Easter Recess: Government Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Tuesday 19th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

May I respectfully say to the hon. Member that I think the real choice that this Government —this House of Commons—should follow is getting on with the job of serving the people we were elected to serve and helping them with the costs of living? That is what we are doing.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

At Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday 8 December, the Prime Minister said

“there was no party and…no covid rules were broken.”—[Official Report, 8 December 2021; Vol. 705, c. 372.]

Today, he refers to his lawbreaking as a “mistake”. Can the Prime Minister explain to my constituents, and indeed to children across these isles, what the difference is between a lie and a mistake?

[The Prime Minister]

I have apologised deeply for what I got wrong, and I have explained to the House why I spoke as I did on that occasion and others.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

That is absolutely right, and I thank my hon. Friend very much for his bravery in going to see for himself only the other day. It is right that we should double down on military defensive support in the way that we are. By the way, can anyone imagine a Labour Government, eight of whose Front Benchers voted to get rid of our nuclear deterrent—[Interruption.] Yes, they did, and recently. Can anyone imagine them doing the same? We will go on with that. What we will also do, and I hope we have the support of the Opposition in this, is ensure there is no backsliding on sanctions by any of our friends and partners around the world. In fact, we need now to ratchet up the economic pressure on Vladimir Putin, and it is certainly inconceivable that any sanctions could be taken off simply because there was a ceasefire. That would be absolutely unthinkable, in my view.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Q2. Households are experiencing soaring energy costs. We are in the middle of a global climate emergency. Against that backdrop, Norway can feed energy into our national grid at a cost of £1.36 per megawatt-hour. France pays 17p per megawatt-hour. Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg pay nothing to feed into our grid. Can the Prime Minister explain then why Scotland’s renewables sector is being punished with grid connection charges of £7.36 per megawatt-hour?

[The Prime Minister]

Scotland’s renewables sector is leading the world. I am grateful to the Scottish Government for all the help and support they are giving in developing that incredible resource in the North sea. By the way, I think there is also a role for hydrocarbons as we transition. We need to ensure that we have a grid that enables us to take that electricity onshore and transmit it around the country, and that is what I will be setting out in the British energy security strategy—the long-term investment that this country needs and that the parties opposite completely fail to address.

Sue Gray Report

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Monday 31st January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

No.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

It is clear that the Prime Minister has used these parties, like many an under-par manager, to buy popularity and favour. Can the Prime Minister tell us if he is using the same techniques when negotiating treaties and trade deals with international leaders?

[The Prime Minister]

No.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 19th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman is asking an excellent question. The difference between the situation when plan B came in and today is the sheer level of vaccination in this country, including in his constituency. That, combined with the direction of travel of the figures, as I said to the hon. Member for Ilford North, is what gives us the confidence to take the steps we are taking now.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

It is disappointing that the Prime Minister’s statement did not include measures to recover the £4.3 billion fraudulently claimed through coronavirus support schemes. With the £20 a week cut to universal credit, inflation at over 5% and energy prices going through roof, ordinary families are not experiencing coronavirus recovery in the same boozy way as the Prime Minister, so will he now commit to supporting those families to the tune of £4.3 billion, in the same way as criminals have been supported?

[The Prime Minister]

We continue to support people throughout the pandemic, and we can be very proud of the speed with which we not only did the vaccine roll-out, but secured 17 billion items of personal protective equipment for the use of people across this country.

Covid-19

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend, and repeat what I have said several times. I cannot believe that it will be until the end of March that the House has to wait before having a new vote and a new discussion on the measures that we have to take.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP) [V]]

We have had Christmas on, Christmas off; schools in, schools out; eat out to help out; and stay at home. It is simply impossible to decipher the Prime Minister’s covid strategy. Given that the efficacy of the vaccines against emerging strains is not yet known, can he assure us that his strategy is not based on vaccines alone? To get our schools back, can he assure us that teachers will be a priority for vaccines, and can he detail his long-term covid exit strategy?

[The Prime Minister]

Possibly the best thing I can say in answer to that question is to repeat—and it is very, very important to repeat this—that we have no evidence that any strain of the virus is vaccine resistant. It is very important that the hon. Lady should express full confidence in the vaccine programme, which will be indispensable to our way out of this crisis.

Covid-19: Winter Plan

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Monday 23rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, absolutely, and I thank Dr Andrew Wilson and the Cheshire clinical commissioning group, and Dr Alistair Adey from the Tarporley health centre, for everything they have done. GPs will obviously play a crucial role in this vaccination programme, as they do in all vaccination programmes, and they have been backed with £150 million to prepare.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP) [V]]

Household mixing in a major vector for covid, so unless the Prime Minister has negotiated a ceasefire with the virus, the only mixing we should be considering over the next six weeks is our Christmas drinks. Does the Prime Minister have an exit strategy, or is he content to accept a certain level of risk through household mixing?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend and I congratulate her on her campaign for the people of Dover. I can tell her that, thanks to her lobbying, Highways England is now developing plans to improve Brenley Corner junction and access into Dover along the remaining single-carriageway sections of the A2 from Lydden.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP) [V]]

On Monday, I asked the Prime Minister whether furlough would be available to different nations and regions of the UK as and when required. His response, which he has repeated today, was: “furlough is a UK-wide scheme”.We understand that, but to the hon. Member for Moray (Douglas Ross), he responded:“If other parts of the UK decide to go into measures that require the furlough scheme, then of course it is available to them.”—[Official Report, 2 November 2020; Vol. 683, c. 35-53.]Millions of people need clarification on that from the Prime Minister. Will 80% furlough be available to specific regions beyond 2 December if they need to lock down because of rising infections?

[The Prime Minister]

I hesitate to accuse the hon. Lady of not listening to what I have just said, but I want to repeat that the furlough is a UK-wide scheme that will, of course, continue to be available to the people of Scotland. For any further elucidation of the details of the entire package of support that this Government are putting in place for the people of the entire UK, I direct her to what my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will say tomorrow.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Monday 2nd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can tell my hon. Friend without a shred of doubt that these measures are time-limited and expire automatically on 2 December, and we will go back into the tiered system, depending on the data—though he is entirely right in what he says, alas, about the spread at the moment in the south-west. But it will depend on the state of the data at the time.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP) [V]]

Since the start of the first lockdown, we have been talking about the second wave, and we knew the current trajectory weeks ago, so it beggars belief that the Prime Minister ended up having to make an emergency announcement on Saturday. The devolved nations had to wait until infection rates in the south-east of England reached a dangerous level, and five hours before furlough was due to end, before he took action. Now that he acknowledges that we are in the second wave, will he devolve responsibility for furlough to the Scottish Parliament to ensure that we can support individuals and businesses in Scotland when they most need it?

[The Prime Minister]

As I have said several times today, Scotland has, at the moment, a slightly different approach. It retains a tiered approach, but furlough remains a UK scheme and available across the whole country.

Global Britain

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Tuesday 16th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP) [V]]

DFID has funded outstanding research projects with partners in the developing world. The Prime Minister has a keen eye for detail, so he will be well aware that all too often the Home Office applies a colonial mindset to prevent these very same partners from travelling to the UK. The Prime Minister talks of coherence and value for money, so will we now see Departments working in collaboration, or will everyone’s work and money still be wasted by the whims of the Home Office?

[The Prime Minister]

The Home Office is doing an outstanding job in containing illegal immigration in small boats, working very closely, I might say, with our friends and partners in France.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 4th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We of course stand shoulder to shoulder with the Government of Ashraf Ghani, and my hon. Friend is right, by the way, in what she says about women in Afghanistan. It is one of the great achievements of this country, despite all the sacrifices that we experienced in the operations in Helmand, that millions of women in Afghanistan were helped into education, thanks to the interventions of this country, and we can be very proud of what we did.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Q10. We are all becoming increasingly concerned about covid-19—the coronavirus—but every week 650 of us come here from every part of the UK, spend several days operating in close proximity and meeting people from all over the world, and we then return to our constituencies, potentially becoming the very vectors that we are trying to shut down. Parliament must stay open, but what plans does the Prime Minister have to utilise systems such as conference calls and electronic voting to ensure that we do not become part of the problem?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Member is raising a very important point. The chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser, together with my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary, will be saying a little bit more in the next couple of days about what we are going to do to delay the advance of coronavirus—in Parliament and in other large gatherings. We are still at the containment stage—she will understand the distinction that the Government are making—and when we come to the delay phase, she will be hearing a lot more detail about what we propose to do with large gatherings and places such as Parliament.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 29th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 29 January.

[The Prime Minister (Boris Johnson)]

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Carol Monaghan]

Monday was Holocaust Memorial Day, when we remember those who suffered under Nazi persecution. During that dark time, Britain stood out as a beacon of hope, and 10,000 Jewish children came here with the Kindertransport. When the Prime Minister’s Government rejected Lord Dubs’ amendment on unaccompanied child refugees, Britain’s beacon dimmed. Will the Prime Minister now devolve powers over immigration to Holyrood, to allow Scotland to be that beacon of hope?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady does a disservice to this country’s reputation and record, because not only have we taken 41,000 unaccompanied children since 2010, but the whole country can be very proud of everything that we continue to do to commemorate the holocaust and what took place then.

Prime Minister's Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I must say that I do not think there could be any clearer example of a sense of privileged entitlement than for a parliamentarian to decide that he is in a position to substitute his own discretion for the will of the people when he clearly promised the people that that will would be respected and upheld.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Since coming to office, the Prime Minister has lost six out of six votes in Parliament, lost a by-election, sacked his own majority, lost a case in the Supreme Court and advised Her Majesty the Queen to act unlawfully, so he has some brass neck to stand there at the Dispatch Box without a shred of humility and without apologising. Let me ask the Prime Minister: what would it take for him to apologise for his actions?

[The Prime Minister]

I have tried to show every possible humility today, to the House, to hon. Members and to the court and its judgment, but the best way we can all collectively show humility as parliamentarians is to deliver on the will of the people, and that is what we will do. We could also show some humility by stopping talking exclusively about ourselves and Brexit, and getting on with delivering on the priorities of the British people. That is why we wanted a Queen’s Speech. I think they want to hear what we are going to do to support their healthcare services, bring down crime on their streets and improve their schools. Those are the priorities of this Government.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Tuesday 4th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I have great respect and admiration for my hon. Friend, but I do not philosophically oppose the EU; I simply think that membership is no longer right for the UK. That was what I campaigned on, and I think the British people were completely right. I do not believe that no deal is the option we should be going for automatically, but I will come to that in just a minute. I want to deal with the anxieties that I know that he shares, because I think that he is profoundly mistaken, as indeed are other colleagues, in thinking that we have absolutely no option but to go ahead on this basis. We have plenty of other options. In order to see the way ahead, we need to understand what happens if next Tuesday this great House of Commons votes down this deal, as I very much hope it does. I will tell hon. Members what will happen, but they have to put themselves in the mind of our counterparts across the table in Brussels. In Brussels, they think they’ve got us beat— they do.

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

rose—

[Boris Johnson]

They think our nerve will eventually fail, that the Prime Minister will come to the summit next week and, in the event of the deal having been voted down, ask for some cosmetic changes, and I expect they will think about granting some cosmetic language that is intended to be helpful but which does not change the legal position.

In Brussels, they are confident that some time before next March, the Government will come back to the House and that the deal will go through somehow or other—by hook or by crook—because, as everybody keeps saying, there is allegedly no alternative. The Norway option will be seen for what it is—an even worse solution than what is currently proposed—and the notion of extending article 50, thereby delaying the date of Brexit, will be greeted, I think, with fury by the electorate, as would any attempt to amend the terms of exit so as to plunge us back into the customs union. That would be rumbled by the electorate as well.

[Boris Johnson]

No, although I understand exactly my hon. Friend’s analogy. I have heard it said by defenders of the Government that we may be 1-0 down at the end of the first half of the negotiations, but that we will win 2-0—I mean 2-1—by the end.

[Carol Monaghan]

rose—

[Boris Johnson]

I do not see it that way. If we go on like this, with the backstop as it is, we will be thrashed out of sight. [Hon. Members: “Let Carol in!”] I will come to Carol in a minute. Having studied the UK’s negotiating style in detail, I do not think that it believes—[Interruption.]

--- Later in debate ---

[Boris Johnson]

I do not agree with that at all. Obviously we should state what is agreed among all—that there will be no hard border in Northern Ireland. All sides agree on that. As for the legal liabilities to pay the £39 billion, they are, to say the least, contested. I believe it is additionally vital to do what we have failed to do so far, which is to show that we have the conviction and the willingness to leave without an agreement. Yes, I agree that that will mean a great national effort if it comes to that point, and yes it will mean that we have to make sure we get all the goods to our ports in addition to Dover, and ensure that the planes can fly and we address all the other questions.

[Carol Monaghan]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for finally giving way. He is presenting an illusion of the EU not being good for the UK. Does he also think Euratom is not good for the UK, and if so can he explain to those currently waiting for cancer diagnosis and treatment where they are going to get their radioactive sources from?

[Boris Johnson]

I am glad to have given way because that is the kind of scaremongering about the consequences of leaving the EU that does no favours to the debate. In the event of our coming out without an agreement, the Treasury will have an opportunity to use the £39 billion to ensure that we can support the economy rather than talking it down, and I believe it will be far better to make that effort now and at least be responsible for our destiny than to agree to give up our right to self-government forever—because that is effectively what we will be doing—just because of our lack of short-term competence or confidence. Frankly, the EU will not treat us as a sovereign equal in these negotiations unless and until we are willing to stand up for our own interests now and in the future.

I think our country is ready for us to take this stand. [Interruption.] I think it is, because I think it has had enough of being told that we cannot do it—that the fifth or sixth biggest economy in the world is not strong enough to run itself. If we fail now, it will not be good enough—

US Immigration Policy

Debate between Boris Johnson and Carol Monaghan

Monday 30th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for raising a point about which many Members of the House would have been ignorant until this afternoon. [Interruption.] There we go. Opposition Members knew it. In that case, why did they keep silent?

[Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP)]

Many in our academic community are not British passport holders. At the weekend, my constituent Hamaseh Tayari, a specialist vet at Glasgow University, was prevented from boarding a flight because it involved a transfer in New York. The holocaust did not start with the gas chambers. Only days after Holocaust Memorial Day, the parallels are clear. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s condemnation, but will he condemn the restrictions in any discussions he has with his US counterpart? Will he assure the House that the price of trade with the US will not be our complicit acceptance of the new rules?

[Boris Johnson]

I said in my answer to the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry), who speaks from the Front Bench, that we are aware of the problem with the Glaswegian vet and will do everything we can within our consular power to help her. The hon. Lady’s repetition of comparisons—they have been made all afternoon—between these events, the second world war and the holocaust trivialises the holocaust.