Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 1st May 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend brings up an incredibly important issue. I know that people in Wales are concerned about the relationship he mentions. I also agree with him on the need for transparency and an investigation regarding the Welsh Labour leader, because it is very clear that the situation is not at all transparent and answers are needed.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

It has been revealed by The Observer newspaper that the Conservative candidate for the Mayor of London is a member of the six Facebook groups mentioned by the hon. Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Deidre Brock). They are full of Islamophobia, antisemitism and the most disgraceful incitement to damaging property. The worst bit, for those of us who were in the House when our Members of Parliament were taken, are the death threats to the current Mayor of London, Mr Khan. Will the Prime Minister close down those Facebook pages, which were begun by Conservative members of staff, and will he investigate the role of the current candidate and her membership of those disgraceful racist Facebook groups?

[The Prime Minister]

The election tomorrow will be fought on the substance of the issues that Londoners face. The Labour record is crystal clear: house building in London has collapsed; knife crime is rising; mayoral taxes are up 70%; and drivers have been hit with ULEZ charges. The Labour Mayor simply panders to unions and has decimated London’s night-time economy. That is his record and that is how he will be judged. People across London know that they will be safer with the Conservatives, with lower taxes and better services.

G20 Summit

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Monday 11th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The policy did change and we stopped providing traditional development aid to India in 2015. Most UK funding is now in the form of business investments which not only help India reduce carbon emissions and address climate change, but deliver jobs and opportunity for British companies here at home.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

With so much at stake—the war in Ukraine, increasingly high numbers of people suffering from famine and drought, and human rights issues in places such as Iran or the Xinjiang part of China—is now really the time for the Prime Minister to empty chair the United Nations General Assembly?

[The Prime Minister]

I have just been over how our leadership on these matters is unquestioned. We are an active and engaged member at the G20. In just a couple of weeks, I will be at the European Political Community summit as well. Let me gently point out something to the hon. Lady about the UN General Assembly: as far as I can tell from looking back at the records, on the vast majority of occasions under the Labour Government it was not the Labour Prime Minister who attended either.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 1st February 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has a long track record of advocating for and implementing policies that increase our competitiveness and reform the supply side of our economy. His report was fantastic, and I look forward to meeting him to discuss those things further and help drive growth in this country.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

Q9. Ambulance waiting times are out of control. My constituent contacted me regarding her 93-year-old mother, who lay collapsed on the ground at home for 17 hours and then queued for 13 hours to get into the hospital. And yet on Monday the Prime Minister said he had his “fingers crossed” that ambulance waiting times would be reduced. Does he really think that is enough?

[The Prime Minister]

If the hon. Lady actually looks, she will see that we published on Monday a comprehensive plan to reduce wait times in A&E and for ambulances, backed with more funding, reform of the system, more beds, more ambulances and more staff. It was a plan that was warmly welcomed by all working in emergency care and the ambulance services. They recognise that this plan will deliver reduced waiting times and improve care across the country, including in Labour-run Wales, where there are some things they can benefit from.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 30th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We support the right of parents to home-educate their children and we know that many do well. However, that is not the case for all, which is why local authorities must seek to identify those children missing education. We have published guidance on the arrangements that they should be following and, indeed, ensured that they have oversight of elective home education.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

Q9. After record payouts to shareholders last year, the Royal Mail recently—this year—announced huge half-year losses and plans to cut 10,000 jobs, while threatening the cherished universal service obligation that guarantees a minimum six-days-a-week letter delivery service, in the tradition of the Penny Black from 1840. Why have the Government not yet committed to investigating the cack-handed mismanagement of this iconic British service and to protecting its future and loyal postal workers?

[The Prime Minister]

Again, I have nothing but gratitude and appreciation for the hard work of our postal workers, but it is not the right approach to go on strike, and especially to demand pay, as we have heard, that is simply unaffordable for hard-working British taxpayers. The hon. Lady would do well to see that. In the context that we are in, it is simply not possible to give people the type of pay demands that they are making.

COP27

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 9th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. We will not solve this problem without the investment and co-operation of the private sector. Governments simply cannot do it alone. When it comes to electric charging infrastructure, we have helped with seed funding of around £2 billion. We have one of the most developed charging infrastructures in Europe, but she is right that, ultimately, it has to be the private sector that delivers the investment required.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

Will the Prime Minister say what view he takes of the role of local authorities in the climate emergency? In 2010, there were some fantastic programmes. Had they continued to 2022, we would have a third of our homes in which people—homeowners or renters-—would be paying a third of the bills they are paying now. What view does he take of local authorities getting stuck in to retrofit, particularly in the private rented sector, which is very draughty and leaky?

[The Prime Minister]

I am pleased that, in the spending review I conducted as Chancellor, we put aside almost £5 billion to support energy efficiency, including several programmes that support local authorities to upgrade the energy efficiency of both low-income private rented tenants and those in the social housing sector. Those programmes are up and running. They are well funded and local authorities can benefit from them.

Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 25th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

The Chancellor has spoken well today of the scars that are felt by so many in society due to the triple whammy of covid, climate change and Brexit. Will he outline how he will manage to ring-fence money for mental health within the health spend? Mind, the charity, has said that phone calls have doubled, with many young people experiencing debilitating anxiety, depression and self-harm. Will he urgently look at mental health and ring-fence money for workforce changes, which are desperately needed, and for a decent revenue spend to bring mental health up into line with physical health?

[Rishi Sunak]

The hon. Lady makes a good point, and I am pleased to tell her that of the £3 billion of extra money for the NHS that we have announced for next year to help recover from coronavirus, half a billion pounds of that is specifically earmarked to address waiting times in mental health services, to give people the support they need and to invest in the workforce that she rightly identified. I hope that gives her some reassurance. That is incremental to the existing NHS plans.

Economic Update

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

I know that my hon. Friend has been working very hard on behalf of his local businesses and young people, and I am glad that he welcomes today’s initiatives. He is right about unlocking the housing market. The intervention today will mean that almost 90% of people buying a main home in this country this year and until March next year will pay no stamp duty. It is a strong catalyst for people to get moving—to get buying and selling—and, importantly, to get renovating, all of which will create local jobs in Darlington and beyond.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

Given the emergency nature of the statement, will the Chancellor lay out exactly what kind of impact assessment will be made of each of the funding pots, so that we can ensure value for money, look at the impact of each measure on the environment and avoid any corruption or fraud?

[Rishi Sunak]

I assure the hon. Lady that all relevant impact assessments are conducted at the time that they are required by legislation. As for the environmental impact, I gave a flavour of it earlier. The sum total of the green homes grant scheme and public sector decarbonisation fund will mean that about half a megatonne of carbon will be saved every year, which is the equivalent of about 270,000 cars taken off the road, and there will be about 140,000 new jobs. I hope she will welcome that.

Economic Update

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

Many of the workers in the gig economy will benefit from statutory sick pay, depending on their exact contractual relationship with their employers, but the measures that we undertook last week in the Budget will provide direct support to those people.

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

What contingency will be put aside by the Treasury to assist in recruiting more social care workers, who are desperately needed to look after people in their homes as they fall ill?

[Rishi Sunak]

As I reiterated last week, we will provide whatever is required to public services. My right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is working with the Local Government Secretary to understand exactly what is required in social care.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Catherine West and Rishi Sunak

Tuesday 14th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak (Richmond (Yorks)) (Con)]

It is a privilege to be called to speak in this debate, Madam Deputy Speaker, and a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna).

There is much to commend in this excellent Budget, but to me one conclusion stands out: that by the end of this Parliament, under this Government, Britain will live within its means. No more irresponsible borrowing. No more spiralling debt at the taxpayer’s expense. No more passing the debt to the next generation. I was delighted to hear the Chancellor’s plans for this nation finally to run a budget surplus.

I have spent my career in business. Every company I have been involved in sets a budget, as indeed does every household in this nation, and when they do they operate with these basic principles: first, “How much is coming in?” and only then, “How much can I spend?” For too long, Governments have got that back to front, spending first, ignoring how much is coming in, then letting borrowing endlessly make up the difference.

Coming from a financial background, I decided to spend some time analysing our nation’s fiscal history. I wanted to know, when it comes to our Government’s revenue, how much does in fact come in. I can tell the House that, since 1955, tax receipts, with limited variation and remarkable consistency, have averaged 36% to 38% of GDP. In spite of the vast differences between Labour and Conservative Members in our approach to setting tax rates, the average tax take has been remarkably similar under Governments of both parties. There appears to be a natural ceiling to what any Government can extract from the pockets of its hard-working taxpayers.

That to me suggests a simple conclusion: in normal times, public spending should not exceed 37% of GDP. That is the best estimate of our income as a Government and therefore the best guide to what we can afford to spend. So the Government’s plans to get public spending to that level are not, as some Opposition Members have suggested, an ideological crusade or clever politics; rather, tackling excessive public spending is simply the sensible, logical and responsible course of action. That action, taken to make sure that we live within our means, is the same course of action that any business or household would take when presented with the facts. We all know what happens when those facts are ignored: more borrowing, more debt.

[Catherine West]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point about debt. Does he agree that a graduate in social care from London Metropolitan University with personal debt of £54,000 not only has a personal problem on her hands, but represents a long-term national problem for us, because in the end we will have to pick up that debt?

[Rishi Sunak]

It is clear that university graduates’ earning power is raised. It is hardly fair to ask people working hard without the benefits of a university degree to pay for the earnings of someone in the legal profession or the City who is earning a great deal. That is why this Government created a progressive system whereby those who earn more pay more back and those who do not pay just a fair share.

[Catherine West]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Rishi Sunak]

I would like to make some progress. As you said, Madam Deputy Speaker, many people wish to speak.

All debts need to be repaid, with interest. For the next generation, that means higher taxes or less money to spend on public services. As the hon. Member for Streatham said, we already spend more money on debt interest than we do on the police, transport or housing. That simply cannot go on.

Whether one is a Thatcherite or a Trotskyite, the rules of budgeting are the same: one cannot sustainably spend more than one earns. I commend the Chancellor for acting on that principle and ensuring that Britain’s finances will once again be back in the black.