Covid-19 Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Kate Green

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are using them. It is also important that all manufacturers that want to supply lateral flow tests should pass the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s tests. That is what the public would expect.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

For the digitally excluded, the need to go online to obtain a code to take to a pharmacy in order to obtain their lateral flow tests has proven to be a real barrier. Can the Prime Minister say what assessment of the Government have made of the extent of this problem, and how it will be addressed?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady raises an important point. We try to make sure that we help people by delivering tests, and many pharmacies are more than happy to do it without an online booking.

Transport Infrastructure

Debate between Boris Johnson and Kate Green

Tuesday 11th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, of course. Rural need and rural sparsity will certainly be taken into account, as we will take into account the needs of all towns and communities. It is not only that these buses will help people to get to work or wherever they need to go; they give businesses the certainty and confidence that they can invest in that town, in the knowledge that they can employ people who can commute easily.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

I welcome today’s announcements, both on rail and on buses. In relation to buses in Greater Manchester, can we have an urgent decision on funding for the clean freight and clean bus funds?

[The Prime Minister]

These will be the cleanest, greenest buses that the country has ever seen, but we will certainly make use of the clean bus fund.

Brexit Negotiations

Debate between Boris Johnson and Kate Green

Thursday 3rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend, whom I know to be a passionate pro-European to the depths of his soul. I respect him profoundly for his desire to get on, do a deal, get Brexit done and then build a new partnership with our European friends, which is what we want to do.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

Manufacturers in my constituency operate an integrated trading model, whereby they ship goods directly from Manchester to the Republic of Ireland for distribution across the whole of the island of Ireland. Can the Prime Minister explain to me how the deal he is proposing now offers them more certainty, fewer burdens and less cost both than they have now and than they would have had under the backstop?

[The Prime Minister]

All those freedoms would continue, and I can reassure the hon. Lady that, as I have said many times, there will be no checks, for our part, on goods coming from the EU—that is to say from Ireland—into Northern Ireland, into the UK.

Priorities for Government

Debate between Boris Johnson and Kate Green

Thursday 25th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for the campaign that he managed on Asia Bibi, and indeed others. It is very important that our country sends a clear signal that we will provide a beacon for people facing such distress and persecution.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

Further to the Prime Minister’s answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Dr Huq), will he commit his Government to lifting the ban on asylum seekers working if the state takes more than six months to resolve their case?

[The Prime Minister]

The Home Office is currently reviewing that matter, and we will make an announcement shortly.

US Immigration Policy

Debate between Boris Johnson and Kate Green

Monday 30th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

A ministerial colleague makes from a sedentary position the important point that the leadership of the Labour party is currently in the hands of somebody who advocated talking to the IRA not so many years ago, and possibly still does. We are advocating engagement with the Government of the most powerful nation on earth, on which the security of the world depends.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

Can the Foreign Secretary not understand why the measure is perceived as discriminatory against Muslims? The seven countries have Muslim majorities and the President himself said that those of minority faiths from those countries, such as Syrian Christians, will be exempt from the order.

[Boris Johnson]

I do not think that there is much between our perspectives on this. I have said repeatedly this afternoon that I believe the measure to be divisive, discriminatory and wrong, more or less parroting the hon. Lady’s words—in fact, she parroted me. That is my view. In so far as the measure may turn out to be counterproductive, which is the view of many hon. Members, we are also making that point.

Counter-Daesh Campaign: Iraq and Syria

Debate between Boris Johnson and Kate Green

Thursday 3rd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

My right hon. Friend asks the fundamental question. Everybody who has talked to Prime Minister Abadi or Foreign Minister al-Jaafari, as I have, will feel that they understand what they need to do. They get the scale of the problem and the credibility that they need to build with their own people. Whether they will achieve that is a matter for them. It is vital that they do not shirk their responsibility, and we will give them every possible support.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

The Foreign Secretary will be aware of the appalling persecution suffered by Christians and other religious minorities at the hands of Daesh, and the role that those religious communities can play in helping with the relief effort and the reconstruction of Mosul and other cities after the conflict. Can the right hon. Gentleman say what he is doing to support the idea in the Iraqi Government in particular of the positive role that Christians and other minorities can play during and after the conflict?

[Boris Johnson]

It is vital that freedom of religious belief should be guaranteed under the Iraqi constitution and under the future Syrian constitution. That is why I made the point to the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (Ms Ahmed-Sheikh) about the pluralism of the High Negotiations Committee. That is something that we have stressed time and again to Prime Minister Abadi and it is very much part of his manifesto and his plans for the country.