Business of the House

Debate between Lord Hague of Richmond and David Mowat

Thursday 6th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The steel industry is very important for this country. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that steel production here has risen in recent years. The Prime Minister commented on the matter recently at Prime Minister’s questions and there was an urgent question within the past two weeks on the future of the industry. It will remain an important topic of discussion in the House. As I said, BIS questions will be on 20 November, which might be the next opportunity to pursue the matter.

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

A continuing concern in our country is the disparity in infrastructure spend between London and the English regions—roughly speaking, it is a ratio of 10:1 in terms of spend per capita. Much of that has been driven by Crossrail 1. Will the Leader of the House give an assurance that Crossrail 2 will not have significant sums spent on it without a proper series of debates in this House?

[Mr Hague]

Debating infrastructure investment in many different places and in many different ways is very important for the House, so I can assure my hon. Friend that there will always be plenty of discussions on these matters. He will also be aware that part of what we are trying to do with our regional growth fund and city deals is ensure that there is investment in infrastructure, transport and science across the regions of the United Kingdom. We now have the largest rail modernisation programme taking place since Victorian times. We are investing nearly £800 million in superfast broadband. There are many infrastructure developments benefiting the whole of the country, and we must ensure that they continue to do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hague of Richmond and David Mowat

Tuesday 29th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I believe that the Palestinian Authority are certainly well motivated—that is a good way to put it. I believe that President Abbas is a courageous man of peace, and he has taken many risks and overcome much opposition in order to get back into the peace process and into negotiations with Israel. I absolutely condemn any encouragement to him to do anything other than that, and Hamas for saying that that should cease. We want to see those negotiations continue over the coming weeks and bring success.

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

T6. Much of the instability in various parts of the world is caused by volatile and high food prices, a driver of which is the conversion of agricultural land into biodiesel, a practice described by the United Nations last year as a crime against humanity. What discussions have the Government had with the EU to encourage it to drop its 6% target on sources which could and should be food?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hague of Richmond and David Mowat

Tuesday 4th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Of course we are in discussions with other countries on this matter. We must assess exactly what the financial implications are. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, we are already a major donor to the Palestinian Authority and the fourth biggest donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The immediate action has been that the consul general in Jerusalem and a Department for International Development team have visited Gaza to assess the situation there, but we must see how we can further assist if there is a deepening financial crisis in the Palestinian Authority.

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

3. What discussions his Department has had with the Libyan Government on reparations for previous victims of Libyan Semtex.

Palestinian Resolution (United Nations)

Debate between Lord Hague of Richmond and David Mowat

Wednesday 28th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I do not agree that this undermines our credibility in any way. On the contrary, I think that we will be in a strong position, after all the discussions that we have had with the Palestinians, the Israelis and the United States in recent days, to do our utmost to move the peace process forward with those countries and parties over the coming weeks. I think that the hon. Gentleman will find that his prediction is not borne out by events.

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

We have heard a lot this afternoon about preconditions. Will the Foreign Secretary tell the House which preconditions he regards as most unreasonable, and does he not regard Israeli settlement activity as a different type of precondition?

[Mr Hague]

We condemn settlement activity on occupied land, but we differed with the Palestinians over the past year when they would not re-enter negotiations without a halt to such activity. Of course one can understand the rationale behind them not doing so, but the result, since that is a precondition, is that such activity goes on but no negotiations take place. It would be better to get stuck into negotiations, even while settlement activity continues. That is the sort of precondition that I am talking about.