Living with Covid-19

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Monday 21st February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Prime Minister has come to the House unable to state whether carers in our communities, visiting home after home in one day—often the homes of older people and the clinically extremely vulnerable—will still have access to free tests to keep themselves and their patients and clients safe. He said that testing for NHS staff will be a matter for the NHS. Surely he can do better than that. The NHS and carers need to plan ahead. Will he come clean with the House about his intentions?

[The Prime Minister]

What we are doing is moving away from systematic mass testing of large numbers of people, which is no longer the right way to deal with omicron, to a surveillance-led approach. Of course, we will continue to look after the most vulnerable and those who need it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Wednesday 27th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, and I know that it is something that everybody wants to see across this House—the sharing of data at local levels. There are particular problems, obviously, with sharing medical records—detailed medical records—with local government, but what we are doing is giving public health officials at local level all the information we can give them, without breaching that confidentiality, to find those hard-to-reach groups, and to get them and encourage them to take vaccines. Wonderful work is being done to get people to take vaccines. I encourage all Members, in your constituencies, to get your constituents to take up this offer.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Almost four years on from the Grenfell tragedy, Government inaction on the cladding crisis means that hundreds of thousands of leaseholders, including my constituents, remain trapped in unsafe, unsellable blocks. Ministers have promised at least 15 times that leaseholders will not have to pay unfair costs, but, as ever with this Government, there have been a lot of promises not matched by delivery. So will the Prime Minister finally act, end this injustice and come forward with a plan to fix the cladding crisis that does not burden leaseholders with the cost?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course we will, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government will be bringing forward a plan very shortly. It is also important that mortgage companies do not unreasonably refuse mortgages on properties that are perfectly safe.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Wednesday 16th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

My constituent Charlotte, a single parent, has twice this term had to stop work due to her five-year-old son’s class self-isolating. She has been told that, because it is her son who is self-isolating, she is ineligible for the £500 support payment. The Library has confirmed that parents may need to use annual or unpaid leave in such circumstances. Is it not wrong to exclude parents on the lowest income from support to look after their children, and will the Prime Minister urgently look again at that? Wales and Scotland have done it, so why will he not now support parents in England?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is of course right to draw attention to the hardship of parents who have had to cope with kids coming home from school because of self-isolation rules. One of the things that we are trying to do now is roll out lateral flow testing on a grand scale for schools, so that we reduce the size of the bubbles that have to self-isolate. We are doing whatever we can to support families throughout the crisis, as she knows, with big uprates in universal credit and all manner of support that we are providing, in addition to free childcare for 30 hours a week.

The best answer for this crisis is to keep our kids in school, to test them and to roll out that programme of mass community testing, which I am sure the hon. Lady supports in her neighbourhood, in order to drive the virus down, allow the vaccine time really to kick in, and protect our elderly and vulnerable so that we can all move forward together as a society. That is what this Government are aiming for, but in the meantime I fully appreciate the problem that she has raised, and we will do our very best to address it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Wednesday 12th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The prosperous future of our young people all too often depends on their family wellbeing and their school readiness, which requires investment in early years. Does the Prime Minister regret the Conservative cuts to around 1,000 Sure Start centres, including in my constituency? Will he commit to greater funding and support for early years development, particularly in our most deprived communities?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady raises an important point, and this is why we are putting record sums into early years funding—£14 billion is going into education. It is under this Government that people will see the biggest improvements, because it is under this Government that we have a robust, strong, dynamic economy—the third fastest growing in the G7. We are able to make those investments in early years precisely because of our sensible management of the economy.

Prime Minister’s Statement

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Saturday 19th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend’s support means a great deal to me. He and I did have long conversations about this, and I did my best to convince him that I was in earnest in seeking a deal. I truly was, and I am very pleased with the result that we have secured. I am delighted that he feels able to support it tonight. To get back to the key point, the deal gives people who love Europe, in the broadest possible way, a real chance to move forward and work with us to develop a new partnership with our European friends. That is the opportunity. Everything else is stasis and division. This is the way forward.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Yesterday, the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) said:

“I am doing my best to persuade colleagues…who, like me, voted three times against Theresa May’s deal, to look at this in a favourable light…provided we can get that clear assurance, and I have been given it so far by people like Michael Gove and Dominic Raab…that…if those trade talks fail up to December 2020, we will be leaving on no-deal terms.”

Have members of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet given those assurances? If, indeed, no deal is therefore not ruled out by supporting the Prime Minister today, why will he not tell the country the truth?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) made it clear in the House just now—perhaps the hon. Lady was listening—that he wants and will work for a great new free trade agreement. That is indeed what we will do. I respectfully say to the hon. Lady, as I say to all hon. Friends and Members, that if they wish to avoid a no-deal outcome, the single best thing we can all do is vote for the deal tonight.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Tuesday 15th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that problem, which is of course well known to the Prime Minister, who has campaigned on human trafficking and modern slavery for many years. We certainly co-ordinate with the Home Office to tackle the problem that the hon. Gentleman describes.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Girls who do not receive education are more likely to become victims of human trafficking, early marriage and gender-based violence. Will the Foreign Secretary update the House on what he is doing not only to support girls’ education, but in particular to join up the strategies for ending violence against women and girls?

[Boris Johnson]

We continually work to tackle not just female illiteracy and innumeracy but the associated problems, including gender-based violence, and we work continually on the prevention of sexual violence in conflict. I recently had a meeting with Lord Hague, whom colleagues will remember championed that issue to great effect.

US Immigration Policy

Debate between Boris Johnson and Seema Malhotra

Monday 30th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I refer the hon. Lady to what I said earlier, but I would add that, while the repercussions of that Executive order were being felt in the US alone, the Prime Minister was in transit to Turkey for another very important visit where she secured a fantastic deal for this country—an agreement to supply Turkey with British-made fighter planes.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The US has been a leader of so much that is best in the world, and this policy has let the US down and let the world down. Will the Foreign Secretary confirm whether he knew that the Prime Minister knew about it in advance? Was he asked to brief her and, if so, what did he say that she should say in response before the Executive order was signed? If he did know, did he make any preparations in advance of this coming into force?

[Boris Johnson]

I have answered that question already, with great respect, and I do not comment on the conversations that take place between the Prime Minister and her opposite number.