’s health policies, told GB News: “Listen, I don’t care about Boris’s notebooks. If he wants to give them to the inquiry, give them to the inquiry. They can play the games they like. What I’m interested in is, is there a really respected piece of work that helps us turn the page and make sure that should this happen again, we’re in a better place. It’s not about apportioning blame. It’s about getting ourselves in a better place.”
Speaking to Gloria De Piero, in an interview to be screened on Sunday, the Conservative MP also criticised the decision to stop some cancer screening services during the pandemic.
Mr Brine, who tells the programme how he lost both of his parents to cancer, said: “I think it was the wrong decision to stop the breast screening program during COVID.
“You know there were many, many ways of continuing that on hot sites, cold sites. There was a way to carry on that programme and all that’s done is now added to the backlog.
“Once we get patients diagnosed, we have then got to treat them really quickly because early diagnosis is the magic key. But you can’t turn the key in the lock unless you do the treatment.”
Mr Brine also revealed how he believes a new vote on laws related to assisted dying – another issue the committee is currently considering – will be held in the next Parliament.
He said: “We went to Oregon, Portland, in the US, which was the first state to legalise the Death with Dignity legislation, and many other states in the union have it now.
“What stood out to me is that every jurisdiction that has introduced assisted dying legislation has changed from where it started.
“So when people say there is a slippery slope, there is some veracity to that argument. In Canada they have gone through the legislative process for this. They will bring in, I think very soon, that you could seek assisted suicide for mental health challenges.
“In Holland that is already the case. Many, many people in this country who propose changes to the law, say there’s no way that would ever happen.
“What we’re about is producing a very respectful, sober, sensible piece of work that will probably inform the next parliament. This is not a government decision, it’s a parliamentary decision. And the courts have been absolutely crystal clear this is a decision for parliament, not the courts.
On the timing of the next vote he continued: “It’s not up to me. But I suspect the next parliament will have a vote on this.
“Then I hope the work that we’ve produced will inform that debate around jurisdictions that already have it legalised. We’re all about informing the debate.”
And Mr Brine, who voted against the issue in 2013, said he could change his mind.
“I’m a Christian in politics and I’ve made no secret of that fact,” he said. “But I’m not elected as a Christian Conservative. I happen to be a Christian and I happen to be in politics and I am a Conservative. That was definitely a factor in me voting against it before on moral grounds. But as a politician you are there to look at the evidence and as a Select Committee Chair. I might change my mind, I haven’t arrived at a place yet.”
