Health minister refuses to answer dentist funding question during live interview

Health minister refuses to answer dentist funding question during live interviewSource: BBC Breakfast

Transcript

00:00 Am I right in thinking that actually the budget for NHS dentistry has dropped by

00:05 500 million pounds since 2014 so you might be putting in an extra 200

00:10 million but that's from a point where their budget is hugely smaller than it

00:15 was 10 years ago. So the I mean a lot has happened since 2014 but we have we have

00:23 our budget is three billion pounds as I say that is a lot lower than it was.

00:28 Indeed last year we put out a ring fence around that funding.

00:34 Is the budget lower than it was?

00:36 So the budget is three billion pounds.

00:38 But is that lower than it was?

00:40 As I say we are spending more on the NHS than we ever have.

00:44 But is it lower than it was?

00:46 Well it's a three billion pound budget.

00:50 So is it lower?

00:52 And a lot has happened in those 10 years that you're talking about.

00:57 But as I say this is additional money an additional 200 million pounds on top of the three billion pounds.

01:04 Additional after a budget cut?

01:06 It's a little bit rich for Labour to be lecturing us.