Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andy Burnham and Natasha Irons

Wednesday 2nd September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly give a direct answer: I will commit to reopening it but not within days; I am not in a position to make that commitment today. But I am again in agreement with the right hon. Gentleman that it is not acceptable for his constituents—[Interruption.] Apologies—I realise his constituency is somewhere else. It is not acceptable for people living in the North Devon area to have to travel that far. Let me take that away.

I also say to the right hon. Gentleman with honesty that there are structural issues affecting maternity services across the UK. This is not the only hospital where there have been difficulties. As a former Secretary of State for Health, I am aware that there have been long-standing shortages of midwives across the country. It is right that we look at all those issues. I can give him a guarantee that my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is looking at those issues following the recent maternity reviews.

[Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)]

Q7. A wise man recently called for“good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart.”In Croydon, these cannot come soon enough. Gatwick’s expansion could provide Croydon’s young people with world-class employment and training opportunities close to their homes, but the previous Conservative Government’s cuts to rail infrastructure investment around East Croydon station could still put them out of their reach as they cannot physically get to them. Will the Prime Minister look again at the Croydon area modelling scheme, back my campaign to unblock the Croydon bottleneck and outline what this Government are doing to give young people in Croydon East access to the opportunities they deserve?

[The Prime Minister]

We certainly will do that. I am in no doubt over the importance of good transport connectivity to young people’s life chances, and I will ask No. 10 North to make contact with my hon. Friend so that we can get that scheme back on track. More broadly, we do need to change the way we support young people, and I have already announced a change to education so that we have a technical path for young people from 14—so that we give young people a path towards good T-levels, BTECs, work placements and degree apprenticeships and we support them with travel costs, which is something that I did in Greater Manchester. Bringing back hope very much starts with our young people—give them a clear path from school towards a good job. That is something that the current education system that was put in place by Michael Gove has sadly failed to do.