Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swayne]

What undermines UK aid, and what makes that aid ever more necessary yet harder to deliver, is the violent and unlawful removal of the Government of Yemen. Only a peace process to restore that will end the suffering.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

If we are concerned about arms exports to Saudi Arabia, which fuel the conflict in Yemen, why are the Government not pressing ahead with setting up the cross-party quadripartite committee on arms exports, so that Parliament can control that better?

[Mr Swayne]

As the Prime Minister pointed out, we have the most stringent and robust arms export regulations in the world. We have supported the UN Human Rights Council resolution, and we are committed to the investigation of every abuse or abrogation of international law.

Syria: Madaya

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Monday 11th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

We are supporting countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, which have been hugely generous in accepting millions of refugees—alongside Turkey, Egypt and Iraq, whose contributions have been perhaps less recognised—by helping refugees with food, shelter, medical support, counselling—in some cases—and, in Lebanon and Jordan, with education. Critically, we have also worked with host communities, many of which have seen their populations double in size. Members can imagine the strain that puts on public services, food prices and labour wages, for example.

On our broader efforts in the region with Gulf partners, it is worth saying that Kuwait has hosted the last three pledging conferences on Syria and is co-hosting the one in London next month. It has played a role in marshalling the overall efforts and humanitarian resources in the region. Needless to say, however, we all need to do more. This is a protracted, ongoing crisis, and not only does it require day-to-day lifesaving support of the nature discussed this afternoon; but we need to see children in school and young people with the ability to find work and support themselves. If we cannot deliver those basics, we should not be surprised if people leave the region to try to build their lives elsewhere.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

This weekend in The Daily Telegraph, a Mr David Blair made an unwarranted and ill-informed attack on the Royal Air Force, going as far as to suggest that the absence of airdrops was due to the RAF. Will the Secretary of State take this opportunity to pay tribute to our forces and make it clear that the absence of airdrops is due to political and practical problems and nothing to do with the capabilities of our forces?

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 16th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am delighted to join my hon. Friend in saying that it was the right decision to make sure we have this extra funding for the police. By the end of the spending settlement, it is actually an increase of £900 million in cash terms by 2019-20. I am delighted that there will be more officers on the streets in Hampshire. I come back to the same point: you cannot fund the NHS, you cannot fund the Home Office, and you cannot fund the police unless you have a growing economy with more jobs, people paying their taxes, and making sure you have got a strong and stable economy, and that is what is happening in Britain today.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

Q8. In his farewell speech, the outgoing director of the British Museum said:“The British Museum is perhaps the noblest dream that parliament has ever dreamt. Parliament decided to make a place where the world could be under one roof, where the collection would be free to all native or foreign, where every citizen would have the right to information and where all inquiry would be outside political control.” Does the Prime Minister agree that the partnership working of the British Museum, such as that with the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for its multi-faith gallery next year, is important, but that such work will not happen unless our museums and galleries continue to be funded properly?

[The Prime Minister]

Let me join the right hon. Lady in paying tribute not only to the British Museum, which is an absolute jewel in the British cultural crown, but to Neil MacGregor, who gave it such extraordinary leadership. Given her heritage, perhaps she will be amused by the fact that I took Chancellor Merkel to the museum to show her the brilliant exhibition about Germany—it was fantastic—but the next thing I knew, the Germans had poached Neil MacGregor to run their cultural institute in Germany. None the less, in the spirit of European co-operation, which is going to be vital this week, I am happy to see that happen. I want to see the British Museum complete all its partnerships, not just across the United Kingdom but internationally. The right hon. Lady will have seen in the autumn statement that the British Museum got a funding settlement with which it was, rightly, very pleased.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I have said before, where Essex leads, the rest of the country follows. Private sector employment, entrepreneurialism and the employment of more people are exactly what the economy needs in the economic recovery, and that is what our economic plan is delivering. Last week, we saw a record increase in employment. This week, we have seen inflation fall to a five-year low. I had very successful meetings yesterday with the Chinese Premier, in which we signed £14 billion-worth of important deals that will bring jobs, growth and investment to this country. We have to keep working on every aspect of our plan, including increasing our exports to the fastest growing countries in the world.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

The former Prime Minister, Sir John Major, has made a strong case for looking at our constitutional arrangements, whatever the outcome in Scotland in September. Does the Prime Minister accept that devolution in England, outside London, is very much unfinished business? If our great cities such as Birmingham want to remain the economic engines, they require radically reformed funding structures and our regions require strategic directly elected mayors.

[The Prime Minister]

As the hon. Lady knows, I am a fan of directly elected mayors. However, the people of Birmingham had their chance to make that decision and they voted not to have a mayor. I hope that people will see successful mayors in London, Liverpool, Bristol and other parts of the country, and see that there are benefits from that approach. I agree with her that, even if we do not move to a mayoral system, there is more that we can do through city deals, local enterprise partnerships and devolving some of the funding in Whitehall further down towards cities and regions. All that would be to the good. It is worth while and welcome that in its policy review, her party has decided not to tear up local enterprise partnerships, but to extend them. It is good that there is cross-party agreement on how to drive devolution out to our great cities around the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman and I joined forces in the Lobby in July 2011 to legislate for a referendum lock which, for the first time, guarantees in law that there will be a referendum if the rules of the European Union change or if there is a proposal for a transfer of sovereignty from this place to the European Union. That is the position my party believes in, and that is our guarantee in law to the British people: that a referendum will take place when circumstances determine that it should. I understand that his party is now having a debate that is changing that position, but my party will stick to what we legislated for in the summer of 2011.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin) wanted to know whether the British taxpayer had got value for money in the sale of Royal Mail. Yes or no?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Our judgment is yes. Easy though it might be to make snapshot judgments about the value of the company according to the price on the markets on any given day, we are determined to take a long-term view on this issue, as on so many others, and not to score short-term political points.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. We made an important and difficult decision that, while other budgets were being cut, we would protect the NHS budget. That was not supported by the Labour party, but the fact is that we now have the best ever performance for patients waiting over 18 weeks, the numbers for those waiting more than 26 weeks and 52 weeks have also reached record lows, and average waiting times for both in-patients and out-patients are lower than they were in May 2010. The Labour party often asked whether the test should be the number of people waiting over 18 weeks. Well, if that was the test, we have passed it with flying colours.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

Q4. Just over a year ago the Prime Minister launched his flagship export enterprise finance guarantee scheme. We now learn that only five companies have benefited from the scheme. Hard-working businesses in Birmingham that would like to export but cite lack of export finance guarantee as a problem are keen to know who those five lucky companies are and why the scheme has been such a dismal failure.

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly write to the hon. Lady, because the truth is that that export scheme has been rolled into the export guarantee scheme more generally and the amount of export support is massively up on the last election, with billions of pounds in extra money being spent. The other point I would make is that exports, compared with 2010, were up by over 12% last year.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can, and my hon. Friend speaks powerfully not just for Nuneaton, but for all town centres and all Members who represent constituencies with vibrant town centres. We want to keep them, rather than see everything go out of town. There are two steps we need to take. One is to make sure local people have a real say in the planning process, so they can decide where future development goes. Secondly, we should continue the steps that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been pioneering in terms of rate relief, to help local shops in our high streets so we do not end up with identikit high streets, but instead have thriving town centres such as Nuneaton, which I so enjoyed visiting with my hon. Friend on a number of occasions.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

The chairman of the Georgian Parliament is in London this week, and, indeed, is following our proceedings. Some Members of this House went to Georgia during the recess. When the Prime Minister goes to Moscow later this year, will he remind Russia of the commitment it gave in 2008 to withdraw its troops and stop the occupation in Georgia?

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly do that. I well remember myself going to Tbilisi when the Georgians were under so much pressure from the Russians, and standing up with them, recognising that Georgia is a country that wants to be a democracy; it wants to be an economic success story; it wants to join NATO; it wants to be able to look west, as well as east; and it wants to have good relations with its neighbour. I am delighted that the hon. Lady is meeting representatives from the Georgian Parliament. I myself have met Georgia’s President Saakashvili on several occasions, and I will certainly make my views clear on the issue of Georgia, if I visit, and when I visit, Russia later this year.

Aid Reviews

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is right to identify St Helena as an important dependent territory which rightly has our support. He will know that negotiations are ongoing on three key areas which, when they are the subject of agreement, will form the basis of a contract. I hope to be able to give the House more information in due course.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

I very much welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement. He categorised the multilateral organisations as the good, the bad and the ugly, so will he say where, in his assessments, CDC falls?

[Mr Mitchell]

CDC is not one of the organisations that has been assessed as part of the multilateral aid review, because we are in the process of reforming the way in which it operates. The point that we have made in a written statement to the House is that widespread consultation is taking place on how we inject more development genes into CDC. Those negotiations and discussions are continuing, and I hope to be able to say more to the House shortly about how that will proceed.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 12th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan]

We do everything to make sure that such moneys are paid only through a trust fund and paid only after proven action with proper receipts. We do everything possible to overcome the challenges posed by corruption in any such country.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

The Minister mentioned Haiti. It is clear that some NGOs were not working very effectively together and were actually operating in their own interest. Will the review also consider the better co-ordination of NGOs, both from this country and those under UN supervision?

[Mr Duncan]

Yes, is the answer. However, I repeat that the review’s remit is concentrated and focused on rapid onset humanitarian response—in other words, it is a review of emergency humanitarian response, not of the entire area of all humanitarian action.