Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) - 26 May 2021
order that ends the questions we're now going to go to questions the prime minister with which i will first call the prime minister to answer the engagement question [Music] and then i will then call dan poulter to ask supplementary virtually prime minister boris johnson mr speaker the thoughts of the house will be with the family and friends of the hillsborough 96 and the hundreds more who are injured following the decision by the court this morning i know that the cps has said they will meet with the families again to answer any questions they may have mr speaker i know colleagues from across the house will want to join in paying tribute to our former colleague mike weatherly who sadly died last week he was a dedicated parliamentarian and a fantastic servant to the people of hove 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 dr danfelter dan thank you mr speaker and i draw the house's attention to my declaration of members interests as a practicing nhs doctor who's been working on the front line of the nhs during the pandemic now my honourable friend will be aware the 2012 health and social care act resulted in local authority commissioning of addiction services and 10 years later all addiction almost all addiction services are now run by non-nhs providers the result is that the numbers in alcohol treatment have fallen many alcohol detoxes take place in an unplanned manner and both opiate and alcohol deaths at record levels would my right honourable friend agree with me that for the sake of patience we must bring commissioning and provision of addiction services back to the nhs and will he meet with me and experts in this field to discuss how we can get this right mr speaker i want to thank my honorable friend for everything that he's done throughout this pandemic in the nhs but also for raising this vital issue and of course i'm proud that we're seeing the biggest increase under this government in treatment for substance abuse for 15 years but the specific points he raises we will make sure that we address uh with dr dame carol black who is undertaking a review on drugs and treatment and uh we'll make sure that his point is fed in let's go to the leader of the opposition kia stammer thank you mr speaker can i join the prime minister in his comments about hillsboro and mike weatherby mr speaker this morning the prime minister's former closest adviser said when the public needed us most the government failed does the prime minister agree with that uh mr speaker the handling of this pandemic has been one of the uh most difficult things this country has had to do for a very long time and none of the decisions have been easy to go into a lockdown is a traumatic thing for a country uh to deal with a pandemic on this scale has been appallingly difficult and we've at every stage uh tried to minimize loss of life to save lives to protect the nhs and we've followed the best scientific advice that we that we can mr speaker to speak can i remind the prime minister that one year ago almost to the day he described his former advisor as in his words in every respect acting responsibly legally and with integrity this morning that same advisor has said that senior ministers fell his words disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government and that lies were lost as a result does the prime minister accept that central allegation and that his act in action led to needless deaths no mr speaker and uh of course all those matters will be uh reviewed in the in the course of uh the public inquiry that i have and einstein i noticed that he's fixated as ever on the on the rear view mirror uh mr speaker uh while we uh on this side of the house are getting on uh with our job of rolling out the vaccines uh making sure that we protect the people of this country and that i think has been uh the decisive uh development on which i think people are rightly focusing and i can tell the house that in spite of the continuing concern that we have about the uh the indian variant uh we are increasing our vaccination program at such a rate that we can now ask everybody over 30 to come forward mr speaker and get vaccinated mr speaker there's no good the prime minister attacking me it's his former chief it's his former chief adviser who's looking back and telling the world how useless the prime minister was in taking key decisions his former advisor one of the most serious points made this morning is that the prime minister failed to recognize the severity of this virus until it was too late dismissing it as quote from this morning another scare story like the swine flu does the prime minister recognize that account of his own behavior and if so will he apologize for being so complacent about the threat that this virus pose mr speaker i don't think anybody could credibly accuse this government of being complacent about the threat that this virus posed at any at any point we have worked flat out mr speaker to minimize loss of life to protect the nhs while they have flip-flopped mr speaker from one uh position to another uh backing curfew one day opposing at the next backing knockdowns one day opposing the next calling for tougher border controls one day uh then saying that quarantine is a blunt instrument mr speaker we have got on with the job of protecting the people of this country from one of the worst pandemics uh in living memory if not the worst in living batman memory we have turned the corner and it is no thanks mr speaker to the loyal opposition opposite [Applause] mr speaker i can see that the evidence of his former advisor is really getting to the prime minister this morning in that response another incredibly serious statement from the prime minister's former advisor this morning concerns the conduct of the health secretary including an allegation the health secretary misled other ministers and officials on a number of occasions now i don't expect the prime minister to respond to that but can he confirm from this morning's evidence can the prime minister can he confirm did the cabinet secretary advise him the prime minister that he the cabinet secretary had quote lost faith in the health secretary's honesty the answer to that is no mr speaker and i'm afraid i haven't had the benefits of of seeing the evidence that he that he's bringing to the to the house but i i must say that i think what the people of this country want us all to do is to get on uh with the delicate business now of trying to reopen our economy and restore people's uh restore people's freedoms get back to our way of life by rolling out the vaccine i would have thought that that was a a much more profitable line of inquiry for the right honorable gentleman today and that's what i think the people of this country want us to focus on speaking the prime minister can't have it both ways either his former advisor is telling the truth in which case the prime minister should answer the allegations or the prime minister has to suggest that his former adviser is not telling the truth which raises serious questions about the prime minister's judgment in appointing him in the first place there's a pattern of behavior here there was clearly a lack of planning poor decision making and a lack of transparency and a prime minister who was absent from the key decisions including five early cobra meetings and who was to quote his former adviser a thousand percent too obsessed with the media but another central allegation briefed overnight is that the prime minister delayed the circuit break over the autumn half term because quotes covid was only killing 80 year olds can i remind the prime minister that over 83 000 people over 80 lost their lives to this virus and that his decision to delay for 40 days from the sage guidance on the 21st of september until the 31st of october will be seen as one of the single biggest failings of the last year does the now having been told of the evidence does the prime minister accept that he used the words kovid was only killing 80 year olds or words to those effect prime minister mr speaker uh we we saw what happened uh during the the pandemic and particularly he talks about the uh the september lockdown and my approach to it and uh the the very very difficult decision that the country faced and uh of course this will be a matter for the inquiry to uh to go into but we have a an objective test mr speaker in this in the sense that uh there was a circuit breaker of the kind he describes uh in wales uh it did not work and uh and i'm afraid i'm absolutely confident that we took the decisions in the best interests of the of the british people it and uh when it comes to when it comes to hindsight mr speaker i could just just remind the right honourable gentleman that he actually i mean he denied this at the time but and then had to correct it but he voted to stay in the european medicines agency mr speaker which would have made it impossible which would have made it impossible for us to do the vaccine rollout at the pace that we have mr speaker it's not me giving evidence this morning it's his former adviser and i note the prime minister's careful not to refute these allegations mr speaker what we're seeing today is the latest chapter of a story of confusion chaos and deadly misjudgments from this government from a prime minister governing by press release not a plan in the last 24 hours we've seen the same mistakes made again with the ridiculous way 1.7 million people in bolton burnley bedford blackburn kirklees hounslow leicester and north tyneside have been treated in the light of the drip of these very serious allegations and the failure of the prime minister to provide even basic answers and continuing mistakes affecting millions of people just the prime minister now recognized he must bring forward the timing of the public inquiry into covid and that should start this summer and as soon as possible no mr speaker as i've said before uh i'm not going to concentrate valuable official time on that now whilst we're still battling a pandemic and i thought actually that was what the house had agreed on mr speaker he continues to play these pointless uh political games uh whilst we get on with delivering on the people's priorities forty new hospitals eight thousand seven hundred seventy one more police on our streets now we're getting on with sorting out the railways uh mr speaker we're giving people the young people the opportunity of home ownership in a way they've never had before with 95 more mortgages and we've vaccinated we've done we've delivered 60 million vaccinations across this country more and he loves these european comparisons but speaker more than any other european country including 22 million second doses and that with great respect to the right organism i believe that is the priority of the british people that's really uh what they're focused on whilst he voted to stay in the european medicines agency they vacillate mr speaker we vaccinate they they deliberate we deliver tom two thank you mr speaker i'm sure my writer will friend the prime minister remembers with great fondness his trip of july last year to the discovery school in kings hill but he would probably remember his best his meeting with tony hudgell an amazing and inspirational young boy who had at that point already raised a million and a half pounds for charity and been awarded by my right honourable friend the points of light award that he so generously hands out to those who've achieved so much will he join tony and tony's parents paula and mark and me and many others around the country and campaigning for tony's law new clause 56 to the policing crime and sentencing bill this is a very minor change to a very important bill that would bring child abuse sentencing in line with that of adult abuse i know he has put his heart into this place and i'm sure we can all look forward to his support i'm minister i i thank my honourable friend and of course i remember uh tony very well i remember uh his incredible campaign and the amount of uh money he raised and i thank him uh for it and uh i all i can say is it is very very important that uh cases like that uh injustices such as that suffered by tony do receive the full force of the law and uh it is people who commit serious defenses against children can receive exactly the same penalties as those who commit serious offenses against adults but we will keep this under review uh mr speaker and if there is a gap in the law i will study his remember very crazy if there is a gap in the law we will make sure that we remedy it leader of the snp thank you mr speaker can i associate myself with the remarks of prime minister for those seeking justice for hillsborough to quote the song you'll never walk alone mr speaker 128 000 people have died of coronavirus in the united kingdom this morning the prime minister's most senior former advisor dominic cummings apologized on behalf of the uk government he said when the public needed us most we failed we know that the prime minister made a series of catastrophic errors throughout the crisis he went on holiday when he should have been leading efforts to tackle the pandemic he was too slow to go into lockdown he failed to secure our borders he sent millions of people back to their offices prematurely there was no doubt that these mistakes cost many thousands of lives when even a disgraced figure like dominic cummings is willing to own up and apologize isn't it time that the prime minister does the same yesterday and mr speaker i take full responsibility for everything that has happened i'm and i've said as i've said uh before and he will recall uh both in this house and elsewhere i am truly sorry for the suffering that the people of this country uh have experienced but i maintain my point that the government acted throughout uh with the intention to save life and protect the nhs and in accordance with the best scientific advice that's exactly what we did in blackfoot thank you mr speaker the evidence we've heard this morning is extraordinary but sadly not surprising it paints a familiar pattern of behavior a negligent prime minister more concerned with his own self-interest than the interests of the united kingdom when people were dying the united kingdom government was considering chicken pox parties and joking about injecting the prime minister with covert live on tv we had a circus act when we needed serious government isn't it the case that what the country needed leadership most the prime minister was missing in action thousands have paid the ultimate price for his failure when will the prime minister finally accept responsibility for the failures of his government [Music] mr speaker as i said repeatedly in the attacks i take full responsibility for everything that the government did and uh will continue to do so and one of the reasons we've set up an independent public inquiry so i believe the people of this country do deserve to have uh daylight sean on all the issues he raised i must say i don't recognize the events that he uh that he describes but i do think that we acted throughout uh with the intention of uh of of saving life uh of protecting the nhs and of taking the country through the worst pandemic for a hundred years and i think if you if i think it's also true uh that we're in a much more fortunate position now thanks to the efforts of the british people and the fastest vaccine roll out in in europe and i'm grateful for that as well mr speaker i spent monday morning at the fitz country house in cochemoth with an alpaca called boris cumbria sees significant numbers of tourists in any normal year but companies not just lakes with some real gems in my constituency of workington outside the national park with a real opportunity for the uk this year for the uk hospitality industry this year as people choose to holiday here would my right honourable friend consider a short break in my constituency where i might facilitate an introduction to boris well i'm so great i'm so grateful to uh my honorable friend i would love to come and meet uh the al parker uh of course called boris um and but more importantly uh we want to support the tourism in his constituency which is why we've so far provided over 25 billion to support including 1.5 million to support projects such as the carnegie theater trust and since this week is english tourism week mr speaker i encourage everyone to make the most of the tourism on their doorstep go to stephen ferry stephen thank you mr speaker the eu settlement scheme closes on the 30th of june while the home office has finally published guidance on that applications the government is failing to provide clarity what will happen to those who miss the deadline and then fall under the remit of of illegal working legislation so can the prime minister assure the house that eu citizens or non-eu family members who miss the deadline will not face potential criminal liability if they continue to go into work uh mr speaker we've i'm sure that the law will be extremely merciful to anybody who finds themselves in a difficult position but i would just remind uh the honourable gentleman uh that so far uh 5.4 million
uh eu nationals have applied successfully for the eu settlement scheme which is about as far as i can about 2 million more eu nationals than we thought were in the country in the first place thank you mr speaker would the prime minister join with me in praising wrexham and dembele councils for the dynamic proposals that they are putting forward in their joint bid for the levelling up fund include south including regeneration of the trevor basin improvements for cherck and clangothelin and investment in corwin station and the surrounding area can i tell my honourable friend what a joy it is to hear him campaigning for uh for church and and corwin and clan gotham after i i i tramped around those beautiful places entirely fruitlessly uh many many years ago in search of the conservative vote uh thank you for what you you've done uh thank you for continuing uh to champion uh those wonderful wonderful and beautiful spots gerald jones thank you mr speaker when any member of this house is suspended for 10 days or more because of a standards committee report constituents can then recall that member when the independent expert panel suspender member this can't happen the the prime minister a moment ago was talking about closing loopholes in legislation so will the prime minister introduce emergency legislation to close this particular loophole and does he agree that it would be completely dishonorable for any member to exploit that loophole and should instead do the decent thing and resign mr speaker i will i will take that i take that point very soon i will i will i will study what uh the implications of what he says i think if he's referring uh to any uh of a conservative member who's uh who's recently uh had the whip uh taken away then he can take it that that member has already had uh condemned punishment governor fletcher thank you mr speaker and last thursday through about one o'clock in the morning three young people popped out to mackie d's as you do um they noticed a leyland shop massively on fire and did they drive past no they rang the fire brigade they stopped they recruited a passerby they climbed over fences and walls to raise the alarm for the residents living in the flats above them now during the pandemic community spirit has been really important to all of us keeping going so does the prime minister share my admiration for kim zak shania and robin and will he join me in thanking them for showing british community spirit and true lancashire grit yeah yes mr speaker i thank my honourable friend for singling out this act of uh this intrepid act of quick thinking and selflessness and i pay tribute to kim zach shania and robin and i hope that they uh they they got their mackie ds there are over 4.3 million children mr speaker and rising growing up in poverty including some 18 000 in harrow so will he agree to put right the error of a previous prime minister and commit to publish a strategy to tackle child poverty and ensure that no child is left behind mr speaker it's vital that we tackle child poverty and that's why uh we are uh uniting and levelling up across the country with the biggest programme of investment uh that for for a generation if not more but we've also we're also seeing fewer households that now with children in poverty than 10 years ago but i i personally accept that there is more to be done thank you mr speaker i very much welcome the fact that government is investing heavily in upgrading the rail networks across the country including opening lines that have previously been closed but as a conservative government we've got a particular responsibility to the taxpayer to ensure value for money east west rail and my constituency's business case is largely based on commuting but the pandemic means we're in the middle of a workplace revolution if people work from home on average two days a week in future that means a 40 reduction in commuting will my right honourable friend the prime minister commit to doing a review of the business place of east-west rail to ensure it remains value for money and to take into account the long-term impact of the pandemic mr speaker i i fully i think my my own friend's a great campaigner for for cambridge and and the right to people chemistry however my strong feeling is it would be a mistake now to go slow on investment in infrastructure purely on the basis that we think people will start uh working uh from home uh in my long experience of this is that people need to travel they will travel uh the commuter bustle will come back mr speaker and it needs to come back thank you mr speaker a global minimum rate for corporate corporate tax would help tackle tax avoidance by large multinational corporations and online giants it would stop them undercutting british businesses who pay their fair share and it would make a transformational difference to high streets and town centres at the heart of communities across the uk why is the prime minister the only g7 leader not to support this proposal why is he on the side of tax avoiders instead of british businesses and communities uh mr speaker it was only a few months ago that the uh the labour party labour front bench opposed the corporation tax increases uh that we put in uh they're now opposed to uh the government's ability to cut corporation debts which side are they on they've got to make their minds up let's go to sir rob mcneil robert thank you mr speaker like me the prime minister represents the constituency in london's commuter land so we'll be well aware of the small businesses sole traders many of them who operate the coffee stores and news agents and so on on our railway stations their incomes have been absolutely decimated during the pandemic but they're finding like my constituent sanjay sharma at chisel her station that when they seek to get a reduced level of rent to reflect their reduced turnover the train operating companies claim that the funding agreement put in place with the department of transport doesn't give them the discretion to do so the department appears to say differently and they've been going around in months in circles for months trying to get an answer will the prime minister use the authority of his office please to bang heads together and get a solution for them because if they go broke and we have empty units that's no income for anybody uh mr speaker i thank my right honourable friend we've provided uh we put in injuries policy to provide rent relief uh for station businesses in march of last year uh all train operators including southeastern in his constituency are able to offer uh business support to their to their stations i understand the point he makes about uh the discrepancy of views uh can i undertake tim uh to arrange a meeting uh with him and the relevant minister to take it forward let's go to rachel maskel rachel thank you mr speaker i have asked the prime minister a series of questions about charities in november he promised support by march he turned his back but this month he broke that promise giving them nothing this winter his words and deeds as unfaithful as his principles and beliefs is needed for the commitment to honor his word the capacity to care nor the compassion to act does the prime minister really believe that charity is all about supporting him and his lifestyle or recognized charities now 10 billion in debt and struggling to survive need government support to help people in real need prime minister mr speaker i think charities perform uh an amazing and invaluable role in our society and our and in our lives and we need them and that's why we've supported uh charity shops throughout uh the the lockdown with grants uh with restart grants and uh the roadmap means that the shops are now able to to open again but in addition uh we had a 750 million pound targeted package of support uh for charities helping more than 14 000 organizations across the country uh including funding for hospices homelessness charity charities and shelters for the victims of domestic abuse and many others mr speaker petrol thank you very much mr speaker the fishing industry in east anglia has had a hard time of it in recent years however with brexit done albeit in a way that left many disappointed there is now an opportunity to turn the corner the reef that's the renaissance of east anglian fisheries strategy sets out an exciting and ambitious program for the future is the prime minister able to say how the government will work with fishing communities such as that in low staffed to revive the industry in east anglia yeah yeah yes mr speaker i thank my honourable friend for what he's doing to champion the fisheries uh industry in east anglia i like his riaf his reef uh plan i think it's got lots of interesting ideas which we will take forward as part of our 100 million pound package and support the fishing industry and get ready to take advantage of those opportunities which are coming very very swiftly uh down the track towards us the offensive speaker nhs and social care staff in wales are due to receive a 500 pound bonus in recognition of their hard work during the pandemic but staff on universal credit stand to lose out due to the way in which the reward is recognized in regulations as earned income so instead of receiving a thank you bonus at the end of the month many nhs and social case staff will be punished with a deduction of up to 63 percent to the universal credit will the prime minister look to amend regulation 55 of the universal credit regulations to create an exemption to ensure that all nhs and social care staff in wales benefit fully from this well-deserved bonus yeah minister i'm grateful to him for the for raising that point and of course i want to repeat my my gratitude to the nurses of this country the nhs and social care staff uh who have done incredible work throughout this uh this pandemic he makes a particular point about the end of the you see the taper in uh in universal credit and i will make sure that he has a meeting with the relevant uh minister uh who will set out the detail on the issue he's raised let's go to jonathan lord jonathan thank you mr speaker on behalf of my constituents seema misra and other wrongly convicted subpostmasters i'm grateful that the vital inquiry of sir william williams into this scandal has now been given more teeth however there is widespread concern shared by post office ceo nick reed that the compensation received by the subpostmasters who were party to the civil litigation at the high court was simply not fair can i urge the prime minister to ensure that these civil litigant subpostmasters will be included in the anticipated government compensation scheme prime minister i thank you for raising this this this this issue i might say a tragic uh case of of injustice and i've met some of the post office uh the postmasters and subpost masters who've been affected by uh this miscarriage of justice as he knows uh the the government wasn't party to the uh initial uh litigation nor the the settlement uh that was agreed but we are determined to ensure that uh postmaster subpostmasters are fairly compensated for what happened [Applause] thanks anger spender mcniel uploader mr speaker brexit and scottish independence indeed very different but referendums are much the same now in 2016 uh without interference the european union respected the uk in the brexit referendum process unfortunately the last scottish referendum did not see scotland at the same respect london politicians promised scotland their place in the european union clearly they won that referendum very clearly on broken promises in the order when the scots government has dealt with the health effects of the pandemic economic party will require independence as norway and ireland prove so prime minister will scotland be shown the same respect in the uk as the uk got in the eu and this time can our democracy not be interfered with on a referendum certainly not blocked prime minister mr speaker we we respected the referendum result of 2014 uh which was which was a very substantial majority in favor of uh remaining in the uk uh keeping our wonderful country together not breaking it up uh that was what the people of scotland uh rightly voted for uh and they did so uh in the belief that it was a once in a generation event but she can't thank you mr speaker for almost 500 years the royal navy has protected our country from foes and off the freedom of our friends around the world the pride of our navy hms queen of livers lisbeth sailed this week with her strike group within her she carries the british values of freedom justice and democracy so can i write on my friend tell me she makes her way from mediterranean to the south china sea what are his plans for the future of her white ensign prime minister it was fantastic to be aboard hms queen elizabeth which is a a vessel longer than the palace of westminster uh itself uh mr speaker and and uh uh forms a more eloquent statement in in many ways in many of the speak many speeches or indeed interventions uh that we've heard uh this afternoon about britain's role in the world and uh on our determination uh to expand shipbuilding uh and expand our naval presence which not only uh is good for uh the uk and good for the world but good for jobs and growth around the country thank you mr speaker kovid has now triggered the first global rise in extreme poverty this century but at the g7 the prime minister could act he can ask leaders to reallocate the imf's one trillion dollars worth of special drawing rights and restock the world bank's 83 billion pounds worth of iba fund this is a multi-billion pound package of support for the world's poorest so will the prime minister today commit to leading this argument at the g7 so a pandemic of disease doesn't now become a pandemic of poverty prime minister i thank him for it great to see him in his place um i say mr speaker uh uh and actually uh i i've already i've already had uh always brexit in place i i i've had conversations on that very matter already with with christina georgia thank you mr speaker one of the many awful things about the past year has been the inability to visit family and friends in hospital it's caused immense anguish for many of my constituents we're seeing some progress locally and i hope with the brilliant role of the vaccine we will see more but can the prime minister inform the house when we will see normal visiting hours resumed for all hospitals nationwide mr i know she speaks for many many millions of of people who have uh who have wanted to visit loved ones mr speaker and uh and i know the anguish that they have uh that they have felt uh and we need to balance that those feelings which are wholly legitimate and right with the need to to manage the risk of infection as i know she understands very well and will be up updating the guidance as soon as it's possible to do so thank you mr speaker tala 13 ruler just five years old her big sister yara aged nine three palestinian children killed in an israeli airstrike the israeli military murdered 63 other children and 245 palestinians in its recent assault on gaza the call for palestinian freedom has never been louder but this conservative government is complicit in its denial it has approved more than 400 million pounds in arms to israel since 2015. so can the prime minister look me in the eye and tell me that british-made weapons or components weren't used in the war crimes that killed these three children and hundreds of other palestinians prime minister we shouldn't use props just to remind members mr speaker i think that the whole house understands that uh nobody wants to see uh any more uh of the conflict of the appalling conflict that we've seen in israel and and gaza and uh everybody wants to i think we're all glad that there's now a ceasefire and a de-escalation and as for the position of the british government i think that it's probably common ground across most members of this house the the what we want to see is a two-state solution and mr speaker that is that is what the the uk government has campaigned for for many many years and that continues to be our position i'm now suspending the house for three minutes to enable necessary raises to be made for the next business order both
2021-05-28 09:06
