Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) - 10 March 2021
right let's go to john littleson john thank you mr speaker sir while the uk government is extending rates really for only three months in england the scottish government is doing so for the whole year helping the retail hospitality leisure and aviation sectors but the scottish government wants to go further so will the minister support scottish businesses by calling for the full devolution of financial powers to scotland minister uh well i thank the honorable gentleman uh for his question uh it's not correct to say that business rates are only uh holidays only being extended for three months there is a period beyond that which is specifically targeted for businesses in the tourism hospitality and entertainment sector beyond that in addition for england there are substantial uh restart grants available money for which is barnettized to the scottish government and they are able to spend that as you see fit right we are now coming to questions the prime minister i will first call the prime minister to answer the engagements question i will then call daisy cooper to ask her supplementary prime minister thank you mr speaker the whole house can be proud of the uk's vaccination program with over 22.5 million people now having received their first dose across the uk we can also be proud of the support the uk has given to the international covid response including the 548 million pounds we've donated to kovacs i therefore wish to correct the suggestion from the european council president that the uk has blocked vaccine exports let me be clear we have not blocked the export of a single covid19 vaccine or vaccine components this pandemic has put us all on the same side in the battle for global health we oppose vaccine nationalism in all its forms i trust that all sides of the house will join me in rejecting this suggestion and calling on all our partners to work together to tackle this pandemic mr speaker this morning i had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others in addition to my duties in this house i shall have further such meetings later today let's go to daisy cooper daisy thank you mr speaker the government is throwing a staggering 37 billion at a test and trace system that we know has made barely any difference but yet it says that it cannot afford to give more than a pitiful 1 pay rise to nhs workers the prime minister has said that he owes his life to them he stood on the steps of number 10 and applauded them so will the prime minister do more than pay lip service and pay them the wage that they deserve prime minister mr speaker she is indeed right that we owe a huge amount to our nurses and incalculable debt and that's why i'm proud that we've delivered a 12.8 percent increase in the starting salary of nurses and they're asking the public safe block paper review body uh to look at uh increasing uh their pay exceptionally of all uh the professions in the public section as for test and trace mr speaker it is thanks to nhs test and trace that we're able to send kids back to school and begin cautiously and irreversibly to reopen our economy and restart our lives let's go to gagan mahindra gagan thank you mr speaker i recently visited long marston bovington rickmansworth and birkenstead to see the damage that flooding caused to our communities first hand can the prime minister assure this house that as the weather gets better we do not lose the momentum of finding long-term sustainable solutions to prevent flooding in the future and to give residents the security they deserve all year round irrespective of the weather outside hi minister i thank my honourable friend for what he's doing to campaign for his uh local area for flood defenses i want to thank the environment agency for their tireless and imaginative and creative work that they do to find solutions and uh we're investing 5.2 billion pounds to build 2 000 new flood defenses over the next six years we now come to the leader of the opposition kirsten who does the prime minister think deserves a pay rise more an nhs nurse or dominant cummings mr speaker i as as i told the honourable lady for the liberal democrats uh earlier on uh we owe a massive debt as a society and uh i personally uh to the nurses of our nhs and that's why we've asked the public sector pay review body exceptionally to look at uh their pay i want to stress however as the house knows that starting salaries for nurses have gone up uh by 12.8 percent over the last three years and it is thanks to the package that this government has put in place that we now have ten thousand six hundred more nurses in our nhs mr speaker than there were one year ago and 60 000 more in training mr speaker he says nurse's pay has gone up i know he's desperate to distance himself from the conservatives record over the last decade as he well knows since 2010 nurses pay has fallen in real terms by more than 800 pounds and he didn't answer my question it was a very simple question he's been talking about affordability he could he could afford to give dominic cummings a 40 percent pay rise he could afford that now he's asking nhs nurses to take a real term pay cut how on earth does he justify that mr speaker as i i repeat the point that i uh have made i i believe that we all owe a massive uh debt to our nurses indeed all our uh health care workers and our social care workers and one of the things that they tell me when i go uh to hospitals mr speakers i know the right audience of gentleman does is that in addition to to pay one of their top concerns is to have more colleagues on the wards to help them with the undoubted stress and strains of the pandemic and that's why we provided another five thousand pounds in bursaries for nurses another three thousand to help them with particular costs of training and with childcare mr speaker and it's because of that package that this year i believe we're seeing another 34 increase in applications for nurses and we are on target this government this government of this party of the nhs is on target to deliver 50 000 more nurses in our nhs mr speaker mr speaker he talks about recruitment there are currently forty thousand nursing vacancies forty thousand and seven thousand doctors vacancies how on earth does he think a pay cut is going to help solve that and frankly i'd take the prime minister a bit more seriously if he hadn't spent 2.6 million pounds of taxpayers money on a downing street tv studio or 200 000 pounds on new wallpaper for his flat mr speaker they say charity starts at home but i think prime minister's taking a bit too literally let me try something very simple does the prime minister accept does the prime minister accept that nhs staff will be hundreds of pounds worse off a year because of last week's budget no i know mr speaker because uh and of course we will look at what the independent pay review body has to say uh exceptionally about the nursing profession whom we particularly uh particularly value but what he should also know uh and which he should reflect to the house is that under this government we not only began by a record increase in nhs funding over i think 33.9 billion
pounds but because of the pandemic we put another 63 billion pounds into supporting our nhs mississippi on top of the 140 billion pounds of india spending and it's because of this government that in one year alone mr speaker there are another 49 000 people working in our nhs and that i think is something that is of massive benefit not just to patients but to hard-pressed nurses as well [Music] mr speaker my mum was a nurse my sister was a nurse my wife works in the nhs i know what it means to work for the nhs when i clap for carers i meant it he clapped for carers then he shut the door in their face at the first opportunity and the more you look at the prime minister decision the worse it gets because it's not just a pay cut it's a broken promise to time and time again he said that the nhs wouldn't pay the price for this pandemic two years ago he made a promise to the nhs here in black and white his document it commits to a minimum pay rise of 2.1 it's been budgeted for and now it's being taken away he shakes his head his mp's voted for it so why after everything the nhs has done for us is he now breaking promise after promise prime minister uh mr speaker he voted against the document in uh in question and she's going to crown the absurdity of her uh of his point uh this under this under this government we have massively increased funding uh for our amazing nhs with the result as i say there are six thousand five hundred more doctors uh this year than there were last year uh 18 000 more health care uh workers and 10 600 more nurses and we're going to go on mr speaker and we are going to deliver our promises i can tell the right honourable gentleman we are going to go on and we're going to build uh 40 more hospitals and we're going to recruit 50 000 more nurses and we're going to get on and deliver on our pledges to the british people and we're going to do that because of our sound management of the economy and the fastest vaccine rolex program of any comparable country which frankly uh if we followed his precepts and his ideas uh we would certainly not have been able to achieve [Music] he says he voted for it he did and now he's ripped it up 2.1 ripped up and if the prime minister won't listen to me he should listen to what his own conservative mps are saying about this his own side this is what they say behind you prime minister it's inept it's unacceptable it's pathetic these are conservative mps about the prime minister's pay cut for nurses and that's before his answers today another of mp said this mr speaker and this is perhaps the most telling of all the comments this mp said sitting behind him the public just hear one percent and they think how mean we are mr speaker even his own mps know he's got this wrong why is he going ahead with it mr speaker what the public know is that we're increasing our pay for starting pay for nurses by 12.8 over the last three years uh they know that this government uh in the last year has put another five thousand pound bursary into the pockets uh of nurses because we support them and as well as the three thousand extra uh for training and of course uh it's very very important that the public sector pay review body uh should come back uh with its proposals and we will of course study them but as i say it is thanks to the investment made by this government that there are 49 000 more people in the nhs this year for last year 10 600 more nurses helping to relieve the burden on our hard-pressed nurses that is what this government is investing in kirsten speaker he says we support them we'll reward them he's cutting their pay mr speaker not true he says not true prime minister a 1 rise versus 1.7
inflation rise that is a real terms cut and if the prime minister doesn't understand that we really are in trouble mr speaker they promised honesty but the truth is they can afford to give dominic coming say 40 tax right pay rise and they can't afford to reward the nhs properly the mask really is slipping and we can see what the conservative party now stands for cutting pay for nurses putting taxes up on families he's had the opportunity to change course but he's refused so if he's so determined to cut nhs pay we at least show some courage and put it to a vote in this parliament mr speaker the last time we've had put in a vote he voted against it as i as i said before we're increasing uh pay for nurses uh we're massively increasing our investment uh in the nhs where we are steering a steady course whereas he weaves and and wobbles from one week to the next mr speaker uh one one week he's he's attacking us uh saying we should be doing more testing the next week he's denouncing us for uh for doing it for spending money on on testing one week he calls me so fast to roll out of pp the next week he's saying we spent too too much mr speaker uh he's got it he's got he's got to make his he got his make his mind one thing he calls her a faster vaccination role when he actually voted and then he claims to have forgotten it uh to stay in the european medicines age perhaps he'd like to perhaps he'd like to confirm that he voted to stay in the european medicine agency mr speaker we should have made that vaccine roll out impossible we vaccinate we get on with delivering for the people of this country we vaccinate he vacillates mr speaker and that's the difference thank you mr speaker the incredible success of our vaccination programme for which the prime minister and this government deserve immense credit now means that tourism businesses in blackpool can look forward to a successful summer season when the economy reopens when the time is right will the prime minister support a campaign encouraging people to holiday here in the uk this summer and will he join me in blackpool to launch that campaign and to showcase everything we have to offer well mr speaker i will look very carefully at my diary to see whether i can actually get up to black i provide many happy memories of joyful evenings uh spectating at the illuminations of uh blackpool and i know that blackpool will play an important part in the uh than the tourism recovery that we hope to see this summer if we continue on our roadmap we have technical issues with the leader of the smp so i'm going to ask kirsten oswald as the deputy leader to stand in christine mr speaker yesterday the prime minister published his plans for an erasmus replacement without any consultation or discussion with devolved governments the replacement scheme offers lower living support no travel support no tuition fee support why is this tory government taking opportunities away from our young people well uh mr speaker she is a delightfully concise question i may say uh but uh she is i'm wrong about the difference between the erasmus and the turing project because the the turing scheme unlike the erasmus scheme which overwhelmingly went to kids from better off homes the turing project is designed to help kids across the country of all income groups get to fantastic universities around the world [Music] mr speaker that's just not the case we know we can trust a word the prime minister says on this he he told us there's no threat to the erasmus scheme but he clearly won't match eu levels of support and it's not just us saying it his own scottish colleague told the bbc last week young people won't benefit from brexit they've saddled their generation with tuition fee deck now they're closing the door with erasmus it's no wonder that students are choosing snp and independence for a prosperous future so prime minister will you think again will you do the right thing engage with our eu friends and rejoin erasmus can i just remind members not to use you prime minister thank you mr speaker no i think uh students should choose the turing project because it's fantastic and it uh reaches out across the whole uh the whole country and i believe by the way mr speaker they should reject uh the smp because it's totally uh a a scottish a scottish nationalist party mr speaker because it is uh because it is failing it is failing the people of uh failing the people of scotland failing to deliver on on education uh failing on crime and failing on the economy and i i think that i hope very much that the people of scotland will go for common sense and instead of endlessly going on about constitutional issues instead of instead of endlessly campaigning for a referendum which i think the lot is the last thing the people of this country need right now i think people want a government that focuses on the issues that matter to them including a fantastic uh international education scheme like turin right let's go to jeremy right jeremy thank you very much mr speaker my right honourable friend will recognize that while covert restrictions have been in place children have not only had to learn online rather than in the classroom but have also missed out on cultural artistic and sporting activities with their peers at the same time cultural artistic and sporting organizations have remained restricted in what they can do and despite the considerable help offered to them are still in need of government support so can i ask him to consider how we might put those two things together and provide for enrichment activities available to all young people over the coming months funded by government and provided not by hard-pressed teachers but by our outstanding culture and sports sectors while they're unable to reopen to the wider public my right honourable friend has been a great champion of the arts and culture sectors and he's completely right about the role that they can play for young people in the recovery and that's why the massive two billion pound recovery fund that uh we've uh we've we've given uh to thousands of theaters and orchestras choirs and music venues and others uh we hope will be used for the benefit and the the cultural enrichment of young people up and down the country call of duty thank you mr speaker the prime minister's fantasy bridge to northern ireland could cost 33 billion pounds this while our road and real networks have been absolutely decimated from decades of under investment the conservative party got a grand total of 2 399 votes at the last assembly election what mandate does he think he has to overrate the democratically elected people of northern ireland to impose a bridge that goes through males of unexploded munitions and radioactive waste mr speaker actually if you read the the article i wrote this morning in the daily telegraph uh he would have seen that uh the the things that uh we've set out in the handy review i think would be a massive benefit to northern ireland uh including upgrading uh the a75 which is the single biggest thing that people in uh northern ireland wanted by the way which the scottish nationalists have totally national party have totally failed uh to do as well as better connections uh east-west within uh northern ireland which we should be doing as well as well as better connections north south within the island of ireland it's a fantastic union connectivity review uh he should appreciate it it's the way forward and i'm amazed frankly at his negativity paul holmes thank you mr speaker despite the claims of easily liberal democrats my constituents will be delighted to know that the concrete section of the m27 will start to be resurfaced this summer does the prime minister agree that this shows that it is conservative governments that invest in infrastructure and that if elected in may conservative candidates like jerry hall will deliver deliver for the people of eastleigh hedge end and west end it's absolutely true mr speaker it is conservative governments who uh who invest in this conservative government putting 640 billion pounds into an infrastructure revolution and i congratulate jerry hall on what is uh what he's doing uh to to resurface the road and to make it uh quieter and i and i hope that he will be duly elected in may david london thank you very much mr speaker in extending the 20 pounds uplift universal credit which we welcome at the beginning the pandemic the prime minister was clearly conceding that social security support in the uk is inadequate so whilst i welcome the fact it's been extended for six months i'd like to see it being made permanent but can you tell the house why if it was so inadequate why it wasn't extended to those on legacy benefits such as disabled people mr speaker throughout the pandemic we've done whatever we can to look after uh people throughout the country whether on uh benefits or those who have lost their job sadly because of the of the pandemic and uh and i'm very proud of what universal credit has been able uh to achieve and i think that he should perhaps take it up with uh his friends in the labour party you actually want to abolish universal credit with no go to leonichi leah mr speaker last week grimsby celebrated the chancellor's announcements of the towns fund and the humber freeport and it's clear to the people of grimsby that it's this government that is determined not to neglect the town like labour predecessors our next challenge is to raise skills and education as achievements in the town and would the prime minister outline how people can take advantage of the new lifetime skills guarantee that he's launching next month thank you well mr speaker the fantastic thing about the lifetime skills guarantee is that in very very tough circumstances with many people uh having uh i'm afraid inevitably to uh to seek new jobs to find ways of of retraining uh as will happen in a changing economy it offers everybody uh adults uh over 23 the opportunity uh 3 000 pounds on an a-level equivalent qualification i think will be absolutely instrumental in helping uh in helping young people out beyond uh school age to retrain and get the jobs they need the lifetime skills guarantees the first time it's been done mr speaker right let's go to claire hanna thank you very much mr speaker it takes some 16 000 dedicated nurses to staff northern ireland's health service costing around 380 million pounds per year that's less than two percent of uk sales for just one internet child amazon whose revenues doubled during lockdown what possible reason can the prime minister and his chancellor who both talked about the need to pay for this pandemic have to not apply a modest windfall tax on those businesses who have benefited so much from the pandemic in order to properly pay those staff who have worked so hard to bring us through the pandemic actually i think that she's making an important point about the discrepancy in the tax paid uh by some uh online businesses and and some concrete businesses and that's a an issue which the the chancellor is trying to address in an equitable way uh working uh with colleagues in the g7 and around the world let's go to cheryl murray cheryl thank you mr speaker mr speaker we've seen the disgraceful way the eu have responded to uk fish exports part of the answer is for uk consumers to buy british fish as chairman of the appg for fisheries could i invite the prime minister to join a fantastic british chef to show how easy it is to prepare and cook a dish using british caught fish well i'm very happy to to take up my honourable friend's suggestion i'm not the greatest chef myself uh but i will i have i have made and can make from memory uh a fish pie with habit and prawns which i undertake to do and mr speaker british other kid thank you mr speaker prime minister people like my constituent tessa stevens have had to keep their salons shut despite shrinking government support unchanged overheads and decreased profits i am urgently seeking the prime minister's support to protect the immediate and long-term recovery of future businesses and the jobs it supports will the prime minister explain why his government refuses to listen to the beauty industry who are calling for vat to be temporarily reduced to five percent for hair and beauty businesses similar to what has happened to other sectors like hospitality tourism and culture businesses she's absolutely right in what she says about the importance of a beauty businesses they do an amazing job and we want them to bounce back very strongly from the pandemic and i want high street beauty salons to be opening up in the in the in the way that they were in the in the past rather than uh people going around uh giving services at uh cutting hair at home i think it's very important we revive uh high street sales and that's why uh we are continuing uh with the cautious but irreversible uh road map out of this which i think will enable a a full recovery for the entire sector but in the meantime as she knows the chancellor's extended furlough and all the other provisions that are necessary thank you mr speaker can i warmly welcome the union connectivity review that's been announced this morning it's brilliant news to connect the whole of the uk but in west dorset mr speaker we have single track railway lines we have a three hourly rail frequency yet we have the highest level of roadside pollution anywhere in the uk well my right honourable friends kindly support a leveling up rail proposal that will not only look to support west dorset but also some of the most deprived areas in the southwest uh my honorable friend knows where of he he speaks he's probably one of the greatest experts on uh railways in this in this house and uh we're certainly determined to uh follow his lead and to upgrade services in the in the west country and endorse it uh he knows what's happening at uh dawlish and elsewhere and uh we've uh network rail has identified uh proposals including uh improvement of the uh performance of the west of england line which is currently uh being assessed but he's he's knocking at an open door mr speaker right let's go to dan carvin damn thank you mr speaker back in 2012 commissioning for alcohol and drug addiction treatment was taken out of the nhs and handed to local authorities and those services are now overwhelmed after a decade of cuts and fragmentation and last year the uk recorded the highest number of alcohol specific deaths since records began addiction is an illness that can be treated so will the prime minister urgently investigate the rise in debts and bring addiction treatment back into the nhs within mental health services and give it the funding it requires prime minister he's entirely right mr speaker to draw attention to the importance of addiction treatment and its relationship to mental health and that's why the government is investing record sums uh in um in mental health uh 13.3 billion pounds uh mr speaker and uh of course treatment for alcoholism is part of that let's go to theo club theater thank you mr speaker i've seen first hand visiting both the george's and county hospitals in stafford the great work that is being done to support people including veterans with their mental health but does my right honourable friend agree with me that sadly the covert 19 pandemic is likely to have had a negative impact on people's mental health and will he commit to working with me and the stafford mental health network to improve and increase the mental health provision in safford yes mr speaker i i i'm certainly very happy to discuss that uh with my honorable friend or make sure that she gets access to the the uh the relevant ministerial uh authority but what we're doing in addition to the 13.3 uh billion that uh i spoke of uh we've been supporting mental health charities throughout the uh pandemic and particularly focusing on the mental health needs of children and young people which is why i appointed dr alex george to be our youth mental health ambassador mr speaker this government is failing young people before the pandemic apprenticeship starts we're down by 28 for under 19 year olds 330 million pound unspent levy back to the treasury falling short by 81 in creating the promised hundred thousand new apprenticeships this month i will be holding my fifth apprenticeships and jobs fair in bristol south will he join me in urging all young people to support that fair in bristol south but will he apologize to them for failing them so far exactly uh mr speaker i think jobs fairs are an important thing and i know that colleagues across the house do them but i also think that the government can be proud of the record that we we've had in getting record numbers of young people uh into employment when i face with a very severe problem caused by the pandemic and that's why we're addressing it not just with the lifetime skills guarantee that i mentioned earlier on but also with the kickstart funds uh the restart funds uh two billion pounds going into kickstart alone to help young people into the jobs that they need more thank you mr speaker after putting in a fantastic bid southport last week got a 37.5 million pounds
towns deal this will be transformational and represents the leveling up agenda of the prime minister and this conservative government when his diary allows will he come to southport to see these projects as they unfold and the impact they'll have on the lives of my constituents yes indeed mr speaker i'm told that the uh that the boulevard of light on lord street rivals the charles elise itself and i will certainly keep my honourable friends invitation in mind thank you mr speaker in this house we all know the importance of those people who've looked after our vulnerable loved ones over the past year when we have been unable to do so so will the prime minister explain to me why in this country we have 375 000 care workers on a zero hours contract mr speaker i'm proud of what the government has done to increase the wages of uh care workers across the country with the biggest with record increases in the in the living wage and uh this country is unlike most other countries in uh in the world in the speed with which we've vaccinated care home workers mr speaker and their elderly charges james grundy james thank you mr speaker first of all may i thank the prime minister for his commitment to levelling up the north the benefits of which we are already beginning to see with a 15 million pound allocation from the government's transforming cities fund enabling the plans to reopen golden station in my constituency of lead to progress would the prime minister not only welcome this progress but also back my campaign to reopen kenyan junction railway station which will help unlock the potential of lee provide my constituents with a vital rail connection between liverpool and manchester and ensure lee is no longer one of the largest towns in the uk without a railway station prime minister uh mr speaker i'm very happy to support my honourable friends uh initiative and i i i understand that uh the goldman which he which he represents uh was the site of the world's very first railway junction mr speaker let's go to ellin smith allen smith thank you mr speaker anthony jones a ferociously bright student at sterling university was looking to do a masters in amsterdam pre-brexit the course fees were 2 168 pounds post brexit the fees are 14 600 pounds the turing scheme won't touch the size of what's necessary would the prime minister like to apologize to anthony and countless hundreds of thousands of students like him for limiting their life horizons against their will mr speaker because i think that the touring scheme is fairer and it's something that will enable uh students on lower incomes to have access to courses under great courses around the world and i believe it's a highly uh beneficial reform uh to the way we do that it's a truly global and it's in its ambitions thank you mr speaker a new station at mia and investing in longton station and also restoring the stoked elite line will my autonomous friends the prime minister agree with me that investment from this government has the potential to reverse the beaching cuts restore our local railways and stoke on trent and cement our position as one of the best places connected in the whole uk yeah yes i thank my honourable friend i know he supported the bid for the reinstatement of the stoke to leak line uh it's currently being assessed by the department uh for transport as one of the beaching reversals which are so popular around the the country and so right and uh he can expect an outcome in the summer mr speaker let's go to don javistan if the prime minister is serious about leveling up the country does he honestly think that favoring the chancellor's richmond sheer constituency over barnsley for financial support is the best way to do it mr speaker we've uh we are devoted uh to leveling up across the entire country and uh that goes for that goes for barnsley as well as everywhere else let's go to chris grayley chris mr speaker thank you i know the prime minister shares my commitment to conservation around the world and i'm sure in particular he agrees we have got to reverse the tide of deforestation will he ask ministers in deforera to look seriously at my proposals for a kite mark scheme for food products in the uk so consumers can see clearly whether or not the products they buy come from sustainable sources or whether they're coming from producers who are doing further damage to our environment prime minister very happy to look at my right honourable friends uh very interesting suggestion for a uh for a kite mark scheme but in the meantime this government is leading the world uh in tackling deforestation with a three billion pound investment uh being led across whitehall is the point of order relevant to the prime minister's questions mr speaker the prime minister twice from that dispatch box said that the labour opposition voted against the nhs funding bill and the 2.1 increase for nhs staff this is not the case indeed in the debate as hansard will show i was explicit that we would not be uh dividing the house so can you mr speaker use your good offices to get the prime minister to return to the house to correct the record and do you agree mr speaker that if the prime minister wants to cut nurse's pay he should have the courage of his convictions to bring a vote back to the house can i just say first of all it's not a point of order it is certainly a point of clarification that part has been achieved but i'm certainly not going to be drawn into a debate as the shadow secretary of state well knows i am now suspending the house for three minutes to enable the necessary the next visit order you
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