Business of the House

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 30th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

My hon. Friend makes a compelling case for projects and funding going to his constituency. He will know that the levelling-up agenda has been at the heart of successive Conservative Administrations. The next Question Time will be on Monday, and I hope that my hon. Friend will attend to put those questions directly to the Secretary of State.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

December 9th marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the genocide convention. I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity, and we will mark this time by calling for a strategy. I invite you, Mr Deputy Speaker, the Leader of the House, the shadow Leader of the House, and all Members present to come to a drop-in that we will hold next Wednesday in Portcullis House Room U from 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm, to talk to experts about how, as parliamentarians, when we say, “Never again,” we can really mean that. Will the Leader of the House support a debate on this issue?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Lady for advertising her event. I shall certainly try to come along, subject to my duties in this House. It is incredibly important that hon. Members know what steps we can take, and what policies we can put forward, to ensure that these things never happen again, and to deepen our knowledge of such things as the international definitions and the appropriate terms to use for different situations. She is providing the House with a timely education session.

Business of the House

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 22nd June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

My hon. Friend makes some clear and important points and I completely agree with him. I think the best way I can assist him, given that I will be printing out a Conservative party application form for Fergus, is to print one for Barney too.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

Many of my constituents in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, and Ahmadiyya Muslims across the country, are concerned about the increasing persecution of members of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan and the impact that that is having here in the UK. I visited Pakistan this year and saw that persecution, the danger to life faced in schools, jobs, housing and places of worship, and threats to the right to vote. Pakistan is a wonderful country, but this is a blight on their country and very concerning to constituents across the UK. Can we have a debate in Government time on this issue?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Lady for shining a spotlight on this tragedy. She will know that the next questions to the Foreign Office are on 18 July, and I encourage her to raise that matter there. However, given that there will be cross-party and cross-House support on the issue, she may also like to consider applying for an Adjournment debate.

Business of the House

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 23rd February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am very happy to pass on my congratulations, which I am sure are echoed by all Members, to the Burnhill Action Group. Youth volunteering is incredibly important; it sets good habits for the rest of our lives, and of course the contribution that those young people are making will teach them new skills and enable them to gain in confidence. I thank the hon. Lady for raising that point.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

Following years of campaigning by angry leaseholders and angry MPs such as myself, action on the national cladding scandal is just not going fast or far enough. The Government have made several welcome announcements since the Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent in July. However, on the ground more than half a million people are still living in unsafe homes with unsafe cladding, and people face bankruptcy too. Will the Leader of the House allow time for a Government-sponsored debate—one or two questions at departmental orals just does not cut it, given the number of issues—so that we can work together constructively and end the building safety scandal once and for all?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. She will know that the Secretary of State has taken unprecedented action in trying to get what is a very complicated situation resolved. I will just say that Levelling Up, Housing and Communities questions are on 27 March—the hon. Lady can choose to utilise those or not, as she sees fit. However, this is an incredibly important topic—people are still in limbo, and we want to make sure that they can move on with their lives and do what they need to do with their homes—and she will know how to apply for a debate.

Business of the House

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 27th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I know this will be a pressing issue of immense importance to my hon. Friend’s constituents, and I am happy to write to the relevant Department. I thank him also for his kind remarks to me; I may not be the centre forward, but I shall always be needed on the right wing.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

Given all the changes of Ministers recently, can the Leader of the House confirm that we can still expect timely answers to letters and to written and oral questions from recent weeks? Specifically, on 14 October I raised concerns about the very noisy early-morning night flights to Heathrow, which regularly wake up my constituents from 4.30 am. The former Transport Minister, the hon. Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster), answered reassuringly that he would investigate. Can the Leader of the House assure me that that pledge by a Transport Minister will be honoured?

[Penny Mordaunt]

Yes, it will. The faces change but the Government continue. If there is a delay in the hon. Lady getting a timely response, as she has indicated, I will always follow up on behalf of hon. Members. That is one of the main reasons for having business questions, so that we can ensure that urgent cases in particular are followed up. She has that assurance.

UK-EU Future Relationship Negotiations and Transition Period

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Monday 7th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I agree with my hon. Friend that it only makes sense to keep one’s powder dry if one is prepared to accept no deal, but the position of the Opposition is a matter for them—I just hope they get one in the next few days.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

This is a shambles. I held a meeting with local businesses in my constituency about the impact of this ongoing uncertainty all year. One owner of a logistics company said to me that the damage has been done. She waited throughout November for the deal; it did not come, and her business has now been killed and her staff have lost their jobs. Will the Minister apologise to business owners such as my constituent for this utter mess?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am sorry to hear about the plight of the hon. Lady’s constituent. As I have reiterated many times before, I am available every day on covid or Brexit issues, if hon. Members want to talk. I am available at 10 am every single day and have been for weeks. I am not making a political point, but saying to all hon. Members, “If businesses are in difficulty for whatever reason, please do get in touch.” We would have liked this resolved earlier, but we are not prepared to compromise on matters that are of immense importance to many of her constituents. We will not compromise on those, but we are working incredibly hard to resolve the remaining issues, and I hope that in short order we will be able to provide her constituents and everyone else with the certainty that they need.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 1st October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

What assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of cross-Government communications during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Paymaster General (Penny Mordaunt)]

We evaluate the effectiveness of Government communications. We constantly monitor and gain insights on public awareness and compliance from regular evaluations. This question affords me the opportunity to pay tribute to the Central Office of Information for its work not just on covid-19, but in preparation for the end of the transition period.

--- Later in debate ---

[Penny Mordaunt]

I will certainly take that up on the hon. Gentleman’s behalf. One of the benefits of the four nations working together is that we try to have as much consistency as possible and anticipate the impact of one set of rules on others, particularly communities living near the borders. I will follow that up for him and be in touch.

[Fleur Anderson]

Government communications this week have been quite shambolic. My constituents have been writing to me to ask for more clear messaging. The Cabinet Office has spent more than £50 million on untendered contracts for media and consultancies, yet Ministers have found it hard to explain local measures this week. It has been reported that mask wearing in shops is going down instead of up, in contradiction to communications, and more people have been told to get the flu jab yet cannot get one. How are members of the public expected to understand and keep up with the changes if Ministers cannot?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I fully recognise that the rules have got more complex—were Matt Lucas recreating the “Baked Potato Song” now, he would have to write an opera. They are more complex because we have regional and local lockdowns, as opposed to a blanket lockdown, and I think that is what the nation wants: we want to keep our economy going and to give people as much freedom as we possibly can, while fighting this virus. By and large, although the public are fed up, they are following the rules and they are working together, with collective responsibility, to beat this virus. All Members of this House can help to deliver the messages by putting them on their Twitter feeds and by communicating them. Only by working together are we going to defeat this virus.

Future Relationship with the EU

Debate between Fleur Anderson and Penny Mordaunt

Tuesday 9th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I refer my hon. Friend to the very good joint letter that was recently sent out by the Secretaries of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and for International Trade. In this we should be trusting the consumer—if people do not want to put their faith in Government, we should trust the consumer, and I think consumers want high-quality, fairly priced food, with high animal welfare standards.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

It is clear from the Minister’s remarks that this deal is far from “oven-ready”. Are the Government prepared to say no to any deal that will diminish our food and environmental standards and undermine British farming?

[Penny Mordaunt]

Of course we are working towards a deal on those issues, and many others. On some issues we very much feel that our interests are better served by having separate agreements. The key point is that we cannot keep negotiating for ever, and we must allow our businesses, farmers, and citizens time to implement the decisions taken. That is why we are now at this key stage and have to increase and escalate negotiations. We need to arrive at a deal soon.