Ukraine

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady very much for what she is doing with the OSCE and the monitoring operation. I have met members of the OSCE monitoring unit, and I think they do an amazing job. Sadly, because of the threat and the duty of care that we have to them, we have asked them to step back temporarily. Let us hope we are in a better position by July—let us hope—but at the moment things are not looking good.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

I strongly welcome my right hon. Friend’s resolute and clear-sighted statement. Does he agree that one of the things that Putin is looking for at the moment is any hint or sign of division or variance among members of the western alliance, and that it is therefore important right now to invest the time to go the extra mile and ensure that our allies, across Europe and including America, speak with one voice in the same way that we have spoken with one voice from the House this afternoon?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend for what he has said. There has been a lot of commentary today about whether we should have gone further and gone with the whole package of sanctions unilaterally today, but one of the reasons we wanted to work in lockstep with our friends was to reinforce that message of unity and resolve in the west.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Simon Hart]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. He will have heard me refer to the M4 on many occasions as a vital asset that joins the European mainland to the Republic of Ireland. It is not just a Welsh road; it is of economic significance to the UK and more widely, and it plays a strategic role. That, combined with the slightly mysterious position that the Welsh Government have adopted on a moratorium on road building, leads me to the conclusion that he has reached, which is that there are better ways of maintaining and improving the UK-wide network, including roads that are exclusively in Wales.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

10. What recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on the impact on Wales of the omicron covid-19 variant.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Simon Hart)]

The UK Government have worked closely with the Welsh Government throughout the pandemic. We continue to do so in tackling the omicron variant, and Ministers in both Governments are in regular discussions.

[Stephen Crabb]

With Labour Welsh Government Ministers now introducing fines to try to stop people going to their workplaces, with the crazy decision to prohibit parkruns at this time and with the Welsh hospitality sector effectively under lockdown through new year, does my right hon. Friend share my deep concern that, yet again, Wales faces the most burdensome and most intrusive restrictions in any part of the United Kingdom? Does he agree that these measures are driven more by fear and pessimism than by good science?

[Simon Hart]

My right hon. Friend and constituency neighbour makes a good point. I might have found myself disagreeing with him if it could be demonstrated that the results of covid controls in Wales are in some way better than the results in the rest of the UK, but they are not. It is absurd that the popular parkrun in his own town of Haverfordwest cannot take place and that people cannot watch rugby from the touchline, but they can cram into a club where they ought not to be. That is nonsense. It is throttling the recovery and it is throttling economic activity.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I am not going to respond to claims or anonymous reports in the papers about what the security services may or may not say, but I am absolutely clear that the reforms that we will take will strengthen our protection in a whole range of areas that have been undermined by the Human Rights Act.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

T7. The Justice Secretary is absolutely correct in his determination to drive up the employment rates of ex-offenders. Does he agree that today’s unemployment figures, which show a further fall in unemployment and record numbers of job vacancies, underline the scale of the opportunity that we have to get many more prisoners into a job from day one, which is good for the economy, good for business and good for the whole of society?

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Wednesday 15th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

4. What steps the Government are taking to help Wales achieve the net zero emissions target.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

10. What steps the Government are taking to help Wales achieve the net zero emissions target.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Simon Hart)]

Wales’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by close to 31% since 1990. To bring them down to zero, we will be scaling up low-carbon power generation, kickstarting the hydrogen economy and transitioning to zero emission vehicles.

[Simon Hart]

I am very grateful for my hon. Friend’s question, because it illustrates a situation very similar to his in Wales. I hope he is as pleased as we are with the £275 million commitment to the electric vehicle homecharge scheme, the workplace charging scheme, the on-street residential chargepoint scheme and a number of other measures, all of which, of course, are UK-wide initiatives.

[Stephen Crabb]

The drive to net zero presents huge challenges to industry all across south Wales, especially for us in Pembrokeshire where the oil and gas plants support thousands of high quality jobs. What further steps can the UK Government take to help the energy sector to adapt, taking advantage of new opportunities in hydrogen but also plans for floating offshore wind? The truth is that we are going to need significant extra help in Pembrokeshire if we are going to make that transition.

[Simon Hart]

My right hon. Friend raises a very important point. I hope he has taken note of the £20 million commitment to the south Wales industrial cluster. That is driving carbon capture initiatives and similar initiatives. He and I frequently speak to big employers in our area, such as Valero on the Milford Haven Waterway, which are an absolutely critical part of our net zero ambitions in Wales. Of course, the floating offshore wind opportunities in the Celtic sea are well known to both of us and I hope that developers will be able to bid for contracts for difference later this year.

Health and Social Care

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It would be a great thing if the Labour party would support what we are doing. With the package we have brought forward, we will be able to fix that backlog even faster. If the hon. Member or the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), the leader of the Labour party—[Interruption.] By the way, we did not hear from him whether he is going to vote for these proposals or not: as usual, a great vacuum at the heart of the Labour party. Does he actually support these proposals—yes or no? That is what I would like to know.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

I think the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Health Secretary deserve enormous credit for coming together and working out a plan for this incredibly difficult problem, and I think people outside this place will recognise that. But does the Prime Minister agree with me that one of the most difficult parts of this challenge is ensuring that we bring out the very best now in our NHS—that we bear down on unnecessary costs and increase quality output from the NHS? Does he agree that that is the key to freeing up that extra resource to get to the frontline of social care?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, we cannot simply continue to funnel huge sums into the NHS without getting the productivity gains that I know that everybody wants to see around the country. Of course, we want to value our frontline NHS workers. That is why we have put up the wages of nurses. It is why we are increasing salaries and recruiting many more. But we must see the gains in efficiency that go with the investment we are making. We are investing record sums, and we also need to see improvements in the NHS service as well.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Wednesday 14th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman seems to want us to relax our rules on self-isolation that are protecting people from coronavirus. I do not think that is the right thing to do at this time. He also calls for us to go against the JCVI. The point he raises is a matter for the JCVI.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

With the economy rebounding and a great many job vacancies currently available, does my right hon. Friend agree that there is a tremendous opportunity emerging now to build a stronger British labour market post Brexit and post covid, and that we need to help employers create jobs with better pay, more security, and more opportunities for skills and career progression? Is that not one of the keys to levelling up and ending the blight of in-work poverty?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes. I know how much my right hon. Friend cares about this matter. This is not only one of the reasons why we are rolling out our massive plan for jobs, but why I am proud that under this Government we have increased the national living wage by a record amount, to £8.91 per hour.

International Aid: Treasury Update

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Programme motion
Tuesday 13th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

I am grateful to be called to speak in this debate. I recognise that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has probably the most difficult job in the Government, bar none, and perhaps in the whole country. He is the only person employed to say no and make difficult choices about the spending demands that we all present at the door of the Treasury. Nevertheless, I share the concerns, fears and doubts expressed by colleagues this afternoon about whether the cuts that we are debating will become permanent. I share their fear that 0.5% will become the default setting for our overseas aid spending and that the cuts will become locked in—a permanent withdrawal and a permanent stepping back from the level of commitment that Britain has given overseas among the poorest countries on earth. I share those fears not only for reasons that hon. Members have already outlined, but because I think we are in danger of overlooking just how enormous the effort was that got us to the point where the House of Commons was united on making the commitment to 0.7%, as the right hon. Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms) has just reminded us.

I am perhaps one of the few Members present who was in the House in 2005. I recall the enormous lobbying efforts made not just by churches, but by trade unions, women’s institutes and groups in all our constituencies. There was demand for that commitment. It required Opposition Front Benchers to work with Government Front Benchers; it required Opposition Back Benchers to work with Government Back Benchers. For me, it represented a high water mark of what can be achieved in this House of Commons when people choose to bury some of their political differences and work together for a cause much bigger than our most immediate political needs.

[Mr Mitchell]

My right hon. Friend is making a wonderful speech. He refers to his longevity in the House. Does he remember how Make Poverty History galvanised national opinion? Crack the Crises is the current successor to that generation, and it is reinforced by younger people. Does he accept that once covid is over and they are able to show what they feel, they will make very clear their opposition to this foolish decision that the Government have made?

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Crabb]

My right hon. Friend makes a very strong point, and he is right that there was a popular movement behind the commitment. Nevertheless, it was not universally popular. There were staunch critics inside and outside the House, sections of the press absolutely hated it, and as we went through the financial crisis in 2009 and 2010, the criticism became louder.

As the ripples from that crisis have moved through our politics over the past 11 years, it has become increasingly difficult to keep making the case for investing 0.7% of our GNI in helping the world’s poorest people, but I am proud that we chose to stick to it. Even when we were making very difficult decisions and choices about other aspects of public spending, we took a decision that spending more on the people with the very least, globally, was the right thing to do. It was the right thing to do then in the wake of the last financial crisis, and I believe it is still the right thing to do now as we are going through this awful pandemic. Yes, we face a moment in our politics when we have enormous pressures on our public finances—and I made those remarks about the Chancellor of the Exchequer very sincerely at the start—but what is a difficult moment for us fiscally and politically is an absolutely tragic, devastating moment for the poorest people around the world for whom the pandemic has been the cause of another wave of dire poverty and suffering, and that is what we are really debating here this afternoon.

These are difficult issues, and sincere speeches have been made on either side of the argument, but I am very sad that I will not be able to support my Government this afternoon. As I have said, I think the 0.7% commitment we made all those years ago was the right thing to do—I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) for the role he played—and sticking to it now is still the right thing to do.

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con) [V]]

On my behalf and that of my constituents in Preseli Pembrokeshire, I would like to place on record our deep admiration and gratitude for the extraordinary life of the Duke of Edinburgh and send our condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family.

The fact that so many people from so many different walks of life and in so many different parts of the country have, over the past few days, been able to talk about the occasions when they met the Duke in person speaks volumes about the sheer quantity of activity and public engagements that he undertook as he served our nation with vigour and energy over 70 years. The remarkable connections that he formed with people on these visits flowed from his unique spirit, character and personality. His amazing recall of events and individuals reflected the genuine interest that he took in people—in all people—regardless of their background, their status or their wealth.

The Duke was loved and admired all across Wales where he helped to create so many special memories on his numerous visits at the side of Her Majesty the Queen—whether it was his regular attendance at the opening Sessions of the Senedd in Cardiff; or speaking with the devastated community of Aberfan following the appalling disaster there in 1966; or returning to the Butlin’s holiday camp in Pwllheli in north Wales where he had been billeted during the war after it had been taken over by the Navy.

His visits to Wales were always valued enormously. Here in Pembrokeshire, we appreciated especially those trips he made into the far west of Wales, most recently in April 2014 when he and Her Majesty the Queen visited businesses and charities in my constituency, and the visit that they made to Haverfordwest in 1977 on the silver jubilee tour, which was one of my earliest memories, when I stood excitedly with the other small children of the town waving our Union Jacks as we tried to get a fleeting glimpse of the royal couple.

The impressions I formed of the Duke over the years were of a man of incredible intelligence, humour and interest. These impressions were all confirmed on the occasions I met him as Secretary of State for Wales or in my constituency role. His Royal Highness Prince Philip was indeed a remarkable and impressive man. The legacy he leaves in the life of this nation will burn brightly for many, many years to come. May he rest in peace.

Covid-19

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, indeed; I will. We must tackle the impact of differential learning that the last 12 months have had. We will be looking in particular at the advantages of one-to-one tuition, which could be transformational—not just for kids who are falling behind, but for all kids.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con) [V]]

Without question, one of the most important things that this Government did during the first lockdown was to strengthen universal credit. That has been a lifeline, not just for people who have lost their jobs, but for people who have kept going out to work during this pandemic—people on low wages, including in retail delivery jobs and cleaning jobs. Our plan is still to cut that support by £20 per week in less than three months’ time. I know that the Prime Minister understands this issue, but does he agree that now is really not the moment to weaken our welfare safety net, and that the right thing to do is to give families on low incomes greater security for the year ahead by extending support, rather than cutting it?

[The Prime Minister]

I fully understand the point that my right hon. Friend makes. All I will say is that we will of course keep this under review.

Covid-19

Stephen Crabb Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I have told the hon. Lady before, I believe that we have put about £3.7 billion into supporting local government. We will continue to support local government, and I will look at the £23 million funding gap that she raises with me today.

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

Working from home has been great for many, such as senior managers living in larger properties with nice gardens, but that has not been the experience for a great many others living in cramped, overcrowded accommodation. Does my right hon. Friend recognise that there will be dismay today among those people for whom a return to covid-secure workplaces has been so important for their mental, physical and social wellbeing? It feels like it will be a long six months for them, having to work back in their own homes.

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend, but it is important that he should not misunderstand what we are saying today. Where people must go into work for their job, their mental health, their wellbeing or whatever it happens to be, then of course they should do so. What we are saying is that they should work from home if they can, and I hope he appreciates the distinction and gives his constituents that reassurance.