Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Roberta Blackman-Woods

Wednesday 20th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has been consistent in challenging me on the 29 March date in Prime Minister’s questions and in statements, and indeed in debates. I have always wanted us to be able to leave on 29 March, but I believe, as was said during the referendum campaign by those who wanted to leave, that it is better to leave with a negotiated deal with the European Union. That is why I am saying that I think we should look again at being able to leave with a negotiated deal, but in order to do that we need time for this Parliament to ratify a deal, and in order to do that we need an extension until 30 June. But, as I have said, as Prime Minister I could not consider a delay further beyond 30 June. This is the point at which this House has the decision to take as to what it wants the future to be. That is what is facing this House, and that is a decision I believe we should take honouring the result of the referendum.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Q2.   On Friday I visited a school in my constituency where distressing poverty means that teachers are not only providing food for the children at breakfast and lunch, but are sourcing clothes and buying shoes for them, in addition to raising money for books and equipment. Now that school, the only one in the area, is threatened with closure, so rather than spending money trying to get people to back her Brexit deal, will the Prime Minister please use it to address the acute social need in this country that is bringing families and communities to their knees?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady will be well aware that we are putting more money into our schools, we are ensuring that we have a welfare system that encourages people into the workplace, and we have put more money into various other elements of care for people across our communities. But the best solution for people to ensure they are able to provide for themselves and their families is for us to have a strong economy and for people to be helped into work, and that is why it was so pleasing that this week yet again the employment level is at a record high in this country.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Roberta Blackman-Woods

Tuesday 12th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am going to make further progress.

Thirdly, alongside the joint instrument on the withdrawal agreement, the United Kingdom Government will make a unilateral declaration relating to the temporary nature of the backstop. Such declarations are commonly used by states alongside the ratification of treaties. The declaration clarifies what the UK could do if it was not possible to conclude an agreement that superseded the protocol because the EU had acted contrary to its obligations. In those circumstances, the UK’s understanding is that nothing in the withdrawal agreement would prevent us from instigating measures that could ultimately lead to the disapplication of our obligations under the protocol. Were we to take such measures, the UK would remain in full compliance with its obligations under the Belfast-Good Friday agreement and to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

I am very grateful to the Prime Minister for giving way. I really do want to know why she has consistently sought to get a deal that satisfies hardliners on her own side, rather than reaching out across the Chamber to get an agreement that would be a softer Brexit, but which would protect the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland more than her current deal does.

[The Prime Minister]

First of all, if as the hon. Lady thought I was placating everybody on my side of the House, I do not think the deal would have been rejected in the first place, so I think she is rather wrong on that. Secondly, I did reach out to the Labour party Front Bench. I had a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition and there was one meeting between the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer). We offered other meetings and voice came there back none.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Roberta Blackman-Woods

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. This is so important. I believe that if we fail to deliver on what the British people instructed us to do in the vote in the referendum, the British people’s views of this House, of Parliament and of politicians will be at an all-time low, because they will have lost faith in politicians across the whole of this Parliament. We need to deliver Brexit for the British people.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Q4. The Prime Minister may have created a Brexit crisis, but other crises are unfolding. Rates of chronic health conditions and obesity in the north- east are the highest of any English region, and people over 65 in Durham can expect only eight years of healthy living, compared with 14 in Windsor and Maidenhead, so why on earth is the Prime Minister planning to cut Durham’s public health budget by a massive 40%? That will not only worsen health outcomes for my constituents but ultimately cost the NHS more and further widen health inequalities.

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, public health funding will be looked at in the spending review. The hon. Lady assumes that the only action taken on prevention of obesity and other conditions is through public health, but that is not the case. If she looks at the NHS long-term plan that has been announced—funded by the biggest cash boost in the NHS’s history, given by this Government—what she will see is an emphasis on prevention and on ensuring that people are able to lead healthier independent lives for longer.

Exiting the European Union

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Roberta Blackman-Woods

Monday 10th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. The flight of capital and the run on the pound that Labour Members themselves accept would be the impact of their economic policies would be the worst damage that could be inflicted on this economy.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

I am one of the few people in this House brought up in Northern Ireland during the years of conflict, and I do not ever want to see a return to that time. So how is the Prime Minister going to ensure no hard border in Ireland now or in a few years’ time and absolutely no undermining of the Good Friday agreement that brought such welcome peace? Surely, this negotiation should not be about the Prime Minister trying to placate enough people on her own side to heave this bad deal over the line: it should be about the long-term peace and prosperity of Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, too.

[The Prime Minister]

It is that long-term peace and prosperity not only of Northern Ireland but the whole United Kingdom that has underpinned the approach the Government have taken to the whole of these negotiations. We remain firmly committed to ensuring that the peace process that has been so important to the lives of people in Northern Ireland, the peace that has been achieved and the development in Northern Ireland that has been achieved can continue into the future and give the people of Northern Ireland the bright future that we can also give to people across the whole United Kingdom. Having no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is an important part of maintaining that process into the future.

October EU Council

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Roberta Blackman-Woods

Monday 22nd October 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

First, I thank my hon. Friend for the comments that he made about the remarks and language that were used at the weekend.

Yes, we do—we have set out our plan and we are negotiating on the basis of that plan with the European Union. As I say, significant elements of the structure and scope of the future relationship have been agreed. The legal position, as I am sure my hon. Friend knows very well, is that we cannot sign up to legal text in relation to that future relationship until we have left the European Union. I have also said all along that when Parliament looks at the withdrawal agreement, it will also want to have sufficient detail about the future relationship and know what that will be. That is what we are working to deliver.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Can the Prime Minister clarify whether 95% of a withdrawal deal has been agreed with the EU? If it has, why has this House no details of it?

[The Prime Minister]

I will explain the negotiating process: we sit down and talk about the issues; we get to the point of having a text on the table; that text is looked at by leaders, and they take a decision on the text and the future relationship—that is the point at which the negotiations and the deal are completed; and then this House will be able to see all the details of the withdrawal agreement and the future relationship in deciding whether to accept the deal the Government have negotiated.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Roberta Blackman-Woods

Wednesday 4th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has raised a very important issue. Of course, as she said, this is something of which we see many women being victims, but men can be victims of domestic abuse, too. I certainly welcome the efforts of the Employers’ Initiative in raising awareness of this issue and in doing that vital work of providing advice and support to employers and employees on the steps they can take to address it. I understand that the Minister for Women, my hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), who is also responsible for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, recently attended the launch of a toolkit for employers on tackling domestic abuse that was developed in partnership with the Employers’ Initiative, Public Health England and Business in the Community. I would absolutely encourage Members from all sides of this House, as employers, to sign up to the initiative and also to promote it in their constituencies so that we can take every step we can to root out domestic violence and domestic abuse.

[Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)]

Q2. President Trump has recently locked up children in cages, instigated a ban on Muslims, stalled action on climate change and started trade wars, and he is now threatening women’s reproductive rights. Should the Prime Minister not be challenging his divisive and damaging policies, instead of inviting him for tea and cakes at No. 10?

[The Prime Minister]

I have responded to the points that the hon. Lady has raised. I have been very clear, and I have said in the House, for example, that the action taken against child migrants was not unacceptable and is not something we would do here in the UK. We did not consider that acceptable. She wants me to challenge the President of the United States. What better way to challenge the President of the United States than to sit down and talk to him?