Easter Recess: Government Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 19th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I apologise again. I thank the public very much for what they did: by their collective action, they have helped us to keep covid at bay.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

But giving an apology and then carrying on is not being held to account. Does the Prime Minister recognise that there is a very serious problem for the long term in leaving a lawbreaker in charge of the lawmakers?

[The Prime Minister]

I have said what I have said. I apologise and want to say again to the House that when I spoke before in this Chamber about events in Downing Street, I spoke in good faith.

Living with Covid-19

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Monday 21st February 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I know that my right hon. Friend speaks for millions of people around the country. I can tell her that many, many restrictions have already been lifted, and they will continue to be lifted.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

Three years ago, the Government consulted on much-needed reforms to statutory sick pay, rightly recognising that the current system is inflexible and does not reflect modern working life. Those reforms were postponed when the pandemic hit, and day one access to statutory sick pay was introduced instead. I think the Prime Minister has just announced that day one access to statutory sick pay will be withdrawn in a month’s time. Will he now bring forward the much-needed and long-delayed reforms to statutory sick pay?

[The Prime Minister]

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, statutory sick pay is only a part of what many employees already receive as part of their sick pay.

Sue Gray Report

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Monday 31st January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend will see reference to that very problem in Sue Gray’s report and we will take steps to clarify things and make sure that there is greater transparency in the lines of command.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

Does the Prime Minister recognise that repeatedly making statements, including from the Dispatch Box, which turn out subsequently to be untrue, is a serious problem, or does he not recognise that?

[The Prime Minister]

I really think the right hon. Gentleman is prejudging things, and he should wait for the conclusion of the inquiries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Wednesday 21st July 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point. Many of the hospitals that I have been round recently are doing incredible work at getting back to pre-covid levels of service. I understand that NHS partners are working hard to explore options for restoring maternity services at County Hospital.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

Together, the Chairs of the Committees dealing with social security in the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly and I have made a call that the £20 a week cut in universal credit due in October should not go ahead. A new Joseph Rowntree Foundation Report shows that if it does go ahead, out-of-work families with children will have an income way below what the general public regard as the minimum necessary for an acceptable standard of living. Instead of cutting down, will the Prime Minister not follow his own policy, level up and leave the £20 a week in place?

[The Prime Minister]

What we want to do is level up across the whole of the UK by increasing access to high-wage, high-skilled jobs and by getting people off benefits and into work. That really is the big difference between the right hon. Member’s party and the party that I lead. We want to help people into work, but I am afraid that, as so often, Labour wants to keep them on welfare. I do not think that is the right way forward. We want to see higher wages, which is why we have increased the living wage by record amounts, and we are working to ensure that this is a jobs-led recovery. All the signs at the moment are that that is succeeding, but of course it depends on people getting those jabs when they are asked to.

G7 and NATO Summits

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Wednesday 16th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

There was widespread disappointment that the G7 did not commit to additional climate finance beyond what has already been agreed. What steps will the Prime Minister take between now and COP26 to ensure that that summit does deal effectively with the challenge of loss and damage in the countries most at risk?

[The Prime Minister]

We will continue with our efforts —we are 80% of the way there—and we will blow away the clouds of despondency that seem to hang over some Members here today. I think it was a highly successful summit, and we are going to get there.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Wednesday 3rd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab) [V]]

  It has been estimated that 40,000 people were scammed out of their pensions in the five years after the pension freedoms took effect in 2015; attractive deals on Google or Facebook turn out all too often to be a fraud. Will the Prime Minister ensure that the planned online harms Bill tackles online financial harms, to address this very serious problem?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point about online fraud, which is becoming an increasing concern of the Government. People across the country must be vigilant. As he suggests, we will look at what we can do with the online harms Bill or any other measures to protect people, particularly pensioners, against fraudsters online.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Wednesday 7th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend, because it is indeed part of our plan to fuel a green economic recovery that we put £14 million from the Getting Building fund into Peterborough to accelerate the delivery of a key new educational and research facility. We are giving Peterborough another £1 million of accelerated payment for investment in capital projects to enable it to build back better.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

The Government were right to increase universal credit by £20 a week to help families with the extra costs of the pandemic but, at the moment, that increase is due to be removed next April. The Prime Minister has declined today to commit to making it permanent, but will he at least agree with me that it would be unthinkable to cut everyone’s benefit before the pandemic is over?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, we keep all these things under constant review, but I am glad that the right hon. Gentleman joins the Opposition in support—and approval now—for what the Government have done with universal credit.

Covid-19

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes; under the current procedures, it is up to the House to confirm that the Executive do have the power to continue measures under the Coronavirus Act, and that will continue to be the case. We are additionally offering—insisting—that there should be a proper debate of these issues in Parliament. There are many different opinions in Parliament, and people need to air them together.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

Children were delighted to return to their primary schools earlier this month, but—not surprisingly, after six months of isolation—coughs and colds have spread rapidly among them since. We have been reminded that each primary school has just 10 covid tests. When will primary schools have the wherewithal to test children and staff with symptoms to avoid spreading the virus at school and unnecessary school closures?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman is spot on about what has been happening in schools. Sadly, in many cases we have seen a rise in demand for tests because people are, reasonably, unable to distinguish between the symptoms of covid and a seasonal cough or cold. We are trying to address the situation as fast as possible. The one consolation we have is that children are much less likely to suffer seriously, if at all, from the disease, and it seems that they are much less capable of spreading it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Wednesday 1st July 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly look at the proposal that my hon. Friend makes, and I am sure my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will want to study it, but I also congratulate everybody involved with the Aylesbury Vale enterprise zone on the cutting-edge technology that exemplifies the very best of this country and shows the way to our future.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

  The Government were right to raise universal credit by £20 a week at the start of the crisis, but other benefits, such as employment and support allowance, claimed by other people in identical circumstances, were not raised. The all-party Select Committee on Work and Pensions recommended unanimously last week that those legacy benefits should be brought back in line with universal credit and raised. That has since been endorsed by the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb). Will the Prime Minister endorse it too?

[The Prime Minister]

We have done a huge amount. The right hon. Gentleman is a tireless campaigner on this matter, but the House will accept that we have done a huge amount to increase support for people on benefits. I remind him of the increase in universal credit and working tax credit of up to £1,040 a year, which is benefiting 4 million families across the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Wednesday 17th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

One million people with no recourse to public funds cannot access the universal credit safety net. I agree with the Prime Minister’s point at the Liaison Committee that hard-working families in that position should have help of one kind or another. Will he deliver help by suspending the “no recourse to public funds” restriction for the duration of this crisis, and do it before the school summer holidays, so that destitute families can at least claim the free school meal vouchers he announced yesterday?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course they should be eligible for those, but as I have said to the right hon. Gentleman repeatedly in the Chamber, those who have no recourse to public funds do have access to the coronavirus job retention scheme, the self-employment income support scheme, the measures that we have introduced to protect renters and the mortgage holiday for those who need it. When an individual has been working for long enough in the UK and enough national insurance contributions have been made, they may also be entitled to employment and support allowance. Although “no recourse to public funds” sounds as though it means just that, it is a term of art. There are many ways in which we support the poorest and neediest in this country. We are proud to do so, and we will continue to do so.

Prime Minister’s Statement

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Saturday 19th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes. Not only that, but if my hon. Friend studies the agreement, he will see that it is open to the UK authorities to give support of any kind that is necessary to alleviate any impacts that may result from the arrangements that we will put in place, whatever the implications may be for state aids.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

Does the Prime Minister understand the worries of manufacturers about new rules of origin checks and other red tape that his deal would impose on them, and the fears of Make UK that reassurances in the deal negotiated by his predecessor have been dropped from his deal?

Brexit Negotiations

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Thursday 3rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As a former shadow Treasury Minister, the hon. Gentleman should know that there already is a fiscal border in Northern Ireland. Far from adding to checks, as he will understand, and as the House understands, we are making a considerable move forward by saying that we will allow, by consent, regulatory alignment for sanitary and phytosanitary goods, agrifoods and industrial and manufacturing. That is a pragmatic way forward, and we are doing it by democratic consent. It is a method of solving the issue that should commend itself to moderate opinion in all parts of the House.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

In the referendum, the right hon. Gentleman held out the prospect of frictionless trade with the European Union. I think he has acknowledged that, whatever else one says about the proposals, they would not result in frictionless trade. For what reasons has it not been possible to deliver what was promised?

[The Prime Minister]

There will be frictionless trade at the frontier—there will be no borders and no customs checks at the frontier. Of course, there may be de minimis customs checks, but not at the frontier and with no physical incarnation or physical infrastructure. The right hon. Gentleman raises an important point, because as the UK comes out of the EU and we go towards a zero-tariff, zero-quota free trade deal, it will be incumbent on us to use the experience that we are currently going through as we develop our relations with the EU as a whole and as we develop the frictionless systems by which UK-EU trade will continue to operate.

Priorities for Government

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Thursday 25th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend and I go back a long way and she and I agree on so many things, but on this I must, I am afraid, respectfully disagree. Having a second referendum, which is now Labour’s policy—it was not before, but it is now the party of return or revoke—would be catastrophic for our Union because it would of course undermine our most important case that when you have a referendum, that deeply divisive and toxic event should only take place once in every generation. That was what we said to the people of Scotland. How could we look at them and say we could not have a second referendum in Scotland if we had another referendum on the EU in the UK? It is simply the wrong thing to do.

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

Given the welcome change of the Prime Minister’s recognition of the benefits of migration, will he bring forward the reconsideration system proposed by the former Home Secretary, now Chancellor, for overseas students falsely accused of cheating in the English language test by the US firm ETS so that they finally have the chance to clear their name?

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has made me aware of the issue to which the right hon. Gentleman refers. I will make sure that we write to him about what we are doing to address it. As he knows, I have a long-standing commitment to supporting the freedom of people of talent to come to this country. If he looks at my political record, I do not think, genuinely, that he will find anybody who has done more to champion the rights of immigrants to this city or to this country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 15th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Boris Johnson)]

I am deeply saddened by the loss of life in Gaza, where peaceful protests are being exploited by extremists. I urge Israel to show restraint in the use of live fire, and I take this opportunity to repeat the UK’s commitment to a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the shared capital.

My other priority is to preserve the gains made through the Iran nuclear deal. I am working closely with my French and German counterparts and will see them in Brussels later today.

[Stephen Timms]

My constituent Tofla Ndele, a British citizen, was arrested when visiting family members in Congo last September. There has been no explanation for his arrest, and no charges have been levelled against him. I was grateful to the Secretary of State for raising the subject with the Congolese Foreign Minister in March. What progress has been made since then in securing Mr Ndele’s release?

[Boris Johnson]

UK officials have visited Mr Ndele regularly since his detention in September last year, most recently in March. They have lobbied for improvements in the conditions of his detention, and recently secured the first visit from a family member since his arrest. My hon. Friend the Minister for Africa raised the matter with the Congolese Foreign Minister in April.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

T6. The Foreign Secretary mentioned his visit to Bangladesh and Burma, and his meetings with the Rohingya. We hold the pen at the UN on this issue. Will the British Government bring forward a resolution referring Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, given what happened?

[Boris Johnson]

I appreciate the right hon. Gentleman’s interest in this subject. As he knows, the difficulty is that in the UN Security Council there will be those who would not support such a resolution at present. The crucial thing is that everybody in the region and around the world makes it clear to the Government in Naypyidaw and to Daw Suu that the only way forward now for Burma is to create the conditions for a safe, dignified and voluntary return—and that must mean an independent UN-led agency to oversee the repatriation; otherwise those people are going to be too frightened to return. That is the priority on which we should focus.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 17th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

T6. My constituent Mrs Edna Dolor is very relieved that her frail elderly parents in Dominica—poisoned by contaminated water, beyond the reach of aid, denied telephone contact—are today boarding the first of the four planes it will take to get them back to the UK. She makes the point that because news about aid drops can be spread only by word of mouth, people such as her parents have not had access to the aid. The Foreign Secretary has talked about a long-term plan. How long does he think it will take to get Dominica back on its feet?

[Boris Johnson]

As the right hon. Gentleman will know, the failure of communications has greatly exacerbated the difficulties. One of the things we have been trying to do is to restore mobile communications as fast as possible. We are putting in a £5 million aid package to Dominica through the Department for International Development, and the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, has written to our Prime Minister to express his profound gratitude for the Government’s response.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Stephen Timms

Tuesday 18th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

T3. My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Steve McCabe) asked earlier about Londoner and British citizen Andy Tsege, a political dissident who was kidnapped in June 2014. In June this year, the Foreign Secretary’s predecessor announced in a press release that he had“secured assurances from the Ethiopian Government that Mr Tsege will be granted access to a lawyer”.Those assurances have not been honoured. Will the Foreign Secretary now formally request the release of Mr Tsege?

[Boris Johnson]

I have set out our position on Mr Tsege in an open letter on gov.uk. I cannot, I am afraid, comment further, because our handling of this case is the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.