Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 7th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Skidmore]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We cannot continue with the historical injustice of allowing such unequal representation. That representation currently allows for the electorate of one seat to be twice the size of another’s or, to put it in other words, allows one elector’s vote to be worth twice that of another. This injustice, long recognised, must be resolved.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his well-deserved promotion to the Treasury Bench. In the past, Ministers have argued that cutting the number of MPs will save the taxpayer £12 million. That is exactly the same amount of money that the previous Prime Minister has just spent on his lavender list of resignation honours. Is it not the case that this boundary redistribution is proceeding on the basis of a register from which 2 million people are excluded, and is that not an absolute affront to democracy?

[Chris Skidmore]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to recognise that cutting the number of MPs from 650 to 600 will not just save £12 million, but save £66 million over the course of a Parliament. At a time when many areas of public life have found savings, it is right that we should put our own house in order. Equally, it is right that we should finally establish the democratic principle of constituencies with an equal number of voters, which was first called for by the Chartists back in 1838 and recently endorsed by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

We have made huge progress in ensuring that we have registers of beneficial ownership in the overseas territories. We are also publishing the beneficial ownership register for the UK. The progress that has been made in the overseas territories is the greatest under any Government in history, which perhaps is one reason Transparency International said that the summit had been a good day for anti-corruption.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

The Panama papers have shown how illicit finance robs the very poorest countries of the world. Malawi, for example, loses about $130 million a year through such finance. Will the Minister explain why the Malawian company Press Trust Overseas Ltd cannot have its tax affairs scrutinised because it is in the British Virgin Islands? Should not the summit have come to an agreement to force such overseas jurisdictions to publish central beneficial registers?

[Matthew Hancock]

If the hon. Gentleman cares so much about the matter, he might have congratulated us on the progress that we made at the summit. He will be delighted to know that the British Virgin Islands has signed up to have a beneficial ownership register and to share that information with the UK Government. We are making progress in tackling the scourge of corruption, about which previous Governments, including the one he supported, did too little.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. This is true not just about ethnicity in the senior civil service but about gender and people with disabilities. We need to ensure that the senior civil service represents the country that it serves. Steps are under way to ensure that that happens and I look forward to working with my hon. Friend to reach that conclusion.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

We welcome the Minister to his place and the Opposition support genuine efforts to increase the diversity of the civil service. He will be aware that 58% of permanent secretaries were privately educated, as were 53% of senior diplomats and 45% of public body chairs. Would he therefore support targets to increase the numbers from state education at the top of our civil service?

[Matthew Hancock]

I certainly strongly agree that it is important that as well as considering gender, ethnicity and other characteristics we ensure that people from all backgrounds—whichever school they went to and whichever part of the country they come from—can get to senior levels in the civil service. We have a programme under way to ensure that that happens.

Tunisia, and European Council

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for his support; I want to continue this ever closer union between us for as long as possible.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

In Leicester, we all hope and pray for the safe return of Ray and Angela Fisher. I am grateful for the commitments that the Prime Minister has made with respect to the embassy and Foreign Office staff. Does the Prime Minister agree that Daesh thrives on divisions in the region, whether those involve Kurds or Arabs, Sunni or Shi’a? What is he doing to build an effective united front against Daesh?

[The Prime Minister]

I join the hon. Gentleman in wishing his constituents well. On building a united front, there is now an enormous international coalition that includes many Arab and Gulf countries. We need to keep that coalition together because all of us bring different things. Some of those countries, as Sunni Arab states, will bring the ability to talk to Sunni Muslims in Iraq and bring them away from Daesh and towards a belief in an integrated Iraqi Government.