(2 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberI know my hon. Friend is not a cynic; he is one of nature’s idealists. I will make sure that all relevant Ministers and civil servants appear before his Committee.
What we are doing for the people of Putney, and indeed the people throughout the country, is making sure that we invest now in protecting them, as I have said to the House and I have said repeatedly, not just with the increases in universal credit, the living wage and the warm home discount and cutting fuel bills, but with the £330 cut in NICs. The reason we can do that is that we have a robust economic position and strong employment. That is giving us the revenue to pay and to cushion people at this difficult time. It would not have been possible if we had listened to the Labour party during covid.
(2 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberI hear my hon. Friend loud and clear. I have already heard several pleas on that matter today, and I repeat that we will be looking into it before Easter.
Covid case numbers are rising in Wandsworth, and people are very concerned about this plan. They have had to choose between eating and heating, and now they will have to choose between heating, eating and testing. There has been a flurry of reports in the media about a paralysed Cabinet arguing over what to announce here, at the eleventh hour. The Prime Minister is asking us to have confidence in a plan in which health leaders do not have confidence. Can he assure the House today that all members of the Cabinet—the full Cabinet—have confidence in this plan?
Yes, of course they do, and this plan is completely scientifically attested to. It is the right thing to do.
(2 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberWe will do so whenever it is safe, but as my hon. Friend knows, the measures will expire in any event on 26 January.
Parents of children who are of primary school age and have disabilities will have been disappointed not to hear in the statement about a roll-out of the vaccine for five to 11-year-olds. Two Putney parents have written to me this week, one with a child with cystic fibrosis and one with a child with Down’s syndrome. Those children have been shielding since March 2020, and they are desperate to leave shielding. They really want the vaccine but they cannot get it. Can the Prime Ministers say more about when the vaccine will be rolled out to vulnerable children aged five to 11?
We have accepted the advice of the JCVI on at-risk five to 11-year-olds, and we will be rolling it out later this month.
(3 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberNow. We are just going to keep going. This is a rolling series of negotiations. We are ringing people up the whole time. COP is in full flow at the moment.
The Prime Minister has not yet mentioned water resilience, yet it is at the top of the agenda for many of the countries most affected by the climate emergency. What is his assessment of funding for water resilience projects? Will he commit not to cut but increase funding for water resilience?
We support water resilience projects around the world, as part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and had a good discussion on the issue of water resilience and other aspects of climate change resilience with vulnerable countries over the last few days.
(4 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberI am not going to make a commitment, alas, to extend the coronavirus job retention scheme now, but my hon. Friend represents the aviation sector, which has been very hard hit, and we will look at all the ways we can to support it throughout the crisis.
I hope that the Prime Minister will join me in standing together not only in grief at the killing of George Floyd but in determination that we will work together against racism, both in the US and here in the UK. In Putney, black teachers have told me that they are scared of going back to school because of the higher rates of death, and today’s figures from the Metropolitan police show that more than a quarter of lockdown fines have been for black people, although they are an eighth of our London population. Will the Prime Minister condemn the actions of the American police, will he freeze sales of tear gas and rubber bullets, will he review the lockdown fines, and will he act on the report on covid deaths, so that there are not more black people dying than white?