G7 Summit

Debate between Drew Hendry and Rishi Sunak

Monday 22nd May 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

There was no discussion at the G7, as he might expect, but illegal migration was discussed when I was at the Council of Europe last week. As my hon. Friend can see, we have started conversations with the EU about closer co-operation with the EU’s border agency Frontex. We can work together upstream to share intelligence and make sure that we break the cycle of the criminal gangs. He can expect further conversation and co-operation in that vein because, ultimately, this is a shared challenge. Illegal migration was up 50% to 60% in the European continent last year, so we are not alone in facing this challenge. We will work with others to constructively solve it.

[Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP)]

The Wagner Group has already admitted to murdering 40 children and hundreds of adults sheltering in a basement in Bakhmut. Mere sanctions are not a strong enough message. What does that terrorist organisation have to do before the Prime Minister will take action to proscribe it?

[The Prime Minister]

We are ensuring that those who commit war crimes in Ukraine will be held accountable and brought to justice. That is why we took a leading role in supporting evidence gathering and providing both financial and technical legal support—we have recently provided more than £1 million for those efforts. We very much welcome the recent announcement by the International Criminal Court to bring to justice those who have committed war crimes, particularly those against children, and we will continue to play a leading part in the coalition, ensuring that those who commit those crimes are brought to justice.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Drew Hendry and Rishi Sunak

Tuesday 27th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[John Nicolson (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP)]

What recent assessment he has made of the effect of his policies on living standards.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rishi Sunak)]

The Government are committed to supporting household living standards during this difficult time for our country. That is why we announced an unprecedented package of support to protect people’s jobs and incomes and to help those most in need.

[Drew Hendry [V]]

It is approaching two years since this Government said that they would review the way in which dying people were treated through social security. Meanwhile, Marie Curie and many other campaigners for change estimate that as many as 6,000 people have died while waiting for a decision on their claims. This Government have repeatedly promised to end the six-month rule, which is currently forcing terminally ill people to prove how long they have left to live before they can access fast-track support, so can the Chancellor confirm that this long overdue reform will be in the Queen’s Speech?

[Rishi Sunak]

It would be wrong for me to pre-empt the Queen’s Speech—I know that colleagues will understand that—but I can assure the hon. Gentleman that my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary keeps all these matters under review, and of course we want to ensure that our welfare system is compassionate and effectively supports those who need our help.

Spending Review 2020 and OBR Forecast

Debate between Drew Hendry and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 25th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of going to brownfield first. Today’s spending review makes available an additional £100 million for non-mayoral combined authorities to access remediation funding. My right hon. Friend the Housing Secretary will be able to talk to her in more detail about that, but it is exactly the kind of thing that I think could make a difference in her constituency.

[Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP) [V]]

By introducing the emergency measure to increase universal credit by £20 per week, the Chancellor was acknowledging what many people have known for years: universal credit is simply not enough to live on. If that was the case during the pandemic, why will he not commit to retaining this uplift permanently?

[Rishi Sunak]

We put in place a range of temporary measures because we were dealing with an unprecedented crisis. We are now working our way through that crisis, and the future looks considerably brighter than it did in March, not least because of the medical advancements and our ability to do improved testing, so we can look forward. We keep everything under review. The uplift lasts all the way to the spring. As we get to the spring and have more clarity about the future path of our economy and restrictions, we will of course be mindful of how to support and protect those who are most vulnerable in our society.

Economic Update

Debate between Drew Hendry and Rishi Sunak

Wednesday 8th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Just to clarify: the “eat out to help out” discount will not apply to alcohol, but 90-something per cent. of pubs serve food, so my hon. Friend can still go to the pub and enjoy that. He is absolutely right about competition policy: it is important that we have dynamic markets in this country. We need dynamic competition to create jobs and productivity in order to get the outcomes that we want. I am happy to talk to him—I know he has expertise in this policy area—to get his thoughts about things we can do to update and turbo-charge our competition policy to make sure it is fit, especially for the digital age.

[Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP) [V]]

The Chancellor said at the beginning of his statement that

“no one will be left without hope”,

so what does he say to the hundreds of thousands of businesses and sole traders excluded from support during this pandemic crisis? Many of them are in seasonal businesses facing, in effect, three winters of trading. They cannot afford extra debt, so is now not the time to convert some of the money put aside for loans into grants to support the sector?

[Rishi Sunak]

The hon. Gentleman talks about seasonal businesses and whether they have or have not had support; he may have missed the fact that we have just cut VAT for those sectors from 20% to 5% for the next six months, and we have just provided an “eat out to help out” discount for the country to enjoy discounted meals to protect those businesses and protect the employment in them. That is probably the best thing we can do for seasonal businesses.