Business of the House

Fiona Bruce Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

This crisis has been very difficult for very many people. The Government have taken enormous steps with the £35 billion in the furlough scheme and the £8.5 billion for nearly 3 million self-employed people. But of course, as a constituency MP, I recognise that people who founded businesses recently have found things very difficult. We need to get the economy to recover. We need to get people getting back to as normal as they possibly can. We want to encourage people to get back to work. We want to try to ensure that we achieve the V-shaped recovery, which is so important. The steps that the Government have taken have been to protect the structures of the economy so that when demand comes back, those structures are there to meet the demand that never really went away but was just shut down because of the crisis. That is what Government policy has been directed towards. We will need to ensure that we foster the economy and help it grow as we come back up that V, but I understand how difficult it is for individual families in particular circumstances.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

May we have a debate on the need to maintain local train services during this pandemic? Recent service reductions in my constituency are completely unacceptable. CrossCountry is refusing to stop trains at Congleton station at all, citing social distancing requirements. It put on a longer train, for which the platform is too short. Yet at other stations, this issue is managed by only certain train doors being opened. At Alsager, East Midlands Trains has cancelled almost its entire hourly service during the day, halving the service from Alsager and resulting in a 900-signature local petition within the past few days.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My hon. Friend raises a deeply concerning point. That train-door excuse sounds particularly feeble, even given the British Rail excuses of old. Many people are returning to their offices and the economy continues to open up. Train operators must keep up with demand from passengers. I will take up her concerns with my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary, and we will see that they are addressed in full by the Department for Transport.