Business of the House

Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Lucy Powell

Thursday 17th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

Blue-light escort decisions are rightly taken on an operationally independent basis by the police. Yet after the Home Secretary, the Attorney General and the Mayor of London met the police to discuss the escort for Taylor Swift, she was granted one. A few days later, the Prime Minister and his whole family met Taylor Swift and her manager back stage. Can we have a debate on the new Government’s approach to breaches of the ministerial code?

[Lucy Powell]

I am sorry, but I totally reject the hon. Lady’s characterisation of what has happened here. As she rightly points out, these issues are taken operationally by the police, which is absolutely right. As I said earlier, it is estimated that the Taylor Swift concerts have brought £1 billion into the UK economy. We should be attracting these kind of events and enabling them to happen. She will know that Taylor Swift was subject to a very serious threat to her safety only a few days before coming to the UK. I should not really have to remind the hon. Lady of this, but she will also be aware that Taylor Swift took a very close interest in what happened to those young girls in Southport who were at a Taylor Swift event when they were tragically murdered. The Prime Minister rightly wanted to thank her for all that she had done to support the families.

Business of the House

Debate between Harriett Baldwin and Lucy Powell

Thursday 18th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend raises a very important matter in her first question in this House, and I very much welcome her election and her attendance here this morning. These are very serious matters, and I am concerned to hear about them. She may be pleased to know that the first Home Office oral questions will take place on 29 July. If she does not get the response that she wants then, I shall certainly raise this matter for her with the Home Secretary.

[Dame Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) (Con)]

Congratulations on your re-election, Mr Speaker. Will the Leader of the House find time for a statement on flood defences? The last Parliament was on track to spend £5.2 billion on flood defences, including in communities like Severn Stoke and Tenbury Wells in my constituency. There are concerns that the incoming Government may cancel that spending, so will she timetable a statement and reassure us that that is not the case?

[Lucy Powell]

I welcome the hon. Lady her to her place and congratulate her on surviving the tsunami that, I am afraid, took out some of her colleagues. She raises a very important matter. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs orals have not yet been timetabled, so the subject would make a good candidate for an Adjournment debate application, should she want to do that. In the meantime, I will get her a response on the Government’s plans for flood defences.