Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 30th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

I recognise what the hon. Gentleman said about air quality. We are spending £900 million to tackle air pollution and improve public health, and our clean air strategy has been praised by the World Health Organisation. He also mentioned the arts and what universities are doing to promote them. That is clearly a huge industry in the UK, and a big part of the global market is owned and occupied by UK-based artists, and that will continue, and the Government will continue to support them.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

Can we please have a debate on London? The Mayor of London has three principal priorities. One is policing, one is transport, and one is housing. The Met is in special measures, the tube is on strike, buses are being cut, and housing starts are way behind target. Frankly, he is failing my constituents, and they deserve better. Can we have a debate on London?

[Mark Spencer]

My hon. Friend is once again right to draw the House’s attention to how the Mayor of London is letting Londoners down. In her, he has a tenacious opponent, and someone who will continue to fight for her constituents. I know she will not allow the Mayor to continue unchallenged in not delivering for her constituents, and I am sure that the House would be delighted to support her in a debate of such a nature.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 16th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

I am delighted to join the hon. Lady in supporting Scottish Breastfeeding Week. I do not know why it is just Scottish Breastfeeding Week and we do not take it across the whole country. Breastfeeding needs to be supported and advertised so that young mums can engage and make sure that their children have their brightest future, having started life with healthy support. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will have heard her comments, but if that is not the case, I will make sure that he does so.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

The Mayor of London is consulting on axing 18% of London’s buses—that’s right, 18%. That would affect Kensington and Chelsea very badly, where he is proposing that seven bus routes should be completely axed and a further seven would be severely affected. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Mayor of London is failing Londoners, whether it be through bus cuts, strikes on the tube or more taxes on drivers, and will he contemplate a debate on the subject?

[Mark Spencer]

I am shocked to hear that 18% of buses might be cut. I think the previous Mayor of London was an enthusiastic supporter of buses and of making sure that the transport links within London worked. That is because the Conservative party recognises that getting people to work is very important. That is why we support transport to make sure that people can get to and from work and that the economy can continue to boom.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 31st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

To say that there is no assistance is, frankly, wrong, but I acknowledge that there are challenges with local heating systems, which I will raise directly with the relevant Minister on the hon. Gentleman’s behalf. Given the uncertainty and challenges of the global energy market that we currently face not only in the United Kingdom but across the whole of Europe and North America, the Government are stepping in to try to help people who are facing those challenges. That is why we have introduced the £9.1 billion energy rebate scheme, and we are also increasing the value of the warm home discount to £150 in October and providing £1 billion through the household support fund, as well as winter fuel payments. All of that is assistance to his and my constituents in what is a very challenging situation globally, but I will raise the matter that he raised with the relevant Minister.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

The Labour party accepted the recommendations of the Leveson inquiry that it should publish all meetings between the shadow Cabinet and senior media executives and media owners. It has not done so since 2016. The Government publish them on a quarterly basis. May we have a debate on the lack of transparency on the relations between the Labour party and media executives and its trade union paymasters?

[Mark Spencer]

I thank my hon. Friend for drawing attention to this important issue. It is important to the reputation of our democracy that we in this House are as transparent as possible with regard to those we meet, and when. It is staggering that the Labour party has failed to declare any meetings over the past six years. However, I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and believe that no such meetings have taken place. Perhaps the media have reached the same conclusion about the Labour party as the electorate did in December 2019.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

My hon. Friend is one of several colleagues who have called for such a debate; I encourage him to link up with the others to secure such a debate. We should have pride and confidence in the system we have in place. Those who commit harassment or bullying will be held to account and those who have been victims should have the confidence that the system is in place to hold people to account.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

Last week, London was plunged into chaos, with two days of tubes strikes and four days of transport affected, even though the Mayor of London had promised zero days of strikes. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the current Mayor of London is failing Londoners, whether it be on transport, policing or building affordable housing, and that my constituents deserve better?

[Mark Spencer]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Along with my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Dr Offord), she is right to draw the House’s attention to the current London Mayor. Tube strikes bring misery to commuters and people trying to work in London. As my hon. Friend highlights, those strikes came on the back of a promise to have zero days of strike. London is being let down by its current Mayor.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 10th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

I think the hon. Lady may have confused me with Michael Winner—I do not think I have ever used those words.

The hon. Lady raises the important issue of violence against women and girls, which the Government take extremely seriously. I am sure the Home Office will update her on the progress made and that she will hold the Home Office to account as we move forward.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend to his new role.

The Mayor of London is failing my constituents in Kensington: he is looking to sell the Notting Hill police station to the highest bidder, meaning there will not be a police presence in the north of my borough after December 2022. My local council is putting together a bid to retain the site as an asset of community value. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Mayor of London should sell the site to my local council so that it is retained in the community rather than turned into luxury flats that will be bought by foreigners and probably never lived in?

[Mark Spencer]

The Mayor of London is the capital’s police and crime commissioner and is ultimately responsible for decisions of that kind. I note that his record on policing, and particularly on the scourge of knife crime, does not match that of his predecessor. My hon. Friend is diligent in her frequent questioning of the inadequacies of the Mayor of London and is a great champion of her constituents. I hope he listens to her pleas.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 27th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that point. It is important that written answers are as helpful as possible. It is always possible to seek the advice of the Table Office—it is exceptionally good at this—to work out how to rephrase a question in order to get around an initially unhelpful answer so as to get the information requested. If the hon. Gentleman is not able to do that, or is not successful in doing so, my office will be more than happy to seek fuller answers than he has got so far.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

On this Holocaust Memorial Day, I would like to pay tribute to my constituent Marika Henriques. Marika was born in Hungary. At the age of nine, she got separated from her family and she became a hidden child during the war. Mercifully, she survived and now she is resident in my constituency. I would like to thank my Front Bench colleagues, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House and you, Mrusb Speaker, for making so much time available for today’s debate. May I ask that this also happens in subsequent years?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The individual stories of those now in very old age are of the greatest importance and are incredibly moving, whenever Members come across them, and it is so important that they are recorded and restored for posterity. I am glad to say that both last year and this year we were able to avoid any urgent questions or statements on Holocaust Memorial Day. It would be wrong of me to promise that that can be guaranteed in future, but I can assure the Chairman of the Backbench Business Committee that as long as I am the Leader of the House, that will certainly be my aim.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point that private pension schemes are much more effectively regulated than they once were to try to ensure protections for pensioners, but many of them are still dependent on the underlying business and the ability of the business to afford the pensions. The Pensions Regulator has a responsibility to do that. It also has a fund to support pension funds that become insolvent or businesses that become unable to afford their pension obligations. None the less, he is right to stand up for his constituents who are expecting pensions they do not get. For a debate, however, in the first instance I point him to the Backbench Business Committee.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

The Mayor of London is failing to maintain and upgrade tube stations in my constituency. South Kensington, the gateway to our world-class museums, unbelievably has no step-free access to the District and Circle line, and the Piccadilly line does not even stop at South Kensington at the moment. Ladbroke Grove in north Kensington, which is vital to access north Kensington, again has no step-free access. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Mayor of London needs to get his act together and provide suitable transport links for my constituents, and will he contemplate a debate on the matter?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am contemplating having a set question every week to which the answer is, “The Mayor of London is failing,” because this is a continued theme of questions I get about what he is not managing to do. My hon. Friend raises a very important question about mismanagement. Bear in mind that £4 billion of emergency funding has come from the taxpayer to Transport for London, and that when London transport was run by the Prime Minister when he was Mayor of London, in that halcyon age of 2008 to 2016, services were much better. Disabled access is of fundamental importance and this failure of the Mayor is further evidence of his mismanagement.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 6th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

During these sessions I normally find myself trying to be as helpful as I can to the hon. Gentleman, but I am afraid I have a slightly different view of why things have not been working. I think that many of those delays have been caused by problems with working from home, which is why it is so important for those who need to go into the office to do so.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

The Mayor of London is proposing to sell Notting Hill police station to the highest bidder, which will mean that there is no physical police presence in the north of my borough. I have been working with my council and with local community groups, including the Kensington Society, to put together a bid for community uses, which could include a police station. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is completely wrong that the Mayor of London is selling a police station in London—in north Kensington—and that if he persists in this wrong action, he should prioritise the bid from a community group?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I think that a sentence involving the Mayor of London and wrong action is almost by definition tautologous, as his failures are manifest and emerge in these sessions week after week, particularly in relation to crime. It seems strange that at a time when crime is rising, police stations are still being sold off. I encourage my hon. Friend to persist in her advocacy of an alternative consortium which may be able to keep space for the police, and I also reiterate the points that I made about our right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. When he was Mayor of London, crime fell by 23%. That was a triumph of leadership, and London needs better leadership.

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

May I pay a warm tribute to the hon. Gentleman’s mother, Beryl, for ensuring that her son is always so well turned out, among other things? Clearly, he is calling to mind the fact that cleanliness is next to godliness. I am so grateful that he has picked up on this point, as I was really impressed, and to some extent felt rather guilty, that the people working throughout the pandemic in this House every day were the cleaners, who are probably among the lowest-paid in this House. We should be grateful to them. I can also reassure him that by raising the national living wage to £9.50 next year, and giving nearly 2 million families an extra £1,000 a year through our cut to the universal credit taper and the increase to work allowances, exactly the sort of people we are trying to help will be helped.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

Building safety is very important to me and my constituents. I have been shocked and dismayed by some of the revelations coming out of the building products industry, and since March I have been calling for a tax on that industry to pay partly for cladding remediation. Can my right hon. Friend update the House on the timing of the Building Safety Bill, and does he agree that we need to find a solution for leaseholders?

Business of the House

Felicity Buchan Excerpts

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman is so easily pleased. Had I realised that he would become sweetness and light merely by my momentarily wearing a mask, I may have been tempted to do it before the Christmas season or the season of Advent was upon us.

The hon. Gentleman wants to bat back and forth opinion polls, and I note that, as I told him last week, even SNP supporters do not think that having a referendum on independence is very important. I think they want to see the SNP Government in Scotland getting on with running Scotland properly—making the health service work, building the roads and dealing with all the problems that they are singularly failing to deal with. They could not even get the new advice out to vaccination centres so that people could get their vaccines when the advice was changed around the country at large.

The hon. Gentleman wishes me to go to the House of Lords, which is very flattering of him. He is clearly unaware of the 1539 Act about places in Parliament—the House of Lords Precedence Act 1539—which allows the Lord President, when not a peer, to go and sit in the House of Lords. It is not a privilege I have ever taken up, as I am worried that their lordships might be a bit surprised, but the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord President of the Council, the Lord Treasurer—a position currently in commission—and various others have the right to go and sit in the House of Lords when they are not peers, so I assume that is what the hon. Gentleman was talking about.

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

I have been campaigning for much-needed improvements to two tube stations in my constituency, South Kensington and Ladbroke Grove, both of which desperately need step-free access. Does my right hon. Friend agree that Transport for London and the Mayor of London are letting down Londoners by mismanaging TfL’s finances, and would my right hon. Friend contemplate a debate on the subject?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

We could have a debate on the terrible failures of the Mayor of London and Transport for London. Transport for London seems to have a campaign of hating the motorist and doing everything it can to make driving in London difficult, with ridiculous 20 mph speed limits on straight and wide roads, with road closures and every possible inconvenience to the motorist—and then it cannot run the underground system properly. I agree with my hon. Friend, though she may wish to apply to the Backbench Business Committee in the first instance.