Oral Answers to Questions

David Simmonds Excerpts

Wednesday 30th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady. There will of course be plenty of time to go over all the decisions that the Government have made—for which, as I have said repeatedly, I take full responsibility—but she is right to draw attention to the incidence in her constituency of 183 per 100,000. That is a serious increase. The position is not the emergency of March, but it is serious, and that is why I hope she will encourage her right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition to support more actively—or perhaps more consistently; I will put it that way—what the Government are doing. I hope she will also encourage her constituents that the best thing we can all do is to follow the guidance: hands, face, space; get a test if they have symptoms; and where local measures need to be in place, look at the website and follow that advice.

[David Simmonds (Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner) (Con)]

  My right hon. Friend and I have the privilege of representing areas with an honourable history of supporting refugees. What plans does he have to mark the successful conclusion of the five-year Syrian resettlement scheme, which is regarded as giving the UK the international gold standard for refugee resettlement, providing safe legal routes to the UK and bolstering our efforts to deter human trafficking?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. The UK can be incredibly proud of what we have done to resettle Syrian refugees. We have resettled more than 25,000 through safe and legal routes direct from conflict zones, and we will continue to meet our obligations to those fleeing persecution and war around the world.