Sue Gray Report

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 25th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

What the hon. Gentleman has just said of the civil servants—some of whom, I am sad to say, were fined—who worked night and day to minimise suffering and minimise casualties during covid is unworthy.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

My constituent Ruby Fuller lived by the motto, “Live kindly, live loudly” in pursuit of social justice. Ruby died from cancer on 20 May 2020 as the “bring your own booze” party was happening in Downing Street. Her grandparents and her young friends had to say goodbye to Ruby by Zoom. What does the Prime Minister have to say to Ruby’s friends—young people in my constituency who are listening to him today blaming everybody but himself? When will he accept that every single day that he remains in Downing Street our politics is corroded further?

[The Prime Minister]

I repeat my condolences to those who suffered from covid, to those who could not get the treatment that they needed during the pandemic, and to the family of Ruby who could not see her when she was suffering from cancer. All I can say now is that we want to get on with our work, which is to clear the backlogs, particularly for cancer patients up and down the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 23rd March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 23 March.

[The Prime Minister (Boris Johnson)]

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Helen Hayes]

The degrading strip-search of Child Q two years ago, in a school that should have been a safe place, at the hands of police officers she should have been able to trust, has caused anger and distress across the country. On Monday, the Minister for Crime and Policing failed to answer four separate questions in this Chamber about when he first knew about Child Q and what urgent action he took in response, so I ask the Prime Minister: when did he first hear about the strip-search of Child Q in her school? Does he believe that the characteristic dither and delay of his Government in responding to this appalling case is remotely acceptable when it comes to the safety of children?

[The Prime Minister]

I think that that is a completely ridiculous characterisation of the response of the Government, because of course the reports of the incident are deeply distressing and deeply concerning—everybody shares the hon. Lady’s feelings about that—but the Metropolitan police have rightly apologised and the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating. For that reason, it would not be right to comment further.

COP26

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Monday 15th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The Opposition have had a very tough job this afternoon, because they have tried time and again to congratulate the UK Government on achieving a success at COP26, while simultaneously attacking the UK Government for whatever failings they see——I think they should stick with their initial script.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I was pleased to attend a part of COP26 as a member of the Environmental Audit Committee. It was a particular privilege to meet members of the Ugandan delegation who took part in an event that we hosted. I have to say that the Prime Minister’s statement is completely tone deaf in the face of the frustration and desperation of countries of the global south at the failure of this COP to deliver on the 12-year-old promise of $100 billion a year for climate finance. Will he accept that his decision to persist with indefensible cuts to UK aid effectively tied the hands of his own negotiating committee on this vital issue?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Member is talking total rubbish. We have doubled—[Interruption.] No, Opposition Members literally do not know what they are talking about. We have doubled climate finance for developing countries. The reason why the vulnerable countries accepted the deal, finally, was because we have got a commitment to $100 billion. Yes, I would have liked it faster, but it is there in black and white. Maybe she has not read it.

Health and Social Care

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend makes an important point about compulsory vaccination. I believe it is the right thing, and, in the ways that I have described, we are making sure that we encourage more people to join the social care workforce, with the £500 million of investment and the training places. We must also understand that many of those social care workers are leaving to join the NHS, where vaccination is not currently compulsory. Almost 10% of NHS frontline workers are not vaccinated. That is something on which we need to reflect, and that is why we are having a consultation on the way forward for the NHS. I do not think it is right that almost one in 10 frontline NHS workers should be unvaccinated against covid.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

It is telling that, in the Prime Minister’s statement, there was not a single word of tribute to our extraordinary social care workforce or any mention of the pay increase that they so desperately need. Many of those social care workers are on low pay and will face a £1,000 cut in their income as a consequence of the Prime Minister’s cut to universal credit, on top of the national insurance increase they face. What has the Prime Minister got to say to our dedicated social care workforce who spend their time caring for our precious loved ones every single day?

[The Prime Minister]

Let me say again what I have said repeatedly: the social care workforce of this country have done an amazing job and continue to do so. They did an amazing job throughout the pandemic as well as before it and beyond. I met more of them today. What they are getting from this package of measures is not only investment in their careers and progression but the long-term structure and respect that they need as a profession and the prospect of integration between what they do and what the NHS provides. That is a massive prize.

Afghanistan

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Monday 6th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend asks a very important question. I think the answer is that it is in the interests of every single one of the countries that he has mentioned to ensure that Afghanistan does not relapse into being a breeding ground for terror. That is not in China’s interests, in Uzbekistan’s interests or in Russia’s interests. Russia has abundant experience of the risks of Afghanistan. That is why it is so important that we work with friends and partners around the world—and, indeed, those who are not ordinarily classified as our friends—to achieve a common perspective on the pressure that we have got to apply to the Taliban.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

Many of my constituents have family members in Afghanistan who could be eligible for asylum in the UK under more than one route—for example, by ARAP, under the Foreign Office special cases criteria, or under family reunion. Yet there is currently no co-ordination between Departments. My constituents are being passed from pillar to post. ARAP is refusing cases where there may be an alternative route, and the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary are not replying to their emails. When will the Prime Minister sort out this lack of co-ordination across his Government?

[The Prime Minister]

I must reject that in the strongest possible terms. The House has paid tribute, quite rightly, to the work of the armed services over the last few weeks and months, but it should also pay tribute to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s rapid reaction team who went to Afghanistan, and to the Border Force officials who went out there, who worked hand in glove to help thousands of people come to this country in safety.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 16th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes. I thank my hon. and right hon. Friends for their excellent report, and I think it is time to put a TIGRR in the tank.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

I associate myself with the remarks concerning the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jo Cox. Jo was a dear personal friend and colleague, who will always be missed and remembered, and whose extraordinary legacy endures far beyond this place. Last month, a fire in an east London block of flats caused three people to be hospitalised and dozens more to be treated for smoke inhalation. That block was one of more than 200 high-rise buildings in England still fitted with Grenfell-style cladding. I ask the Prime Minister why it is that four years after the Grenfell tragedy took 72 lives, and after all the warnings, all the tireless campaigning and the unspeakable injustice, people are still living in unsafe flats, and his Government have failed to end the cladding scandal.

[The Prime Minister]

We have invested massively in removing cladding from high-rise blocks, and we will continue to do so. I know the structure in question and I do believe that Ballymore, the company concerned, has been too slow. We are on its case. I think it is very important that people understand that overall risks of death by fire have been coming down for a very long time and will continue to come down. It is simply not the case that all the high-rise buildings in this country are unsafe, and it is very important that Members of Parliament stress that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 26th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a great campaigner for Cambridgeshire and the rights of the people of Cambridgeshire. However, my strong feeling is that it would be a mistake now to go slow on investment in infrastructure purely on the basis that we think people will start working from home. My long experience of this is that people need to travel and they will travel. The commuter bustle will come back, and it needs to come back.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

A global minimum rate for corporate tax would help to tackle tax avoidance by large multinational corporations and online giants. It would stop them undercutting British businesses who pay their fair share, and it would make a transformational difference to high streets and town centres at the heart of communities across the UK. Why is the Prime Minister the only G7 leader not to support this proposal? Why is he on the side of tax avoiders, instead of British businesses and communities?

[The Prime Minister]

It was only a few months ago that the Labour Front Benchers opposed the corporation tax increases we put in. They are now opposed to the Government’s ability to cut corporation tax. Which side are they on? They have got to make their minds up.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 21st October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I can tell my hon. Friend that the infection rate in York, alas, is now running at 279 per 100,000, and we must get it down. But we can get it down; we can get it down through the package of measures that we have described. You can see, in areas where people are complying with the guidance, that it is having an effect, because if it were not for the efforts and energies of the British people, the R would be running at 3 or more; it is now between 1.2 and 1.5. It will not take much—compliance in those areas that are hit at the moment—to get that R back down below 1. That is what we are aiming for, and that is the way to get businesses across the country, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), in my hon. Friend’s constituency, back on their feet as fast as possible. It would not be sensible, in my view, to plunge them all back into a sustained series of national lockdowns, particularly in areas where the virus is low.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

The Chancellor has decided that people who are unable to work because of coronavirus restrictions should be paid as little as two thirds of the national minimum wage. At the same time, the Government are paying £7,000 a day for consultants to work on the failed Serco track and trace programme. Can the Prime Minister tell the House how on earth he thinks that is justifiable, and is this what he means by “levelling up”?

[The Prime Minister]

The NHS track and trace is now testing more people than any other country in Europe; it has tested, I think, 26 million people so far—or conducted 26 million tests. I am also proud, on the hon. Lady’s other point, that we have been able to support people across the country in the way that we have. She is not correct in what she says about the combined impact of the job support scheme and universal credit, because they work in tandem, and that lifts people’s incomes to 80%, and in some cases more than 90%, of their current incomes. That is the support that we are giving at the moment, but the best thing is to get our country through this crisis, without going back into the social, the psychological, the emotional and the economic disaster—and “disaster” was the word that the Labour party used only a week or so ago—the disaster of a series of national lockdowns.

Covid-19

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 22nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend puts it very well and very succinctly, and I really could not add anything to what he said.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

One of the most shocking aspects of the coronavirus pandemic has been the disproportionate impact on black, Asian and minority ethnic residents. When Public Health England published a report documenting that injustice, the Government were warned that they needed to act immediately to stop further preventable deaths, but we have seen no urgency. The chair of the British Medical Association is now warning that Government inaction will lead to more preventable deaths of black, Asian and minority ethnic residents over the winter. What is the Prime Minister going to do about it?

[The Prime Minister]

I have already mentioned that we have done a great deal to target measures to protect those in frontline jobs, including many from black and minority ethnic groups. I thank and pay tribute to those public servants, many of whom have done such a fantastic job throughout this crisis at great personal risk. I really thank them for what they are doing, and we are doing everything we can to protect them. Where there are vulnerable communities that need to understand the guidance about coronavirus, we are doing everything we can to get the messages home. Those are just some of the things that the Government are doing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 15th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We believe that nuclear power is a significant potential contributor to our net zero ambitions, and I look forward to working with my hon. Friend to ensure that Cumbria continues its long, historic tradition as a pioneer of new nuclear technology.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

It is exactly a week since 18-year-old Donnell Rhule was murdered with a knife on the Kingswood estate in my constituency, leaving his family devastated and a close-knit community reeling. It is exactly two years since the Youth Violence Commission published its interim report, setting out irrefutable evidence for the introduction of a cross-government approach to tackling serious violence, yet the scourge of knife crime across the country continues. The Youth Violence Commission will publish its final report tomorrow. Will the Prime Minister commit to accepting its recommendations and act immediately to introduce a cross-government public health approach to tackling serious violence and stop any more families suffering such terrible loss?

[The Prime Minister]

I know that everybody’s sympathies will be with the family of the victim in the hon. Lady’s constituency, as they are with the families of all victims of knife crime. I think that there are two things we have to do. First, I entirely agree with her that we need a cross-departmental medical approach focused on the needs of the families with the kids who particularly get involved in knife crime, and we need to put our arms around them and stop them being diverted into the gangs that are so often the root cause of the problem.

But we also need a tough policing solution. I have been concerned for the last few years that in London in particular, which the hon. Lady represents, we have not seen the approach that we saw under the previous Mayor, for instance, when there was a significant reduction in knife crime and a significant reduction in murder by dint of having proportionate policing that included the use of stop-and-search to stop young kids carrying knives. We need to have zero tolerance of kids going out on the street armed with a bladed weapon. That is absolutely vital. [Interruption.] An Opposition Member says, “Shocking.” In my experience, the people who are most supportive of taking the knives off kids on the streets of our city are the mothers of those kids who are most at risk of being killed. They support stop-and-search, and I hope the hon. Lady does, too.

Prime Minister’s Statement

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Saturday 19th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for everything that he has done for Northern Ireland. I think he would agree that the one thing that would really make a difference now to all those policy fields in Northern Ireland, and take Northern Ireland furthest forward the fastest, would be if we could get the Stormont Assembly up and running again and if the parties came together for government in Northern Ireland once more.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

At any point in the past three years, the Government could have agreed to internationally binding legal commitments to maintain existing workers’ rights and environmental protections and ensure that rights keep pace in the future. At every stage, they have refused to do so. Can the Prime Minister explain why people across this country should believe his empty promises now? If he is so confident that the British public will not see through his hollow rhetoric, why is he so afraid of giving them a final say?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady will know that the provisions on workers’ rights and environmental protections in the political decision are very ambitious. We want to maintain the highest possible standards. She should understand that whenever the EU introduces a new provision on workers’ rights, even if it is in some way inferior to our own by then, Parliament will have an opportunity to consider that new provision from the EU and put it into UK law.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 17th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I do not believe that political point scoring of this kind or trivialising the reality—[Interruption.] Ignoring the reality of the security situation in Sirte does no favours to the people of Libya. They want to see the international community concerted and co-ordinated around the UN plan so that their children can have the opportunities that are currently being denied to their own generation in Libya. That is what we are working to achieve.

[Helen Hayes (Dulwich and West Norwood) (Lab)]

2. What steps he has taken to support a negotiated settlement to the disputed status of Kashmir.