Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd May 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue. We are committed to making the UK the best place in the world to be a veteran and to ensuring that they have access to the appropriate physical and mental health support that they deserve. That is why we have rolled out Operation Restore, Op Courage and Op Nova. NHS England has been introducing a suite of health services to work more closely with orthopaedic services. I know that my hon. Friend has raised this issue of funding with the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, who will be writing back to him with an update in due course.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I join others in welcoming back to the House the hon. Member for South Thanet (Craig Mackinlay). We admire his courage, and send our best wishes to him and his family. I also join others in remembering all the victims of the bombing at the Manchester Arena.

Amanda claimed carer’s allowance when caring for her mother, but the Department for Work and Pensions is now hounding her to pay back £1,200. Karina, whose daughter requires round-the-clock care, has been hit by a bill for £11,000. Victoria is being forced to pay back £100 a month. They are just some of the tens of thousands of carers who are victims of the DWP’s flawed system, punished harshly for going sometimes just a few pounds over the arbitrary earnings limit. Family carers do a remarkable job. They should not be penalised for working, or for the DWP’s own failures. Does the Prime Minister agree that the Government should be supporting carers, not persecuting them?

[The Prime Minister]

The Government recognise the contribution and sacrifices that carers up and down the country so often make to care for others. That is why we have increased carer’s allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010. It is why we introduced carer’s leave, and it is why the better care fund funds respite care breaks for carers, which I know have been warmly welcomed and used. In the rare number of cases where individuals have not appropriately informed the DWP about a change in their circumstances, the DWP has then rightly sought to recover overpayments, as it would be expected to in order to ensure the integrity of the system and protect the taxpayer, but of course it will work with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms, and will always look to negotiate an affordable repayment plan.

Infected Blood Inquiry Report

Ed Davey Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her statement. As Prime Minister, she launched Sir Brian’s inquiry and in doing so began the process of establishing the full truth we have heard today. There is no doubt, as she recognises, that the inquiry came too late, that the compensation came too late and was woefully insufficient, and that the consequences of that failure are stark. That is why today I apologise on behalf of Governments since the 1970s for that shameful failure.

Sir Brian and his team have made a series of wide-ranging recommendations, and I can assure my right hon. Friend that we will study every single one in detail and work urgently across Government and public organisations—our health services, civil society, all—to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again, and that we end the challenges she encountered, where the institutions responsible for serving the public, including the NHS and the civil service, are more concerned by cost than accountability.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

Today is about the tens of thousands of people whose lives have been torn apart by this disaster. Many of them have fought and waited for decades to see this day, and, tragically—as the Prime Minister reminded us—thousands have died waiting. I pay tribute to the survivors, the families, the campaigners and the journalists who have fought so long and so hard for justice. Having listened to their stories and having now seen the evidence laid bare in this report, I want, on behalf of my party, to echo the Prime Minister’s apology. We are all truly sorry for the pain that people have suffered over decades, under Governments of all parties, and for the failures of politicians and the state to do the most fundamental job: to keep people safe. We must now ensure that full compensation is paid without any more delay, and that nothing like this can ever happen again.

In his report, Sir Brian highlights the fact that

“the truth has been hidden for decades”

through a

“lack of openness, transparency and candour”

which has caused enormous damage. Will the Prime Minister join me in backing the survivors’ call for a duty of candour on all public officials?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for what he has said. Across this House, we share a determination to work together to ensure that nothing comparable to this shocking and avoidable tragedy can happen ever again in our country. Today is a day for the victims and their families to hear the full truth, unequivocally acknowledged by all, and to remember the many, many lost loved ones. As I have said, my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office will make a full statement tomorrow, but we will study every one of Sir Brian’s recommendations in detail and work urgently across all parts of civil society to ensure that innocent victims are never again forced to fight for decades to be believed.

Iran-Israel Update

Ed Davey Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his excellent question. He is right about the importance of air defence, which is why it has repeatedly been one of the key capabilities that we have sought to provide to Ukraine—that is something we have led on for some time. Ditto, some of the new contracts that we have placed to replenish UK stockpiles, most recently this year, also cover air defence missiles. More broadly, my right hon. Friend is right that we need to ensure our industrial production here in the UK is geared to produce the capabilities we need, whether for our own use or for Ukraine’s. I am pleased to say that the Defence Secretary is working with the industry to ensure that supply chain is there to meet those needs.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

Mr Speaker, I send you and your family our deepest condolences on the loss of your father, and associate myself and my colleagues with the comments of others about the appalling murders in Sydney and the death of the aid workers in Gaza.

I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. The Liberal Democrats join him in condemning Iran’s attack on Israel: this is an alarming escalation in a conflict that has already seen far too many deaths and far too much suffering. We support the action taken by the RAF to intercept Iranian drones as we stand up for Israel’s security.

We also worry about what Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Government will do next. The Prime Minister has rightly said that we must prevent further escalation, so does he agree that the best way to achieve that is to press all sides to agree to an immediate bilateral ceasefire in Gaza to get the hostages home, get the aid in, and put us on the path to a lasting peace for a two-state solution?

[The Prime Minister]

We have repeatedly called for an immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out and more aid in, and use that as the foundation to build a more lasting and sustainable ceasefire, but it is worth pointing out—this has not been mentioned by colleagues so far—that Hamas, yet again, have rejected another offer to release hostages. It is important that we do not lose sight of that. We must have the hostages released as part of any of those conversations, and over the weekend it was Hamas who yet again rejected the latest round of those talks.

Action Against Houthi Maritime Attacks

Ed Davey Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the leader of the Liberal Democrat party.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. As I made clear last week, the Liberal Democrats accept the case for limited strikes against the Houthis, as long as they remain limited. As the Prime Minister updates the House for the second time on this matter, there is remarkably little clarity about what the next steps are and when the UK’s objectives will be judged to have been fulfilled. Nor has the Prime Minister sufficiently addressed how he plans to avoid regional escalation in this most fragile of regions. I thank him for agreeing that the House can debate this matter tomorrow, but will he not give the House the opportunity to vote on this matter, not least given the huge cross-party support for limited strikes? That would surely strengthen the signal he intends to give.

[The Prime Minister]

What is escalatory is the Houthis ramping up attacks on commercial shipping, launching missiles and drones against US and UK warships, and threatening allied bases in the region. I have been very clear that military action was a last resort. We provided warning after warning, including with allies and at the UN Security Council. The Houthis had, and continue to have, the ability to prevent this by stopping their illegal attacks. As I pointed out earlier, there are also risks to inaction because it would damage international security and the global economy, and send a message that British vessels, lives and interests are fair game, none of which I think is acceptable.

I am pleased that the House will have an opportunity to debate the matter tomorrow but, as I said, we reserve the right to take action in a limited, proportionate and legal way in self-defence. That is the right thing and the country would expect nothing less from the Government.

Tributes to Sir Tony Lloyd

Ed Davey Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I hope these heartfelt tributes to Sir Tony Lloyd are a source of comfort to his family. I say to them that those of us who were lucky enough to know him for a little while knew him to be an absolutely lovely man: kind, and respected in all parts of the House. You should be really proud of him.

I say to the Labour family that I know he was an integral part of the Labour party for so many years and I know you are proud of him, and justifiably so. He stood up for Labour party principles and his own principles as an individual MP representing his constituency.

I have spoken to Liberal Democrat colleagues in Manchester who remember Tony as the sort of person who would reach out to other parties to make sure that the people of Manchester were the prime objective in the work that politicians of all parties were trying to do. It was no surprise that he decided to leave this House to go and be the police and crime commissioner, where he served with real distinction to try to make the lives of everyone in Manchester better. He was a Mancunian at his heart, as we heard from the former leader of the council, the hon. Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer).

I also remember Tony as a strong internationalist; that was a real theme in the work that he did. In his last speech in this House, he was supporting and standing up for the universal declaration of human rights. He voted against the Iraq war. He was an internationalist and put his beliefs into what he did.

My personal experience of Sir Tony from listening to him in this House was that his calm, thoughtful and respectful interventions were often heard in silence because people wanted to hear what he had to say. My particular remembrance is from a cross-party visit to Israel and Palestine in 2009. We went to towns in southern Israel such as Ashkelon, and we went to the west bank and Gaza. We were at the border crossing in Gaza and were not being let in; it was a prearranged trip, but we were not being allowed in and we were there for several hours. We rang the British ambassador; that did not work. But Tony had the idea of ringing the BBC, and within an hour the BBC was reporting that a cross-party group of British MPs was not being allowed into Gaza, and it was amazing how quickly we were allowed in. That showed the measure of Tony: a principled pragmatist, getting through issues, understanding how things worked. My advice to colleagues is when going on foreign trips, always take a former Foreign Office Minister with you, because that comes in quite handy.

We will not forget him; no one who met him—whether constituents, Members of this House or, frankly, anyone around the world who met him—will ever forget Tony. He will live in our hearts and memories.

Defending the UK and Allies

Ed Davey Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I agree that the Defence Secretary made an excellent speech earlier. He highlighted, as I did, the fact that defence spending has consistently met our NATO obligation. We have been the second largest defence spender in NATO, and in the last settlement defence received the largest increase—£24 billion—since the end of the cold war. My hon. Friend is right that the threats we face are increasing. It is right that we invest to protect the British people against those threats, and that is exactly what the Government are doing and will continue to do.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

While not having a vote in this House is regrettable, Liberal Democrats support limited strikes against the Houthis to open international shipping lanes, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that this region is a tinderbox. We have seen attacks on US soldiers in Syria and Iraq, the terrorism of Islamic State in Iran, the rockets of Hezbollah, and the Israeli strikes in Beirut—all stemming from the horrifying conflict in Israel and Gaza. Can the Prime Minister tell us what conversations he has had with our NATO and European allies, but also with leaders of Gulf countries, to ensure that these limited strikes remain limited?

[The Prime Minister]

As I have said, we are engaging extensively with our international partners, including our Gulf allies. I spoke to the President of Egypt just last week, and will continue to do so. Let me say again, however, that it is important that no one takes away the idea that this House believes, on any side, that there is a link between direct action in self-defence against the Houthis and the situation in Israel and Gaza. They are entirely distinct. We will do everything we can to bring more aid into Gaza, and to make sure that we work hard for a sustainable ceasefire. That is separate from our ability and necessary duty to defend our interests and our people.

Debate on the Address

Ed Davey Excerpts

Tuesday 7th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

May I, like others, start by paying tribute to His Majesty for delivering his first King’s Speech? It was clearly an historic moment, but for our King it must have been an emotional one. He made reference to his late mother, our late, amazing Queen, and many of us listening to him felt that he delivered that speech with grace and aplomb, and we are very grateful to him.

May I also pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Sir Robert Goodwill) and the hon. Member for Stroud (Siobhan Baillie) for their speeches? I have always rather admired the right hon. Gentleman, for many reasons. His speech today was extremely entertaining, but I have always liked the fact that he, like many on our Benches, opposed the third runway at Heathrow and that he was a constructive, if unfashionable, Conservative in his views on a constructive relationship with our European partners. But perhaps what makes him more at home with the current Government is his romantic enthusiasm for the steam engine, as we have heard: more noise than substance and going nowhere in the modern world.

My mother-in-law, an expert beekeeper and honey producer—and the swarm officer for North Dorset, no less—would join the seconder of today’s motion in congratulating Stroud on being the world’s first bee guardian town. I am sure that Stroud has a real buzz about it, but the House will be pleased to hear that I do not intend to drone on and on. Given your strictures at the beginning of this debate, Mr Speaker, I should like to clarify that I was not referring to any other Members in talking about droning on.

Today’s Gracious Speech is overshadowed by horrifying events around the world, with the monstrous terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel one month ago—more than 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered and hundreds were taken hostage, and they are in our thoughts today—and now the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Innocent Palestinians have been cut off from food, water and medicine. Their homes have been destroyed, and more than 10,000 have been killed.

We also have war on our continent, as the brave Ukrainian people continue to resist Vladimir Putin’s war machine. At times of global crisis such as this, the UK can be a force for good, when it stands tall in the world. But the British voice can be at its strongest only when we have a Government that are strong and united. I am afraid that that is sadly lacking now.

As the Gracious Speech shows, we do not even have a Government strong and united enough to take real action here on the challenges that people face at home. These are very tough times for the British people. They are working hard, showing remarkable decency and strength, but people are finding it harder and harder just to make ends meet. Instead of helping, what have this out-of-touch Conservative Government done in this King’s Speech and over the past few years? They have put up taxes, energy bills and mortgage payments. They have been adding to the pain, instead of soothing it.

Let us look just at energy, where today the Government could have brought forward plans to ensure Britain’s energy security and to bring down energy prices, with sustainable energy price cuts, for the long term. The Government could have announced plans to insulate homes to cut people’s energy bills and to invest properly in cheap, clean, renewable energy for the future. Instead, the Conservatives are choosing, once again, to shackle us to the expensive, dirty fossil fuels of the past.

Today’s Speech is yet more proof that this Government simply do not care. Just last week, the covid inquiry heard that during the pandemic the Government thought that older people should just “accept their fate”. That callous approach reveals an attitude that stretches far beyond the pandemic. By failing to address the cost of living crisis, the NHS and care crisis, the sewage crisis and many other crises like them, this King’s Speech, in essence, tells families and pensioners struggling to get by to “accept their fate”. This Government tell the pensioner, waiting weeks to see her GP, to accept her fate, and the cancer patient, waiting months just to start treatment, to accept his fate. They tell communities who are seeing their rivers polluted and their countryside destroyed to accept their fate. They tell the British people, fed up with being taken for granted by an out-of-touch Government, to accept their fate.

However, whatever this Government might want, the people of our great country—the British people—have never been ones to sit back quietly and accept their fate. They will not accept a Government who are so weak and divided that they cannot tackle the country’s challenges. They will not accept a Conservative party that is out of touch and out of ideas; they will kick it out of office. They will get that chance soon. No matter how long the Prime Minister delays it, an election is coming, so the British people do not have to accept the miserable fate of this tired Conservative Government. They can choose a better future and I believe they will.

Israel and Gaza

Ed Davey Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Hateful extremism has no place in our society. Calls for jihad and for Muslim armies to rise up are a threat not only to the Jewish community but to our democratic values. The police are operationally independent, but the Home Secretary has a role in holding police forces to account. As Members will know, she raised this matter with the Met police commissioner at their meeting earlier today. Anyone who commits a crime—whether inciting racial hatred, glorifying terrorism or violating public order—should expect to face the full force of the law.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. I agree with him and the Leader of the Opposition that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is truly horrifying. To prevent a catastrophe it is essential that far more aid reaches the people who need it and it is vital that the hostages are unconditionally released. Hamas’s evil attacks have claimed far too many innocent lives already. Israel unquestionably has the right to protect its citizens and target these brutal terrorists in line with international law, just as we all have a duty to prevent more needless civilian deaths. Does the Prime Minister agree with many of us, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, that the UK should be leading diplomatic efforts to secure a pause in hostilities with a temporary humanitarian ceasefire to allow for the hostages to be released and to get aid into Gaza?

[The Prime Minister]

Let me just say exactly what I have been trying to do over the past week: ensure that we can diplomatically engage with partners in the region—as, indeed, the Foreign Secretary has been doing. That has resulted in humanitarian aid coming into Gaza. More needs to come, but that is a sign of progress. In all our conversations, particularly with the Emir of Qatar, we are focused on releasing hostages of all nationalities, but we are particularly concerned about the British hostages. We will continue to have that engagement with our partners to do everything in our power to secure the release of the hostages.

Israel and Gaza

Ed Davey Excerpts

Monday 16th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can give my right hon. Friend that reassurance. It is not only something that we have discussed extensively with partners in the region, but why last week I deployed surveillance aircraft and assets to the Mediterranean, and they are already engaged in ensuring that arms shipments do not find their way to people such as those in Hezbollah, and that Iran does not see this as an opportunity to escalate the conflict. The support that we have put into the region has already been welcomed by our partners, who share our aim to ensure that action is constrained to dealing with Hamas and what they have done. No one wants to see any escalation. Again, that is something that Prime Minister Netanyahu and I discussed, and he very much agrees that his objective is to deal with Hamas and not to see the conflict spread more widely.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

The scale of Hamas’s terrorist attacks has been utterly horrifying and the atrocities they have committed are truly sickening. We stand with the people of Israel and with the Jewish community, who are grieving and afraid. We call for the unconditional release of all hostages and urge the Government finally to proscribe as a terrorist organisation the funders of Hamas: Iran’s revolutionary guard.

Israel unquestionably has the right to defend itself and its citizens. That means targeting Hamas, not innocent civilians, in line with international law. I am concerned about the forced evacuation of hospitals in Gaza, which means death for innocent Palestinians who will not survive being taken off life support. The World Health Organisation has said that this may be a breach of international humanitarian law, so will the Prime Minister set out what advice he has received on the matter?

[The Prime Minister]

Unlike Hamas, the Israeli President has said that the Israeli armed forces will operate in accordance with international law. Israel’s attempt to minimise civilian casualties by warning people to leave northern Gaza has been further complicated by Hamas terrorists telling the local population not to leave and instead using them as human shields. We will continue to urge Israel, as I have done when I have spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu, that while it exercises its absolute right to defend itself and ensure that such attacks can never happen again, it should take every possible precaution to minimise the impact on civilians.

G20 Summit

Ed Davey Excerpts

Monday 11th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend makes a good point. He will see in the G20 declaration a commitment by all members recognising the need to peak emissions in the next couple of years. To his broader point, that is why the Government have consulted on measures to address carbon leakage. It is absolutely right that there is a level playing field, and that if we take action here it should not come at the cost of British workers if it ultimately makes no difference to global emissions. That is why we have consulted on proposals on carbon leakage, and I very much welcome his thoughts on that.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I join the House in sending our condolences to all those affected by the tragic events in Morocco.

I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. He was, rightly, strongly critical of President Putin in his statement, but I have to say that I do not agree with his assessment of the G20 statement on Ukraine. The joint declaration failed to condemn Russia for the invasion. Our Ukrainian allies labelled it

“nothing to be proud of”,

while the Russians called it

“a step in the right direction”.

Ukraine’s soldiers continue to give their lives in defence of their country, while Ukrainian refugees continue to take shelter here in the UK and elsewhere. Why did the Prime Minister feel he was justified in signing up to such a weak communiqué?

[The Prime Minister]

I find it slightly strange that the right hon. Gentleman is using what Russia describes the situation to be as evidence of support. With everything we have seen over the past year we should not believe a word coming out of Russia’s mouth, so that is a very strange approach to take. What I would say to him on his criticism is that I am not entirely sure who he is critical of, because every single one of our Five Eyes partners and G7 allies who was present also signed the G20 statement. We fought hard to have a statement that we thought did in fact—as the US itself has said, including the President and the Treasury Secretary—contain substantially very strong language regarding Russia.

I went out to the summit specifically to raise the impact of Russia’s illegal war on food security and food prices. The language in the summit goes further than what we have had before, highlighting that and calling for an end to attacks on food and civilian infrastructure, and for the restoration of the Black sea grain initiative. We also agreed on the significance of securing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the principles of the UN charter, including territorial integrity. That is why all our allies—I could go through the list of them—worked hard for that statement and supported it. The right hon. Gentleman’s criticism may well be of me, but he is also criticising every single one of our closest allies.