Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) - 7 July 2021

before we come to prime minister's questions i would like to point out that the british sign language interpretation of proceedings is available to watch on parliament live tv we now come to questions to prime minister john mcnally question number one mr speaker today marks the 16th anniversary of the 7-7 london bombings we remember the 52 innocent people who lost their lives and those who were injured and pay tribute to the city's emergency services for their heroic response mr speaker i'm sure the whole house will wish to join me in sending condolences to the family and friends of sizzling faye allen who died earlier this week she was the uk's first black female police officer and she served in the metropolitan police mr speaker i'm sure colleagues will also want to join me in wishing the england football team the best of luck for tonight's semi-final against denmark this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others and in addition to my duties in this house i shall have such further such meetings later today thank you mr speaker prime minister we hear a great deal in this place about the rule of law and injustice can the prime minister tell me what he's going to do about the injustice that my constituents and folker indeed families up and down the uk are facing every day because of the retrospective lone chart that is fast turning into the next post office scandal the hounding by hmrc clearly out of control accountable to no one has managed to hoodwink mislead his own treasury ministers and now according to the head of hmrc the retrospective loan charge appears to be without any legal basis or justification here therefore will the prime minister accept this mafia needs further and immediate investigation [Music] mr speaker i'm acutely aware as i think all colleagues are around the house of the uh the pain suffered by those who entered into loan charge schemes and i think i think alas that they were misguided to do so but i think that the uh the the line taken by the treasury i'm afraid is right on this let's go to john stevenson john thank you mr speaker prime minister there is more that unites us and divides us is very true of the united kingdom however improved connectivity is vital to ensuring we remain united the government's recent interim connectivity review has suggested some improvements if this is really going to happen then improvements must be made to the a75 the a69 and to the extension of the borders railway does a prime minister support such investment and what is the time scale for such investment i thank uh my own friend for his excellent uh question i think he should uh not have too long to wait for the uh final recommendations from sir peter hendy about the a75 and other great uh features of union uh connectivity uh which th which this government uh hopes to support but we've already uh agreed uh five million uh from the uk and the scottish governments uh to support uh the extension of the edinburgh tweed bank borders uh railway at akala we now come to the leader of the opposition kia stala thank you mr speaker can i join the prime minister in his remarks about these seven seven anniversary um i remember where i was on that day and we'll never forget it i'm sure that's the same for everybody and we will never forget all those affected especially the family and friends of all those who died can i join the prime minister in his comments about failing as well and also about football and wish the very best of luck to the england football team this evening i'm sure the whole country with the possible exception of the conservative mp for ashfield will be watching this evening and cheering england on mr speaker can i also extend a special welcome to the new member for batley and spain [Applause] and will members opposite forgive me if i just turn around um to look at the new member for batman's bender she sits there on these benches beneath the plaque to joe cox her sister and that's a special an emotional moment for all of us on these benches and i i think for everybody across this house it takes incredible courage and bravery to stand um in that constituency and to sit on these benches beneath that plaque mr speaker we all want our economy to open and to get back to normal the question is whether we do it in a controlled way or a chaotic way the health secretary told the house yesterday that under the government's plan infections could go as high as a hundred thousand a day now a number of key questions fall from that first if infections reach that level a hundred thousand per day what does the prime minister expect the number of hospitalizations deaths and the number of people with long covid will be in that eventuality minister mr speaker the uh there are a number of uh projections uh and that they're available from the from the spy m graphs but which certainly true mr speaker that we are seeing a wave of of cases because of the the delta variant but uh scientists are also absolutely clear uh that we have severed the link uh between uh infection and serious disease and death and currently there are only uh a thirtieth of of the of the deaths that we were seeing at an equivalent position in previous waves of this uh pandemic and that has been made possible thanks to the vaccine rollout uh the fastest of any european country and i think what people would like to hear from uh the party opposite because i wasn't quite clear from that opening question is whether or not they support the progress that this country is intending to make on july the 19th or not mr speaker he says it's a reckless to go ahead does that mean he's opposing it mr speaker we know that the link between infection rates and deaths has been weakened but it hasn't been broken and the prime minister must and he certainly should know the answer to the question that i asked him that he won't answer it here in the house hardly inspires confidence in his plan mr speaker let's be clear why infection rates are so clear so high because the prime minister let the delta or we can call it the johnson variant into the country and let's be clear let's be clear why the number of cases will surge so quickly because he is taking all protections off in one go that is reckless the sage papers yesterday mr speaker make clear that with high infection rates there's a greater chance of new variants emerging greater pressure on the nhs more people will get long covered and test and trace will be less effective knowing all that is the prime minister really comfortable with a plan that means a hundred thousand people catching this virus every day and everything that that entails mr speaker i really think we need to hear uh from what the uh jungle what he actually uh supports uh we will continue with a balanced and unreasonable approach and i've given the the reasons this country has rolled out the fastest taxation program uh anywhere in europe the the vaccines provide uh more than 90 percent uh protection against hospitalization both of them mr speaker by the 19th of july we will have vaccinated uh every adult would have been offered one vaccination everybody over 40 mr speaker would have been offered two vaccinations that is an extraordinary achievement that's allowing us to go ahead now last week uh mr speaker or earlier this week uh he seemed to support opening up uh getting rid of the one meter rule he seemed to support uh getting back into nightclubs and uh and getting back into pubs without masks mr speaker but if he doesn't support it perhaps he could clear it up now is it reckless or not mr speaker mr speaker we should we should open up in a controlled way cheap keeping keeping base license protections such as marks on public transport improving ventilation making sure the track and trace system remains effective and ensuring proper payments for self-isolation the prime minister can't just wish away the practical problems that a hundred thousand infection a day are going to cause don't wish them away the next obvious one is the huge number of people who'd be asked to isolate if there are a hundred thousand infections a day that means hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of people are going to be pinged to isolate the financial times estimates this morning that that could be around two million people per week the male says 3.5 million people a week either way it's a massive number it means huge disruption to families and businesses just as the summer holidays begin so we know what the ft thinks we know what the male thinks what their estimates are can the prime minister tell us how many people does he expect will be asked to isolate if infection rates continue to rise at this rate mr speaker i want to thank everybody who uh they're doing the right thing they're a vital part of this country's protection against the against the disease and what we'll be doing is moving away from self-isolation uh towards uh testing in the course of the next few weeks and that is the prudent approach because we all have mr speaker vaccinated even more people but what he what he can't explain he can't have it both ways he says it's reckless it's reckless to open up mr speaker and yet he attacks yet he attacks self-isolation mr speaker which is one of the key protections that this country has and let me ask him again on monday he seemed to say he was in favor he seemed to say he was in favor of opening up on july the 19th now he's saying it's reckless which is it mr speaker maybe i can help a little just to remind us that it's prime minister's questions if we want if we want opposition questions we'll need to change standing up the question was simply how many people are going to be asked to self-isolate if there's a hundred thousand infections a day and he won't answer it and we know why he won't answer and pretends i'm asking a different question he ignored the problems in schools now the 700 000 children off per week because he ignored it now he's ignoring the next big problem that's heading down the track i'm going to affect millions of people who have to self-isolate now it won't feel like freedom day to those who have to isolate when they're having to cancel their holidays when they can't go to the pub or even to their kids sports day and it won't feel like freedom day prime minister to the businesses who are already warning of carnage because of the loss of staff and customers it must be obvious with case rates that high his plan risks undermining the track and trace system that he spent billions and billions of pounds on prime minister there are already too many stories of people deleting the nhs app he must have seen those stories and they're doing it because they can see what is coming down the track now of course we don't support that mr speaker but under his plan it's entirely predictable what is the prime minister going to do to stop people deleting the nhs track because they can see precisely what he can't see which is millions of them are going to be pinged this summer to self-isolate mr speaker i i i of course we're going to continue with the uh programme of uh of self isolation for long as that is necessary i thank all those who are uh who are doing it but of course what we're also doing is moving to a system of testing rather than self-isolation and we can do that we can do that because of the massive roll out of the vaccine and what i'm still not and i think about the fourth or fifth time mr speaker it's still not clear whether he's actually in favor of this country moving forward to step four on the basis of the massive role of and yes of course mr speaker this is unlike the law where you can you can attack from lots of different positions at once to oppose you must have a credible and clear alternative and i simply do not hear is he is he in favor of us moving forward yes or no it's completely impossible to tell justin once again it's prime minister's questions and the prime minister answers questions if he stopped mumbling and listened dude i've heard the answer the first time we want to open we want to open we want to open in a controlled way and keep in line baseline protections that can keep down infections like mandatory face marks on face masks on public transport now we know that that will protect people reduce the speed of the virus and the spread of the virus and it won't harm the economy it's common sense why can't the prime minister see that prime minister i of course mr speaker we can see that it's common sense uh for people in confined spaces uh to wear a face mask out of respect and courtesy uh to others but such as on the on the tube but what we're doing mr speaker is is cautiously prudently moving to from a legal dictat from legal dictat to allowing people to take personal responsibility for their actions and that is the that is the right way forward mr speaker i i must say that if really that is the only difference between us if he supports absolutely everything else uh so opening pubs opening nightclubs uh getting rid of the two getting rid of the one meter rule uh getting people back to work and it all it's all about whether the difference between uh making face masks mandatory or advisory on the tube if that is the only difference between us mr speaker then that is good news uh but i'd like to hear him clarify that [Applause] mr speaker he agrees it's public it's common sense because it protects the public but he won't make it mandatory it's ridiculous it's clear what this is all about he's lost a health secretary he's lost a by-election and he's getting flack from his own mps so he's doing what he always does crashing over to the other side of the aisle chasing headlines and coming up with a plan that hasn't been thought through we all want restrictions lifted we want our economy open and we want to get back to normal but we've been here too many times before isn't it the case that once again instead of a careful controlled approach we're heading for a summer of chaos and confusion minister [Music] uh no mr speaker is the answer to that and uh these are of course these are these are difficult decisions they need to be taken in a in a balanced way and that's what we're doing and uh throughout the pandemic to do all these things uh frankly mr speaker takes a great deal of drive and it takes a great deal of leadership to get things done and if we if we followed his advice mr speaker if we followed his advice we would still be in the european medicine agency and we would never well it's absolutely we would never have rolled out uh the vaccines as fast if we followed his advice mr speaker we would never have got schools open again with all the damage uh to kids uh education and frankly mr speaker if we listen to him if we listen to him we would not now be proceeding cautiously pragmatically sensibly to reopen our society and our economy and give people back the chance to enjoy the freedoms they love we're getting on with taking the tough decisions to take this country forward mr speaker we vaccinate they vacillate we we inoculate mr speaker while they're invertebrate [Applause] thank you mr speaker last week i visited pence south primary school in warrington to talk to year six children about how we can generate cleaner energy in the future does the prime minister agree with me that as well as backing electric vehicle production in the northwest there's a great opportunity to shift towards low carbon hydrogen by providing support for projects such as high net northwest which by 2030 will secure thousands of green jobs in the northwest as well as by cutting emissions to the same level as taking 4 million cars off the roads uh yes mr speaker i believe that northwest in addition to uh the rest of this country can uh be a world leader will be a world leader in hydrogen technology and i think the high net project is an excellent example uh we've already put 445 million into supporting uh the high net project kickstarting our hydrogen capture and uh storage and i thank him uh for his support we now come to the leader of the smp in blackfoot [Music] thank you mr speaker can i wish england all the best for the match tonight against uh denmark and i associate myself with the remarks of the prime minister on the tragedy of the bombing of seven seven that we all remember so vividly and also mr speaker yesterday was the 33rd anniversary of the paper alpha disaster where 167 people cruelly lost their lives and our thoughts are very much with the friends and family that are still grieving over the terrors of uh of that event and and finally before i move on this is also serenity memorial week and we should be remembering those that have suffered at genocide whether that be in bosnia in the holocaust in rwanda and many other places and perhaps the prime minister will meet with me to discuss how we can help the the seven eliza a charity here in the uk mr speaker this week the tory government introduced its so-called electoral integrity bill in reality the bill is designed to do anything but increase the integrity of our elections it is a solution in desperate search of a problem that simply does not exist what the bill will do is to impose for the first time trumpian voter id laws in the uk the electoral reform society says it could lead to voter disenfranchisement on an industrial scale disenfranchising people from working class communities bme communities and others already marginalized in society creating barriers to vote prime minister why is this tory government trying to raw people of their democratic right to vote [Music] mr speaker what we're trying to protect is the democratic right of people to have a one person one vote system and i'm afraid that i have personal experience i remember vividly what used to go on in tower hamlets and i think it is important that we move to uh some sort of some sort of voter id and plenty of other uh countries have it uh and it's i think it eminently sentiment people i think will be reassured that their votes matter and that's what this bill is about goodness gracious prime minister come on number 34 allegations of impersonation in 2019 this is a problem that does not exist it is a british prime minister seeking to make it harder to vote because it's easier to get re-elected if the government can choose the voters rather than letting the voters choose their government mr speaker three and a half million people in the united kingdom do not have a form of photo id 11 million people do not have a passport or driver's license these millions of people will be directly impacted by seeing the right to vote curtailed and it's not just the opposition saying this members of the prime minister's own party have called his plans an illogical and a liberal solution to a non-existent problem mr speaker will the prime minister withdraw these vote rigging proposals immediately or he will continue down the path of being a tin pot dictator right uh well mr speaker look i think he's making a bit of a mansion out of a motive i may if i may respectfully uh suggest uh councils will be under an obligation to provide free photo id to anybody uh who wants it and i do think it reasonable uh to protect the public uh in our elections uh from the idea of voter fault nobody wants to see it no and by the way i don't think that elections in this country should be in any way clouded or contaminated by the suspicion of voter fraud and that's what we're trying to prevent thank you very much mr speaker and i was pleased to see my right honourable friend in cornwall for a very successful g7 summit whilst i know he didn't manage to get southeast cornwall i can assure him that lou is a very beautiful coastal town the problem is lou floods regularly will my right honourable friend speak to government departments to get this sorted right through my honourable friend just uh uh thank again the people of of cornwall southeast cornwall everywhere it was a wonderful hospitality that the g7 had uh and i assure her that i i'm aware of the problem of the flooding uh in lieu and uh i can tell her that uh uh my right on the friend the environment secretary uh has met cornwell council to discuss the matter and we will do everything we can to sort it out thank you mr speaker and i'd like to add my uh voice on behalf of the party to the comments about seven seven on the morning of seven seven i was in a meeting at ucla e as the um information started coming through and i would pay tribute to every single one of those uh frontline staff that i worked alongside on that day it was a long shift and it was a long walk home that evening the prime minister talks about vaccines accurate surveillance is really important as well it's equally as important and on the 15th of march the department of health social care minister lord bethel on twitter said that omega diagnostics and logic were in line for 2 million lateral flow device order per day by the end of may promise jobs and security so can the prime minister explain why his government is undermining the superior domestic diagnostics test while cropping up discredited chinese imports to the tune of three billion pounds i thank the uh honorable i don't think that's entirely uh fair characterization of what the government is is doing uh on on the contrary we have worked night and day to build up our domestic lateral flow uh capacity and and continue uh to do so thank you mr speaker last week president xi cheerily threatened that any foreigners attempting to influence china will have their heads bashed against the great wall of steel and of course he's still in denial about human rights violations and the genocides in xi'an and tibet as recognized by this house and as a result of which five of us remain sanctioned so will the prime minister therefore support our motion to be debated in this house next thursday calling for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 winter olympics incredibly awarded to beijing until and unless this dangerous regime abides by basic international standards of decency but this country has uh led the world in condemning human rights abuses in in xinjiang and putting sanctions on those uh responsible uh in uh in holding companies to account uh that that that import uh goods made with forced labor in in xinjiang and i will certainly consider the uh the proposal uh debated but i must say the time uh instinctively and always have been against sporting boycotts mr mister thank you mr speaker may i associate myself with the remarks of prime minister and others on the anniversary has been marked today now this sunday 11th july marks two years since the government committed to reforming a cruel aspect of the welfare system which forces terminally ill people to prove that they have six months or less to live before their granted fast access to benefits and the motor neuron disease association marie curie estimate in that time 7 000 people have died waiting for decision on their benefits claim and with the pandemic and the nhs managing that and the backlog of diseases this situation will only become more acute when will the government publish its review and finally scrap the six-month rule as it has committed to do so i'm great thank you the honourable lady i'm aware of the issue that she's raised to the best of my knowledge we are making that change but i will i will write her as soon as i have that information david jones thank you mr speaker um whilst the extension of the grace period for the uh supply of chilled meat from great britain to northern ireland is welcome lord frost is entirely right to say that it amounts in truth to no more than a temporary sticking plaster so can my right honourable friend please confirm that unless the european union adopts a more proportionate approach to the application of the northern ireland protocol this country will do whatever it is necessary legislative or otherwise to fix the problem permanently my right honourable friend is uh sadly completely right in his analysis there remain uh very serious problems in the uh what i believe is the misapplication the excessively uh legally purest application of that of that deal uh and of that protocol and what we're hoping for is some progress uh from the european uh commission uh some uh some repairs that i think that they should make to the way this is uh that is working uh but uh to echo what he has said uh we certainly rule uh nothing out in our approach angela prime minister one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage and therefore does the prime minister agree that parents grief for this profound loss is not an illness therefore parents should receive formal miscarriage leave rather than resort to sick pay or unpaid leave if their pregnancy miscarriage occurs before 24 weeks will the prime minister support my private members bill and introduce paid miscarriage leave for parents yeah prime minister uh well mr speaker i i sympathize deeply with anybody who's uh suffered the the loss of a baby uh by a by miscarriage of course and um uh what i can tell her is that uh we are uh we did in uh introduced in 2020 paid uh parental bereavement leave uh but uh what we uh that that entitles are those who lose a child uh after 24 weeks of pregnancy uh to uh to to some uh payment but of course nothing i can say and uh no payment uh we could make would be any consolation uh to those who experience uh a miscarriage in that way mr speaker the serious fraud office achieved a rare success in southwark crown in april with a successful prosecution of gpt special projects which resulted in 28 million pounds of penalties for corruption the key whistleblower in this case was my constituent ian foxley without whom the prosecution would never have happened yet he's been totally hurt to drive by the series fraud office despite 10 years of financial devastation does my right my friend agree that unless we properly compensate whistleblowers they simply will not come forward and would he consider making a payment out of the 28 million pounds received from hit by the hm treasury to compensate him for his losses um well i thank him for his excellent question i want to thank mr foxley uh for his whistleblowing because he has seen uh justice done the trouble is we don't normally uh compensate whistleblowers in the in the way that he uh he recommends but i know that my right old friend the solicitor general has offered to to meet uh my old friend to discuss the matter further thank you mr speaker on monday we celebrated the 73rd birthday of the nhs one of the very best things about our country now many of us on this side of the house and our constituents remain committed to protect the fundamental right of universal health care free at the point of delivery but this government remains a constant threat to our public health service no staff pay rise a 25 cut in the number of mental health beds and the widespread sell-off of gp practices like the edith cavall surgery and my constituency to american private insurance giant sentine and also just to mention the health and care bill which will only open the doors for privatization wider why is the prime minister continuing to evacuate our most essential public services and why won't he listen to the thousands of essential workers who demonstrated on saturday to end nhs privatization end chronic underfunding and under staffing and keep the nhs public mr speaker i don't think i i i'm with great respect to the to the to the lady office member opposite i don't think i've ever heard a a question that was more uh inversely related to the to the to reality uh this is a government this is a government uh that from the from the the from the beginning invested the biggest amount in nhs for a generation then in the last year we put another 92 billion pounds mr speaker into into frontline care uh we've increased uh nurses pay uh by 12 starting by 12.8 percent over the last three years and above all mr speaker we're not only building 48 more hospitals but there are another 59 000 people working in the nhs this year than there were this time last year this is a government that is putting our nhs first skill to kate rithis kate thank you mr speaker i'm sure the whole house welcomes the fantastic news of nissan's investment in an electric battery gigafactory in sunderland but does the prime minister agree with me that batteries are only part of the solution in pursuit of net zero by 2050 and that zero carbon hydrogen combustion engines such as those recently developed by midlands based jcb have an important role to play in our country's decarbonisation plans my honourable friend is completely right because the the investments that we're seeing just uh in the last week or so the sunderland investment by nissan the the the gigafactory uh in sunderland that what stalantis uh are doing at ellesmere port these are tremendously exciting for battery-powered uh vehicles it's fantastic but we must not forget hydrogen uh mr speaker as i said uh in an earlier answer we want uh this country uh to be a world leader in hydrogen technology as well thank you mr speaker i know the prime minister is aware of the fatal and serious accidents that take road accidents that have taken place on saint albans road and redborn road in my constituency could the prime minister advise the house and advise me on what more the government is doing to improve road safety not just in the case of fatal accidents but often where there are serious accidents or near misses because this is an issue that's of growing concern to many of my constituents and i believe to many across the country i i i thank my offender he's uh he's right to raise this although the uh those who've been killed or seriously injured uh in uh on the roads has been coming down over a long uh period of time it is vital uh that we invest in this we put another hundred million pounds through the safer roads fund uh to invest in 50 of the most dangerous uh stretches on on a roads and i also draw his attention to the think uh campaign which can play a huge role in reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads thank you mr speaker today a bit of disappointment and despite the assurances given during the fire safety bill that it would do so the building safety bill published on monday does little to help the hundreds of thousands of leaseholders who right now face financial ruin as a result of the building safety crisis my question to the prime minister is a simple one why is his government seemingly intent on failing to honor the commitments given to those leaseholders and members of this house by refusing to legislate to fully protect all the blameless victims of this scandal that's not uh accurate mr speaker we are we are continuing uh to uh support uh all uh those who have to remediate uh their buildings and i just remind you the five billion that we've provided is five times mr speaker what labor offered to support uh in their last in their last manifesto and we will make sure that all the leaseholders uh people who have suffered uh from the consequences of the grenfell uh conflagration uh do get the advice and the support they need thank you mr speaker my right honourable friend will recognize the huge service done by independent hospices to those at the end of their lives to their families and to the nhs because these people would likely otherwise be in hospital he will also understand the huge impact that the coveted pandemic has had on the fundraising capacity of these hospice charities so can i ask him to consider carefully and personally the case that is being made by independent hospices for greater government support for their clinical costs costs which if they were no longer there would undoubtedly be born by the taxpayer and by the hard-pressed nhs i i i thank my right honourable friend because and he's totally uh right to draw attention to the incredible uh selfless work of of hospices up and down the country charitable hospices uh they they do receive a 350 million pounds of government funding annually he's right to draw attention to the particular difficulties they've had in fundraising and that's this year over the pandemic and that's why they've received an additional 257 million pounds in national uh grant funding arrangements let's go to imran hussain imran mr speaker in january the prime minister promised me that he would listen to the calls of those that the government had excluded from vital support to protect their jobs businesses and incomes during the coronavirus pandemic yet over the last six months many of my constituents are still coming to tell me that they have been shut off and ignored and millions across the country continue to be excluded so i have to ask the prime minister why did he give those who have been excluded falsehood instead of the support they desperately needed minister mr speaker i thank the honorable general and of course i know how tough it has been for millions of people up and down the country i know how tough it has been for business but that's why this government put in an extraordinary 407 billion pounds to support jobs and livelihoods across our country throughout the pandemic and the single most important thing we can do now for the for the individuals for the families that he represents and i i know that he's rightly uh talking about today is to help our country to get back on its feet uh by cautiously opening up in the way that we are on on july the 19th uh if uh we can uh take that step which i very much hope that we will i hope that it may command the support uh if not of the leader of the opposition uh then at least of him thank you mr speaker the river test is one of the finest chalk streams in the world but since may diesel has been spilling into the river what matters most is that the flow is stopped and that there is an effective cleanup but there are many agencies involved which has made a coordinated response challenging please will my honourable friend make sure the environment agency natural england southern water local authorities and defra are all involved to solve this environmental catastrophe i together i thank my right-hand which is completely right uh all those uh bodies are involved but the lead agency is the environment agency uh i know that they're in uh in touch with her i must say i have a very high regard for them and for their work mr speaker i'm not sure the prime minister actually uh welcomed uh the new member the honourable member for back in spain but perhaps you want to correct the record after this they say where there's a will there's a way and the public will clearly welcome the government's move to introduce emergency legislation for pubs and bars tomorrow to be able to stay open uh on sundays later however the public will wonder why tomorrow that the member for delhi will be allowed to return to this house and not subject to a recall despite the being the case of a serious case of sexual harassment and actually the public doesn't understand why there should be one rule for conservative mps and another for the rest of us so therefore will therefore will the prime minister will the prime minister allow time tomorrow for a motion to close this loophole and make him subject of a recall [Applause] first of all mr speaker uh the the gentleman in question has uh the sanction has come to an end and secondly uh he is in error the general opposite is an error he is not a conservative mp david davis mr speaker this year thousands of children will die because of the government's dramatic cuts in international aid top lawyers in the country advisors that this policy is unlawful and it's never been presented to this house for approval when he was previously asked by my rightful friend for sutton coalfield he suggested the estimate spoke would be the appropriate vote but that does not allow us to increase the amount of spending on this aid so i asked the prime minister again when are we going to get a binding vote on the government's aid policy i i'm i'm great with my right honorable friend but i'm assured by my uh my right writer for the leader of the house so that the house was given a chance to vote on this matter on the estimate space but but mysteriously i chose not to thank you so much mr speaker my grandmother whom i love daily was lying on a hospital death bed and none of us were allowed to be there to comfort her in her final moments i couldn't even carry her coffin on my shoulders i also had to endure the agony of watching alone online the funeral of my uncle my fun-loving uncle and we were not there to comfort my brother-in-law's father who somehow contracted covert in a slough care home during his final moments all this because we followed government guidance having experienced such painful personal sacrifices like many others imagine our collective disgust when in order to carry favor with the prime minister's chief advisor we see psycho frantic spineless hypocritical government ministers lining up to defend the indefensible saying it's time to move on with some even having the goal to tell us that they too go for a long drive when they need to get their eyesight tested what an absolute disgrace and they shall be thoroughly ashamed of themselves so when is the prime minister finally going to apologize to the nation for not mustering up some courage and integrity for doing the honourable thing and sacking his chief advisor who so shamelessly flouted his own government guidance that he could have regained that lost public trust and confidence and he could have demonstrated that it's not one rule for him and his elite charms and another for the rest of us plebs said it is a very emotional prime minister that's the best thing i can say mr speaker is how deeply i think uh i the government everybody uh sympathizes with those who've gone through the suffering are described by the gentleman opposite and no one can who hasn't been through something like that can imagine uh what it must feel like to be deprived of the ability uh to mourn uh properly to hold the hands of a loved one in their last moments in the way that uh the honorable gentleman describes and i know how much sympathy there will be uh with him uh and i i take his uh his criticisms most sincerely of the government and everything that we have done but all i can say we have tried uh throughout this pandemic to minimize human suffering uh to minimize loss of life and for where we have and for as i've said before when when he asks me to apologize i do i apologize uh for the suffering that the people of this country have endured and all i can say is that nothing and uh i can say or do can take back the the lost lives uh the lost time spent with loved ones that he describes and i'm deeply deeply sorry for that point what is sammy wilson figure on the 23rd of june my colleague for lagon valley asked the prime minister whether article 6 of the active union 1800 had been impliedly repealed when the protocol was approved but northern protocol was approved by the house of commons the prime minister answered emphatically no last thursday in the high court responding to a case made by the government's lawyers that the northern protocol was not in conflict with the active union because article 6 which guaranteed equal trade across the united kingdom had been impliedly repealed when the withdrawal act was passed through the house of commons mr justice colton agreed that indeed article 6 of the active union had been overridden by the passing of the withdrawal acts here in the house of commons now here's the point mr speaker the government's case was approved presented and argued before the prime minister gave the answer to my colleague in the house of commons and that answer therefore must have been a misleading answer to the house and i want to know whether the prime minister can be called to apologize for that misleading answer but more importantly call to outline what action to undermine the damages suggest inadvertently inadvertently mislead the house and so i i would like to know can the prime minister be called to apologize for inadvertently misleading the house and uh secondly outline what steps he intends to take to undo the damage which the change in the active union has caused constitutionally and economically to northern ireland christmas also i'm grateful to the honourable member for giving me notice of this point of order the honorable member raises the issue of legal interpretation which are not a matter for the church he will know too that the speaker is not responsible for ministers answers the prime minister and the minister will have heard the gentleman's comments if the prime minister believes his answer requires a correction there are a process by which one can make this happen although he may take a different view to the honourable member about the facts of the case in any event the honorable member has put his point on the record and i'm sure he'll find other ways of pursuing this i don't think this is the end of the matter for now but it is just this moment right and now suspending the house for three three minutes to a writ for the necessary made for the next business sorry yeah

2021-07-11 12:32

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