CHOGM, G7 and NATO Summits

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Monday 4th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his work for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which was mentioned to me at the summit. I can tell him that the UK is leading the NATO alliance in providing for the new force model in our naval commitment, and we are trying to encourage others to do the same.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Further to the question from the right hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), the Prime Minister will know that time is running out to get grain to the hundreds of millions of people who will be facing destitution and hunger, as the Secretary-General has warned. Can he tell us who will provide the security guarantees to Ukraine? The fear is that, if we open a sea corridor, the Russians will seek to use it to attack Odesa. Can he confirm that it is to Turkey that the world is looking to provide those guarantees, so the grain can get out before the moment is lost?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman is completely right: the Turks are absolutely indispensable to solving this. They are doing their very best and I thank President Erdoğan for all the efforts that he is making. It does depend on the Russians agreeing to allow that grain to get out. The UK is offering demining facilities and insurance facilities for the vessels that will be needed to get the grain out. He is right about the urgency. We will increasingly have to look at alternative means of moving that grain from Ukraine if we cannot use the sea route—if we cannot use the Bosphorus.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 27th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is an avid champion for his constituents. He might have missed what I said earlier, but there are now 13,576 more police on the streets of this country as a result of the actions taken by this Government. There are also tougher sentences, which were opposed by the party opposite. We are cracking down on drugs gangs, whereas the Labour party is soft on drugs. I think the Leader of the Opposition said he would decriminalise drugs and that he did not want people found with class A drugs to face prison sentences—I think I heard him say that.

Of course, we are also cracking down on cross-channel gangs that risk the lives of migrants in the English channel. We are cracking down on them and, as far as I know, the Labour party would scrap the economic and migration partnership with Rwanda. We have a plan; they do not.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Some 4.5 million people pay for their gas and electricity through a prepayment meter. They are already paying more for their energy than direct debit customers, and the number of people who are disconnecting themselves because they have run out of money for the meter is increasing. What is the Prime Minister going to do to ensure that all our constituents have a right to light and warmth?

[The Prime Minister]

We are working with Ofgem and all the companies to ensure that we protect people at this difficult time. We are also making sure that we support people, and not just through the cold weather payment and the winter fuel payment. By giving £0.5 billion more to councils, we are making sure that we look after the types of people to whom the right hon. Gentleman refers, who are finding it particularly tough. We will do everything we can to shield the people of this country as we get through the aftershocks of covid and deal with a global inflation problem.

Ukraine

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Thursday 24th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is completely right that we need to unpeel the façade of these shell companies so that we can see who owns the property concerned.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

It is because John Stuart Mill was right when he warned that

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing”

that the whole House will support the measures that the Prime Minister has announced. In his statement, he said that our mission is clear “diplomatically, politically, economically and, eventually, militarily.” What did he mean by militarily? Was he referring to providing further defensive weapons to enable Ukraine to defend itself?

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously I do not want to go into detail, because it is a sensitive and difficult business, but, yes, we have done so and continue to do so. I believe that I have the support of the House in intending to continue to do so.

Ukraine

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The answer is that we need to work together to wean ourselves off and end the dependency on Russian gas. The House knows all the things we are doing to support our eastern European allies militarily, but we also need to share technology, particularly in renewables, to allow them to find a different future.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Whether the sanctions that the Prime Minister just announced will “hit Russia…hard”, as he said this morning, only time will tell, but he also said:

“there is a lot more that we are going to do in the event of an invasion”.

The Prime Minister has just told the House that he regards what happened overnight as a renewed invasion of Ukraine. If that is the Government’s view, why is he waiting and not imposing full sanctions on Russia now?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman makes a couple of points. The House will have heard me on this issue several times; I have been very clear that we wanted to have the biggest possible package of sanctions ready to go in the event of a Russian toe-cap crossing into more sovereign Ukrainian territory. We will also make sure that we implement the waves of sanctions in concert with our allies; that is what we are doing.

Living with Covid-19

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Monday 21st February 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, my hon. Friend is right to draw attention to all sorts of studies about the efficacy of lockdowns. We will look at all the evidence. I happen to think that the collective actions of the British public were indispensable in saving many, many thousands of lives. But I am sure that all the evidence will be looked at in the course of the inquiry.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

New antiviral drugs have made a huge difference to the treatment of covid—they are indeed, as the Prime Minister says, the first line of defence—but they work best when given early. At the moment, one of the requirements in order to qualify to get an antiviral drug is that the person has tested positive for covid. If he is going to get rid of free lateral flow tests, how are people going to get access to those medicines?

[The Prime Minister]

With great respect to the right hon. Gentleman, people who are symptomatic will of course continue to have access to testing.

Sue Gray Report

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Monday 31st January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I can give my hon. Friend that absolute assurance.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Has a date been set for the Prime Minister to be interviewed by the Metropolitan police in connection with their inquiry?

[The Prime Minister]

The police are independent and they must get on with their inquiry.

Ukraine

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 25th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

The military reality is that President Putin knows that if he invades he will not be facing NATO troops, and therefore the sanctions that we put in place have to be the strongest possible. Is the Prime Minister not concerned, given the answer he just gave about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the fact that discussions are still continuing about exclusion from the SWIFT system, that we are not demonstrating determined, united resolve at the very moment when we need the credible threat of strong sanctions to try and deter President Putin from invading Ukraine?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his very important point. I think actually we are making a huge amount of progress. I want to thank my right hon. Friends the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary for the work that they are doing, because I think we are bringing together the west on a very tough package, and that is what we need.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 19th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is completely right. Covid has caused a great deal of apprehension across the country, particularly among vulnerable people, in my experience. It is important as we go forward and recover our freedoms that they, in particular, regain the confidence to live their lives to the full, as we would all want.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Following the discussions between the Department of Health and Social Care and the Information Commissioner, is the Prime Minister satisfied that NHS employers will have access to all the information that they require to ensure that all their staff have indeed been vaccinated?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point. The data I have is that we are up to 94.7% of NHS staff who have been vaccinated. That is a great improvement, but we have to make sure that we cull all the data as fast as possible and work with all the NHS trusts to do that. One of the big things that we have learned in this pandemic is that data needs to be much more accessible—faster—to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 5th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend very much. He makes an incredibly important point about the record of the Opposition, because the pressure on the NHS is caused by the limit to the number of beds that we have—there are only about 100,000. That is why this Government are getting on with building 40 more hospitals—[Interruption.] Yes, we are. And that is why we are recruiting 50,000 more nurses. They opposed the lot of it.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Up until now, the advice to care homes has been that if someone tests positive with a PCR test, they should not be tested using a PCR or a lateral flow test for 90 days unless they develop new symptoms during that time, in which case they should be retested immediately using a PCR test. Given the changes to the testing arrangements that the Prime Minister has announced today, does that advice still hold?

[The Prime Minister]

No, it does not, and I will make sure that the right hon. Gentleman is advised on the new arrangements.

COP26

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Monday 15th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend, who is the trade envoy to South Africa. I also thank the Government of South Africa, led by Cyril Ramaphosa, who has taken an extraordinary step and built an international coalition for South Africa to decarbonise its energy system. It will not necessarily be easy, but it is a way that we can have a just transition for South Africa. Countries around the world, including the UK, are coming together to do that. That is the model for progress that we can make with so many of the big emitters; as the right hon. Member for Knowsley (Sir George Howarth) was saying, that is the way forward with the big emitters around the world.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

All the commitments that countries have made in Glasgow have credibility only to the extent that they are backed up by plans at home to deliver the promised emissions reductions. It is now a question of counting.

Let us take an example. Eventually, all of the 22 million or 23 million gas boilers in this country will have to go. The Government say that their target is for 600,000 heat pumps a year to be installed by 2028. The recently published heat and buildings strategy provides enough funding to help support the installation of 30,000 a year. Why is the Government’s plan for decarbonising home heating so far short of what is required?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the need to decarbonise our heating, but it can be done. There is great variety in the housing stock of the UK, and I believe that if we keep on track with investment, supporting and priming the market, we will be able to bring down radically the cost of ground source heat pumps and all the other ways to give people the heating that they need in a clean, green way. That is what we are going to do.

Afghanistan

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Monday 6th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting suggestion and I encourage it to be taken up. We need to ensure that the elements of the Taliban who are different, as I believe they are, from the Taliban of 1996-9 are encouraged and that we put the maximum pressure on them not to allow the more retrograde elements to have the upper hand. That is what this Government and others around the world are going to do.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Many communities, the city of Leeds included, have always given a very warm welcome to refugees, but we know that the poorest parts of our country have consistently taken a much higher proportion of refugees and asylum seekers than the wealthier areas. Does the Prime Minister think that is fair, and if not, what does he intend to do about it?

[The Prime Minister]

I believe the whole country should pull together and everybody should step up to the plate. I know that there are councils across the country that will want to help and are helping. I thank the people of Leeds very much for what they have done, both now and historically, and I hope that councils around the UK will follow their example.

Afghanistan

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Thursday 8th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend, who knows a great deal about Afghanistan and the problems it faces. Of course, we have raised repeatedly with our American friends and other NATO colleagues the legacy that we wish to preserve in Afghanistan, particularly the gains made for women, and they understand that. In all candour, I must be honest and say that I do not think that the military options open to us are very great, and I think that people need to recognise that, to return to the point I made to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith). But we will do whatever we can diplomatically and politically to get a realistic lasting solution for Afghanistan.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

Yesterday the Prime Minister told the Liaison Committee that he was apprehensive about the future of Afghanistan and that the situation was fraught with risks—a sentiment shared by many Afghans, who fear that the gains of which he has spoken so eloquently today, such as girls’ education and democracy, may be lost. After two decades and the sacrifice of so many British lives, whose loss we mourn today and always, why is he so confident that the Taliban will never again allow any part of Afghanistan—because they control some parts already—to be used by terrorist forces, including ISIS, as a base from which to attack this country and others of our allies?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point. Obviously, the Taliban have for several years now controlled a considerable part of Afghanistan, as he knows, and it is during that period that we have not seen terrorist operations launched against the wider world. What may weigh on the Taliban’s minds as they think about whether to allow the Khorasan province group, the Haqqani network or al-Qaeda to return and re-form in the way that they were there in the past, and to act outside Afghanistan, is that they should remember what happened last time.

G7 and NATO Summits

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 16th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will do my best to oblige my hon. Friend, although my experience of the matter over the past few years is that this House is a great legislator but not an ideal negotiator.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab) [V]]

The G7 announcement of 1 billion additional vaccine doses for developing countries was, of course, welcome, but the Prime Minister knows that the head of the World Health Organisation says that we need 11 billion doses in total if we are to vaccinate 70% of the world population. Where does the right hon. Gentleman think that the rest of those doses will come from, so that everyone can be safe because everyone is vaccinated?

[The Prime Minister]

One of the most important things that we agreed at the G7, along with the Carbis Bay principles that I have outlined and that will form part of the health treaty, was that we should work together to increase vaccine manufacturing capacity and fill-and-finish facilities around the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. I have to tell the right hon. Gentleman that it has only been a few months since these vaccines were invented; we are going as fast as we can, but our ambition is to vaccinate the world by the end of next year.

Covid-19

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a good and important point. He is right to take that up with Welsh Labour, to hold it to account and to insist that the Welsh Government spend that money where it needs to be spent.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab) [V]]

Can the Prime Minister tell the House when every child in my Leeds constituency and across the country will have access to a laptop, when every parent who needs help will be able to afford the necessary broadband or phone charges so that their children can connect up to their lessons, teachers and classmates, and who they should contact if they cannot?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman raises the very important needs of his constituents in respect of broadband connectivity and laptops, and I totally understand their concerns. Obviously, we are massively expanding those things and rolling them out, but for the detailed answer that he needs about each of his constituents and those in need, I will have to write to him, if I may, setting out exactly when they can expect the help that he talks about.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, and in addition to providing support for hospitality—pubs—in Bishop Auckland through the JSS that I mentioned already, there is the business rate cut that my hon. Friend is familiar with and the grants that I have announced today. But the best thing, as she rightly says, is to get the virus under control so that we can lift these restrictions altogether. That is what we want to do.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

We all know that rising infections will mean more restrictions, but worried staff in viable businesses in Leeds want to know that they will be looked after if they are forced to close in future. I presume that the Prime Minister can give the House an assurance that the council would be consulted before that happened, but for someone on the minimum wage who would lose a third of their income in those circumstances—by the way, the French and German schemes are more generous than those applying here—can the Prime Minister assure my constituents that they will not, under any circumstances, be evicted from their homes because they could not afford to pay the rent?

[The Prime Minister]

I must respectfully take issue with the right hon. Gentleman’s characterisation of the scheme, which remains internationally competitive. In France, it is 60% for some, 70% for others. In Germany, it is about the same. In Italy, they have an 80% provision, but there is a serious cap—a very low cap—-in Ireland; it is down at 60%. This is a highly competitive scheme, and it is one that I think is generous by international comparisons. On his point about evictions, nobody wants to see anybody evicted because of the hardship they have suffered because of coronavirus, and that is why we have extended the period in which landlords are prevented from conducting such evictions by a further six months.

Transport Infrastructure

Debate between Hilary Benn and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 11th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Absolutely; on Handsacre, my hon. Friend has my full support.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement but, given what he has said about reviewing phase 2b, could he tell the people of Leeds when he now expects the new HS2 station to open?