Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

On behalf of my party, may I offer heartfelt congratulations to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV? May I also offer our support to the Prime Minister and his family after the appalling arson attacks on his home? I echo his thanks to our brilliant police and firefighters.

Three years ago, the previous Government were faced with a choice. Their own Migration Advisory Committee told Ministers that recruiting more care workers required improved conditions, career progression and better pay, but the Conservatives chose not to do that and instead brought in large numbers of care workers from overseas. The carers looking after our loved ones in care homes should be thanked, not demonised. Will the Prime Minister now do the things that the Conservatives refused to do, starting with a higher minimum wage for carers?

[The Prime Minister]

May I first thank the right hon. Gentleman for his comments about me and my family? I really appreciate it.

It is important that we have fair pay for care workers, and that is why we have put in place our fair pay agreement. This is the first of its type. It will be applied first to care workers to ensure that they get fair pay, but also a better framework for progression. As he will know, most people leaving care work are going to the NHS because of the pay and the ability to progress. Our fair pay agreements will deal with, making sure that in the future those jobs are more secure. I will just add a declaration of interest: my sister is a care worker—I know at first hand how important the work is and how difficult sometimes the situation facing them is.

[Ed Davey]

I thank the Prime Minister for that reply. It is a good first step, but we will still see people earning more in Amazon warehouses and supermarkets than in care homes, and that will mean our loved ones going without the care they need.

Turning to the middle east, for more than 10 weeks Israeli forces have blocked food, water and medicine getting into Gaza. There is now a humanitarian catastrophe, with 2 million people at risk of famine and one in five facing starvation. Rather than ending this crisis, the Netanyahu Government are planning to seize all Gaza indefinitely. I know the Prime Minister will agree that the blockade of Gaza should end and I am sure he will agree that it would be appalling if Netanyahu proceeds with that escalation, but will he act now and pick up the phone to President Trump for a joint plan to recognise Palestine and get food, water and medicine into Gaza?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising this, because the situation in Gaza is simply intolerable and getting worse. We are working with other leaders urgently to bring about the rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which is desperately needed—obviously, alongside the release of hostages and getting back to a ceasefire—and that work is going on through my team 24/7. I do believe that that is the initial action that needs to be taken, but I still fundamentally believe that, however remote it may seem at the moment, the pathway to a two-state solution is the only way for settled and lasting peace in the middle east. We will continue with our allies to pursue that path.