Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Wednesday 7th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on her first Prime Minister’s question. What I am determined to do as Prime Minister is to make sure we have an economy with high wages and high-skilled jobs, and the way I will achieve that is through reducing taxes on people across our country and boosting economic growth. That is the way that we will make sure we get the investment and the jobs that people deserve.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

Q3. I want to warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend on becoming the third woman Prime Minister of this great country. I wish her well with her premiership, and I am going to ask her about pubs today. Those from a pub restaurant in my constituency of Barnet got in touch with me to say they were struggling to find an energy supplier, and the quotes they had got hold of showed that they would be paying a 600% increase in their bill to £320,000. They cannot survive that. Will she ensure her plan to tackle the energy price crisis helps businesses in the hospitality sector, which our communities value so much?

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. The hospitality industry is vital, and I will make sure that our energy plan, which will help support businesses and people with the immediate price crisis, as well as making sure there are long-term supplies available, will help businesses as well as helping individual households.

Northern Ireland Protocol

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Tuesday 17th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I have been very clear that we are open to a negotiated solution, but that negotiated solution needs to deliver on the ground in Northern Ireland and address the very real problems with the protocol, which the hon. Gentleman acknowledges—namely the fact that the people of Northern Ireland cannot currently benefit from UK tax and state aid decisions, and the fact that there is still full customs implementation on goods coming into Northern Ireland. In order to address those issues, it is not just the implementation of the protocol that needs to be addressed; the protocol itself needs to change, and we need that change in the mandate from the EU. It is absolutely our preference to have a negotiated solution with the EU, but we have to be clear that those changes need to happen; otherwise the protocol simply will not deliver on the ground in Northern Ireland, or restore the balance as set out in the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, and we will not see the Executive in Northern Ireland back up and running, which is what we want.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

The EU’s approach to the protocol is so unreasonable that it is banning the movement of tree saplings from Great Britain to Northern Ireland for planting for the Queen’s platinum jubilee. Will the Foreign Secretary promise that her new enhanced green channel will disapply not just customs rules, but these unreasonable and excessive sanitary and phytosanitary rules on plants and foods?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My right hon. Friend is right to point out the very real issues the protocol is causing, particularly on SPS rules, and particularly in respect of goods that there is no plan to transport to the Republic of Ireland. She is right that our proposals will ensure those goods are able to travel freely through the green lane into Northern Ireland as part of a trusted trader scheme. For any company violating that scheme and not following the rules, there will be enforcement, so that we make sure we protect the EU single market. This is a pragmatic solution. We are supplying commercial data to the EU in real time, so that it can manage the EU single market while we protect our UK single market.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Wednesday 7th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I would be very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss his campaign, and I can assure him that we will be bringing forward our response very shortly.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

During the Batley by-election, Labour circulated a leaflet saying: “Don’t risk a Tory MP who is not on your side”, featuring a picture of the Prime Minister and Prime Minister Modi of India. Will my right hon. Friend join me in condemning that as divisive, and designed to stoke up anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiment?

[Elizabeth Truss]

First, I want to welcome the new hon. Member for Batley and Spen (Kim Leadbeater) and commend her for her dignity in standing up to intimidation during the campaign. I do agree with my right hon. Friend about the very divisive nature of the leaflet that she talks about. Politicians should not be stoking division: instead, we should be working together to unite and level up our country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Wednesday 23rd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I agree. It is vital that we level up across the country and make sure that someone’s postcode does not dictate their life chances. As I saw when visiting Cornwall’s growing lithium mining industry last week, there are real opportunities to level up and help Cornwall to grow economically and benefit all the people of that great county.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

What steps the Government have taken to protect women in BAME communities from the disproportionate effect of covid-19 identified by Public Health England.

UK-US Trade Deal

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Monday 2nd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

Is the Secretary of State able to promise that the Government will not remove current restrictions or tariffs on food imports unless those imports are produced to standards of animal welfare as tough as the ones that we expect our own farmers to meet?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I thank my right hon. Friend for her question. As we make very clear in the negotiating objectives, we will not lower our standards. We will maintain our food safety and animal welfare standards and will not lower them as part of this free trade agreement. We decide which standards we abide by here in the UK. We have exceptionally high standards of animal welfare, and my right hon. Friend herself is a champion of that. We are not going to be told by the US what our standards should be; for that matter, we are not going to be told what our standards should be by the EU either.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Tuesday 6th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: we want to encourage more small and medium-sized enterprises to take on apprenticeships. That is why we have reduced the level from 10% to 5% for co-investment, which will encourage more small firms to get involved, as well as extending the amount that can be used down the supply chain.

[Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)]

11. What steps he is taking to reduce the deficit and improve the public finances.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Thursday 23rd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

In order to upgrade the service to half-hourly on the Fen line and the Norwich-Cambridge line, there needs to be an upgrade at the Ely North junction. Network Rail has conducted an economic study that suggests that this will have a positive benefit, and the Department for Transport wants to specify it in the next franchise. May I ask what progress has been made to move forward on this investment?

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)]

I know that my hon. Friend is a strong campaigner for improvements to the rail lines that serve her constituency. This is something that we are looking at carefully. We have asked Network Rail to do important work on deciding how we might improve the frequency of the services in the way that she wishes to see, and whether the infrastructure needed to deliver that is within the budgets that have already been allocated to Network Rail. We will also look at what we might be able to do in the next control period, as part of our high-level output specification—HLOS—statement, which we will publish in the summer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Theresa Villiers

Thursday 23rd June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

We faced the largest peacetime deficit that we have ever faced. To continue with the biggest programme of rail upgrades in modern history, we unfortunately must ask passengers to make a contribution. The blame lies fairly and squarely with the previous Government for leaving us with a deficit and letting the cost of the railways spiral out of control.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

12. What assessment his Department has made of the potential benefit to the economy of upgrading the railway line between Cambridge and King’s Lynn.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)]

Our current plans envisage that passengers on the fen line could benefit from new intercity express trains from 2018. That would offer improved passenger accommodation and a shorter journey time to London, subject to a satisfactory outcome to contractual negotiations with Agility Trains and timetabling arrangements that will be finalised with the future franchisee.

[Elizabeth Truss]

With the area’s economic growth and the fact that passenger numbers between Downham Market and Cambridge have increased by 150% in the past 10 years, does the Minister agree that expanding the fen line northwards should be a key consideration in Network Rail’s next phased upgrade?

[Mrs Villiers]

My hon. Friend has campaigned strongly to improve services on the fen line. I pay tribute to her and the other local MPs who take this seriously. She is absolutely right that passenger numbers have been increasing. This has been a real success story. I would certainly encourage her and her constituents to engage with Network Rail, as it looks to the next railway control period to see what infrastructure improvements might be deliverable within affordability constraints.