Business of the House

Danny Kruger Excerpts

Thursday 6th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I wonder if I may divide the question into two parts—one on providing support for people in debt, and the other on what the Government and taxpayers are doing to support people in poverty—because I think the two questions, though related, are not identical. Some people get into a spiral of debt for which there are very good organisations in all our constituencies that do amazing work. We should all, as individual MPs, try to point our constituents in the right direction to get help. Often interest rates and repayments can be significantly reduced simply by entering into a conversation with the lenders.

With regard to what the Government have been doing on poverty, the Government are aware of the difficulties, and there is £4.2 billion of support available. Raising the national living wage to £9.50 next year will help. Giving nearly 2 million families an extra £1,000 a year through the cut to the universal credit taper and the increase to work allowances will also be important. Both of those things will help work to pay, and work is unquestionably the best way out of poverty. There are a number of other schemes, but time is pressing, so unless I get another question on the matter I will not go into them all.

[Danny Kruger (Devizes) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend may be aware of research that was published on 23 December in The BMJ, just after we all voted for plan B, that suggests that a triple dose of the vaccine, three months after the third dose, offers pretty much zero protection against transmission of the Omicron variant. I hope that he agrees that it would be unthinkable to insist that NHS workers should have a jab every three months by law. If that research is accepted by the Government, will he make time for this House to repeal the compulsory vaccination of health workers before it comes into effect on 1 April, thereby saving the NHS tens of thousands of staff and restoring the principle that, in this country at least, vaccination is the free choice of a free people?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My reading material was not the NME nor The BMJ. If somebody asks me about The Spectator I may be able to give a more positive answer. My hon. Friend raises a very difficult issue. We are a free country, and it is important that we maintain essential liberties. Enforced medication has been extraordinarily rare, though there were examples of compulsory smallpox vaccination in the 19th century. The Government are absolutely of the view—this view is held much more broadly than simply by members of Her Majesty’s Government—that vaccination is our best defence against covid. Vaccination reduces the likelihood of infection and therefore helps to break chains of transmission, and is safe and effective. Any increase in immunity of workers from vaccination will reduce the risk of harm to patients and service users, as well as to our valuable health and social care workforce. Therefore, I am sorry to disappoint my hon. Friend, but Her Majesty’s Government do not agree that the regulations on the vaccination of health and care workers should be revoked.