Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alison McGovern and John Bercow

Tuesday 27th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Last but not least, and very pithily, Alison McGovern.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Will the Chancellor confirm that he has ruled out a further VAT increase in the next Parliament?

Iraq: Coalition Against ISIL

Debate between Alison McGovern and John Bercow

Friday 26th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

As I have said, in answering the question of whether we should do anything or nothing, we have to ask ourselves what good we can do. Conflict in the middle east seems to invite comparisons, but although we should learn from history, the search for patterns and repetition can be misleading. There is no reason why the future should necessarily be like the past. In fact, our job is to make sure that it is not.

ISIL is a serious and growing force that is wreaking havoc on the Iraqi Government and on innocent people. The Iraqi Government have asked us to help, and we have the capacity to do so. Our Government have made their aims clear, and the Leader of the Opposition has set the right tests. We in this House must offer scrutiny as best we are able and make the success of the operation more likely. A vital factor in that success will be to cut off the financial supply to ISIL, as my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) has said. A United Nations Security Council resolution on that point was adopted on 14 August, and it would be helpful to know what progress has been made.

There are other facts that matter. We are talking not simply about security, vital though that is, but about politics and development. We need more than a military response. Peace requires not only the absence of violence but the meeting of other needs. Basic needs must be met to keep the vulnerable alive, and all who are affected must be shown a way out of the conflict. In the past, the UK, via the Department for International Development, has put reasonably substantial sums into development-focused assistance for Iraq. That ended in 2012 when the bilateral programme ended. This year, DFID’s budget for Iraq has been more than £25 million, but only £4.3 million has been spent so far. Do we need to increase efforts to ensure that money that has been committed can be spent effectively and soon? In addition, we must question whether that is enough support. By way of comparison, we will spend some £75 million this year in Syria, and a similar sum in Yemen.

I want to make two further points about development, the first of which concerns long-term needs. The budget that I have mentioned is for a single 12-month Iraq emergency humanitarian assistance programme to help 65,000 ordinary Iraqis who are in serious need. It will be used to provide emergency medicines, food and basic shelter, and to reunite families. At what point will Iraq receive longer-term development assistance, rather than simply humanitarian assistance? Instead of emergency aid, such longer-term assistance would support the wider development needs of victims of the conflict. Have the Government discussed that possibility internationally?

Do Ministers know how many children are losing out on their education as a result of the conflict? Schools in the Kurdish region are being used for shelter, which is the right thing to do, but it means that many children are losing out on their chances and hope for the future. In addition, what is the risk to wider health care needs? The Iraqi Government must be supported to maintain not simply the hard infrastructure that the country will need—power, transport and water—but the vital infrastructure of public services. Development assistance must work alongside military answers to ISIL. Is DFID working alongside the military in planning? [Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is quite a persistent chatter in the House, which is, frankly, discourteous. All colleagues should be heard with courtesy. Please let us do so.

[Alison McGovern]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

We were able to help a handful of the most vulnerable people from Syria to take refuge in our country. I would like to ask whether we can do more. The refugee crisis now is colossal. This country must live up to its obligations and our moral duty to help those who have done nothing to cause the conflict and are innocent victims of it.

Victims of violence in Iraq need our help, and our military assistance, but our job is far bigger than that. We must also try, limited though our power is, to win the peace.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alison McGovern and John Bercow

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the Attorney-General. I think right hon. and hon. Members will have taken note of the substance of that reply.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

I thank the Attorney-General for his comments. As the hon. Member for City of Chester (Stephen Mosley) pointed out, we will soon mark the 25th anniversary of Hillsborough. It is important to remember that we lost 96 individual people, and that thousands more were terribly affected. Will the Attorney-General join me in remembering the people we lost and offer his support to the memorial events taking place over the next month or so?

Points of Order

Debate between Alison McGovern and John Bercow

Monday 4th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am rather perturbed to learn what the hon. Gentleman has just said. As he knows, the decision on whether or not to make statements is in the hands of Ministers. Ordinarily, certain courtesies obtain in dealings between colleagues, including, most notably, between those who hold Executive power and Back- Bench Members in whose constituencies particular important decisions are contemplated or made. I do not think I can go further than that today, but knowing just what a thoroughly—I hate to use this word in the light of his surname—dogged individual he is, I feel sure that Mr Bone will raise the matter, either at his own behest or on the advice of Mrs Bone, before very long.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Last week, I received a very short answer to three detailed questions I had tabled about the access to elected office for disabled people fund, which exists to help improve the diversity of this place. Never mind answers, I barely received an acknowledgement that there were, in fact, questions tabled. May I seek your advice on how to get answers to these questions, especially as this is an important matter concerning the diversity and make-up of this House?

[Mr Speaker]

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order. I am well aware of that £2.6 million fund, about which I was speaking in Edinburgh on Friday. If memory serves me correctly, the fund is a follow-through from the recommendations of the Speaker’s Conference which concluded in February 2010. The matter is indeed of the utmost importance, so I am disappointed if she has received less than substantive responses. The general principle here, as the Deputy Leader of the House, who is on the Treasury Bench, will know, is that ministerial replies to questions should be both timely and substantive. If they are heavily delayed, that is a discourtesy. If they are “insubstantive” or insubstantial, whether delayed or not, that is not serving the House. Members look for a response that is as comprehensive as possible and informative. If the hon. Lady has not achieved that so far, I hope that the Deputy Leader of the House may be willing, in Parliament’s interest, to assist her in her endeavours. If she has to go through the Table Office again to probe further, I do not think she will require any additional encouragement from me.

Business of the House

Debate between Alison McGovern and John Bercow

Thursday 6th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. More than 20 Back-Bench Members are seeking to catch my eye and I am keen to accommodate them. I remind the House that there is a statement by the Foreign Secretary to follow, and then a number of debates under the auspices of the Backbench Business Committee to which I must give proper consideration. There is, therefore, a premium on brevity from those on the Back and Front Benches alike.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

The Leader of the House may be aware that the pre-inquest hearings into the deaths of 96 people in the Hillsborough disaster are taking place. Given that press reports of yesterday’s hearing said that lawyers representing the match day commanders accused the Hillsborough Independent Panel of having a so-called “agenda” guided by the families of those who died, and that questions were raised on whether the Home Office put a block on providing sufficient resources for the inquiry, does he believe it could be helpful to have a debate or statement on the matter?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alison McGovern and John Bercow

Thursday 28th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The exchanges so far have been rather protracted. We need to do a bit better.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

2. What discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on the co-ordination of member states’ action against human trafficking of women.