Covid-19: Winter Plan Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Covid-19: Winter Plan

David Evennett Excerpts
Monday 23rd November 2020

(3 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I will study the point the hon. Member makes, although, obviously, I am proud that we have been able to uplift universal credit by £1,000 a year, helping some of the poorest families across the country and, of course, helping the disabled as well.

David Evennett Portrait Sir David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con) [V]
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Families and businesses in Bexleyheath and Crayford will share my strong support for my right hon. Friend’s statement and approach today. However, we have a thriving hospitality sector that has particularly suffered this year because of the necessary restrictions to control the spread of coronavirus. While safety remains the top priority, does my right hon. Friend agree that the hospitality sector is the backbone of our local town centres, and it is vital we continue to provide it with the support it needs to help them survive and to protect jobs?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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Indeed, and I have been with my right hon. Friend to many a fantastic hospitality venue in Bexley. I seem to remember going with him to one pub where he christened a blue drink: the Bexley Breeze Block I think it was, from memory. Let us hope that we are able to get the hospitality sector going across the country in the way that we would all want so that those fantastic businesses can recover strongly in the new year. We are going to do that by the techniques that I have mentioned—tough tiering, mass testing and rolling out a vaccine.