Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Wednesday 5th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think the number of people marrying in England and Wales at 16 or 17 is very small, and actually continues to decline. We have not seen any evidence of failings in the existing protections for people marrying in England and Wales at 16 to 18 with the appropriate consents, but we continue to keep this under review. My noble Friend Baroness Williams said back in September that we will look at whether there is any link between parents giving consent when girls are aged 16 or 17 and instances of forced marriage; that may be one of the concerns behind the point that my hon. Friend makes. We will specifically look at that issue.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

Q4. The Prime Minister knows that in March 2017, New Ferry in my constituency was devastated by a huge explosion, and many people were injured. I raised this with her in Prime Minister’s questions, and she said that the community would get support to recover. After 18 months of struggling, her Secretary of State has written to me to say that New Ferry will get no such support from her Government. Was I wrong to take her at her word, or were my constituents right when they said that when it comes to helping people, you can never trust the Tories?

[The Prime Minister]

I think the hon. Lady knows of incidents when people in her region have been able to trust the Tories. [Interruption.] She knows. Let us look at the explosion in New Ferry. It was clearly devastating. It clearly impacted both residents and businesses, and I did, as she said, make a commitment to look at it. I will look at the letter that she received from the Secretary of State, because my understanding was that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was encouraging Wirral Council to apply to a range of funding streams for various sums of money that would have been available, and that it asked Homes England to work with the council on its regeneration plans and had made money available in response to that. However, I will certainly look at the letter to which she refers.