Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 13th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the temporary shadow Minister. I wish the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), a speedy recovery, and look forward to seeing her in the House. Angela Eagle, welcome back.

[Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I am sure that the shadow Secretary of State is making a good recovery—she is probably watching us even now, in between her physiotherapy.

Is it not the case that on this Government’s watch, food bank usage has doubled for pensioners, and over 2 million pensioners—nearly one in five—are now living in poverty? That figure is not stable; it is rising, so what is the Minister going to do about it?

Points of Order

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Tuesday 9th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Normally business statements allow Back Benchers as well as Front Benchers to ask questions of the Leader of the House. This is a difficult precedent because it does not give the Back Benchers a voice. Saying that it is just a matter of convenience for amendments is not good enough when the Government are in charge of the business and could have done this in a more organised way to give everybody a say. I think this is a deplorable development.

[Mr Speaker]

In general, I would expect the House business to be announced via a statement or in response to the business question. It would of course be in order to ask questions about the timetabling of this business during Thursday’s business statement, but you have made the point and at least you have got it on the record. Let us move on.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 21st November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)]

It is because we are concerned about the impact of inflation and increases in interest rates that this autumn statement protected the most vulnerable by uprating benefits and pensions with inflation, strengthening the energy price guarantee, and providing cost of living payments.

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would also like to update the House on the score in Qatar: it is now 5-1 to England. I feel it is appropriate for me to do this because the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Alex Norris) has been providing a running commentary on the answers being given from the Treasury Bench, so it is only fair that we provide a running commentary that the country actually wants to hear.

[Mr Speaker]

Excuse me! Secretary of State, I thought you were in charge of levelling up—it doesn’t look that way with that score!

[Dame Angela Eagle]

I would have informed the House of that, had the Secretary of State not got there before me. After promising to match EU structural funds in the Government’s manifesto, and then taking £1 billion a year out of them for the replacement shared prosperity fund, how can the Secretary of State claim to be levelling up when his Government have presided over a net loss in funding across the country, including in the north-west, which stands to lose £206 million under the shared prosperity fund, which the Government have failed even to inflation-proof?

Randox Covid Contracts

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Wednesday 17th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Eagle]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. We have just heard the Minister say that there are no minutes of this so-called courtesy call. Can you tell us what we, as Members of the House, can do on learning this through this House, given the astonishing nature of the revelation that the Minister has just made that there have been meetings with no minutes? These are official meetings that involve Government Ministers, and she is unable to locate a copy of what happened at a meeting that clearly took place.

[Mr Speaker]

In all fairness, the Minister should be given time. There are Parliamentary Private Secretaries here, and I am sure that they will have heard and will try to get an answer to the question if we do not have that information. I would expect Government meetings with other people present always to be minuted. If they are not, it opens up another question. I do not want that question to be opened up, as I would prefer it to be answered. Therefore, I am sure that, at some point, we will get that answer. It is a fair point to be made, but in fairness to the Minister, I do not want to end up with a frenzy. Hopefully, some information will be fed back to her—I am looking to the Parliamentary Private Secretaries behind her to see whether it can be fed in at the moment.

Committee on Standards

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Wednesday 3rd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Eagle]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Leader of the House appears to have spent this whole time supporting the amendment and has not actually moved the motion that he was meant to be moving.

[Mr Speaker]

I think the Leader of the House did move the motion, although I agree that it was a variation. I want the shadow Leader of the House to put the other case now. I call Thangam Debbonaire.

Budget: Pre-announcement of Provisions

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Tuesday 26th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Sky TV tomorrow.

[Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. It has taken me nearly 30 years, but I now find that I agree with the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) in his question. This is serious. As an Opposition, we cannot look in detail at the slew—the blizzard—of Budget announcements that have been going on week after week, because we do not have the OBR report and we do not have the detail. This is treating parliamentary democracy with utter contempt and the Minister should be completely ashamed of himself. He should have come to this House and apologised. His boss should have come to this House and apologised.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Monday 12th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Anyone would have thought that that was lined up.

[Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab) [V]]

I hope that I will get an equally happy response to my question. The Secretary of State has said that he is anticipating as many as 100,000 covid infections daily. If that were actually to happen, according to his figures how many people would he expect to be hospitalised, and how many would he expect to develop long covid as a result?

Covid-19 Economic Support Package

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Wednesday 14th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Shut up!

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Members for Wallasey (Ms Eagle) and for Stoke-on-Trent North (Jonathan Gullis) can both be quiet. I want to get on with the business, and I do not want one person to start to entice others. Let us see whether we can make some progress. Let us have a good, well-mannered debate, as that might be helpful to this House.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Angela Eagle and Lindsay Hoyle

Wednesday 22nd April 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the final question. I call Angela Eagle.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab) [V]]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Last Sunday, the UK and 18 other G20 countries endorsed a comprehensive communiqué on covid-19 and future global pandemic preparedness. That much-needed action plan was then effectively vetoed by the USA as part of its unfounded attack on the World Health Organisation. Given that the Prime Minister is reported to have spoken to Donald Trump yesterday, can the First Secretary of State assure the House that Britain believes that the World Health Organisation is critical to the future of global health security, and that this country will not be drawn into the US President’s disgraceful vendetta against the World Health Organisation?