G7

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Monday 11th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, which is that we as politicians stand and talk about the values that we share, but it is our servicemen and women who actually put their lives on the line to defend those values. It is incumbent on us all to ensure that we are doing them the service of working together to maintain that rules-based international order.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has said that the WTO needs reform, and she also said earlier that we were in the lead on climate change and the environment. Will she look at integrating these two institutional networks so that we do not have trade deals that cut across our environmental objectives?

[The Prime Minister]

I am not sure that integrating the two institutional structures that deal with those is the right way forward, but there are of course examples around the world where trade deals do indeed incorporate environmental standards.

Military Action Overseas: Parliamentary Approval

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Tuesday 17th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

No, I am going to make progress. Quite a few Members wish to speak in the debate, and I have taken a lot of interventions.

The second reason is the nature of the information that I see as Prime Minister, along with the National Security Council and the Cabinet. The Government make use of a wide range of sources of information, both those in the public domain and secret intelligence. In this case, drawing on the lessons of the past, we made a rigorous assessment of the available open-source material and intelligence about the Douma attack. Indeed, when my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) looked me in the eye and asked me to tell him that it was the Syrian regime that was responsible, I could do so in part because of the intelligence and assessment I had seen, and because I had discussed that intelligence and assessment with senior security and military officials, the National Security Council and Cabinet.

In the post-Iraq era, it is natural for people to ask questions about the evidence base for our military actions, including when we cite intelligence. They want to see all the information themselves. But we have an obligation to protect the safety and security of our sources. We must maintain secrecy if our intelligence is to be effective now and in the future. We have obligations to our partners to protect the intelligence they share with us, just as they protect intelligence we share with them, and we have to be judicious even in explaining the types of intelligence we use in any given case, or risk giving our adversaries vital clues about where our information comes from.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Will the Prime Minister give way?

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Wednesday 28th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Oliver Dowden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and all contracts worth more than £10,000 are published on the Contracts Finder website. Indeed, more than 25,000 organisations are currently registered with Contracts Finder, of which 64% are small and medium-sized enterprises.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Public procurement was meant to be one of the Brexit dividends, but it is not going very well with the Passport Office. Will the Minister tell us specifically what will change?

[Oliver Dowden]

I have to say to the hon. Lady that, as we leave Europe, it is important that we remain an open economy, and I have every confidence in the way in which that procurement was conducted. We should be sending a signal that, just as we expect foreign businesses to be able to bid for contracts here, we have an open system in this country.

UK/EU Future Economic Partnership

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Monday 5th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It is our intention to ensure that we can negotiate what is necessary to negotiate within the time scale that is set within article 50.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Yesterday, I had an email from a senior businessman in the north-east, who says that the Prime Minister and her Cabinet

“seem to ignore…the real nature of global trade today…Our businesses wishing to trade with China or the USA build new facilities there”.

They do not

“send goods halfway around the globe…We…want…to share in existing EU arrangements”.

Why does the Prime Minister not start listening to the CBI and the chambers of commerce?

[The Prime Minister]

The CBI, the chambers of commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses welcomed what I set out in my speech on Friday as an ambitious programme, and welcomed the degree of detail in my speech. We are listening to business. That is why I put what I did in my speech about regulatory standards.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Wednesday 7th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I recognise that my hon. Friend has been campaigning on this issue for some time. As he says, we have set strong guidance for hospital trusts on the issue of car parking charges, and we do of course look to ensure that it is being met. Individual hospitals are taking their own decisions on this matter, but it is right that the Government have set very clear guidelines for those hospitals as to how they should approach this.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has done much to tackle modern slavery. My constituent was trafficked here as a child, sold at least once on the long journey, and then forced to work in the dark in a cannabis factory for years. Now the Home Office is proposing to send him back to Vietnam. Will the Prime Minister intervene not just in this case but in this complex and confused area of the law?

[The Prime Minister]

I recognise that, as the hon. Lady says, there are cases that are complex in terms of the legal application. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has heard the case that the hon. Lady has set out and will, I am sure, look at that particular issue—both the individual case and the wider point that she is making. As we know, the best possible solution to this, which we all want to ensure, is for people like her constituent not to be trafficked into the UK in the first place to work in these cannabis factories.

Carillion

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lidington]

Before coming to the House, I had a look at the latest briefing from the Department of Health and Social Care, and the John Radcliffe Hospital was reporting no disruption to services—we have had no notification of any problems. I am close enough in constituency terms to the John Radcliffe to know how important that modernisation project is. On schools, it is welcome that the message from Oxfordshire, Tameside and other local education authorities has been that business has been continuing as normal today.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

This case is very similar to that of Southern Cross. We can see that, although we can transfer jobs, the provision of services and money to the private sector, ultimate responsibility and financial risk stay with the public sector. How high is the contingent liability set in the minute that the Minister is laying before the House today?

[Mr Lidington]

I question the premise on which the hon. Lady put her question. It is true that ultimate responsibility for the provision of public services remains with the public sector, but as this case has demonstrated beyond any doubt, the financial risk really and truly is transferred to the private sector contractor.

European Council

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend is referring to the trust fund that has been established in relation to migration matters in Africa to which the UK has, alongside others, contributed. She is right that the Commission reported that deficit. From the United Kingdom’s point of view, we are putting extra money into activities in Africa in relation to supporting people in countries of origin and transit. We are working alongside that trust fund. The work we are doing is amounting to £75 million.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I am sure the Prime Minister’s confidence is well placed in that, were it necessary, the EU would agree to our being an independent member of the World Trade Organisation. In that situation, however, we would also need the agreement of every member, including Russia. What price does she think that Russia would extract?

[The Prime Minister]

We are a member of the WTO, but obviously we have that link in relation to the European Union. In future, we will want to be an independent member. We are working across the WTO to ensure we are able to put in place the necessary arrangements for that to happen.

UK Plans for Leaving the EU

Helen Goodman Excerpts

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I can absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend on that, and that is precisely why that is exactly what the Government are doing.

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

I am sure the Prime Minister knows that the Supreme Court did not opine on the question of whether article 50 was revocable, because the question before it was about our involvement. Therefore, why, when asked by my right hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw) what advice she had had recently, did she rely on the Supreme Court?

[The Prime Minister]

The point that I made in relation to the Supreme Court is that the court proceeded on the basis that article 50 would not be revoked; and I gave the answer to another of the hon. Lady’s hon. Friends about what the Government do or do not say about legal advice.