Business of the House

Jake Berry Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

The hon. Lady’s question affords me the opportunity, on behalf of us all, to thank all those emergency services and others who have been working to protect our communities through snow, floods and high winds in the past few weeks. I am sorry to hear that she has not had information through from the relevant Department. I did write last week on a similar matter about eligibility criteria, and I will make sure that she gets a copy of that answer from the Department. As departmental questions are a couple of months away, I will raise the issue with the Secretary of State.

[Sir Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen) (Con)]

Could we want for any better evidence that the mandate for the covid inquiry is already out of date than hearing that the evidence of serving and former Cabinet Ministers, and of the former Prime Minister, about the origin of the covid virus has been ruled out of order? Let us have a statement from the Government about updating the mandate for the covid inquiry two years on from when it was set up, so that it can properly deal with the origins of the disease, the efficacy of both the vaccines and the lockdowns, and the huge number of NHS excess deaths. This is an inquiry that must serve the people of this country and the victims of this terrible disease, and it is already out of date.

[Penny Mordaunt]

My right hon. Friend raises an extremely important matter. Some of the issues that he raises were not in the original terms of the inquiry. Even if they sit outside the work of that inquiry, the questions that he raises are legitimate, particularly for our national security. Although it may not be possible to change the terms of the current inquiry, which is looking particularly at the Government’s response to that situation, I will certainly alert the Cabinet to the issues that he raises, which are related to national security.