Iran-Israel Update

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

Last week, I met students at Woodbrook Vale School and De Lisle College in Loughborough. Their question on this topic is even more important now than it was when they put it to me: what more can the UK do to help bring peace to the region?

[The Prime Minister]

I point my hon. Friend to the statement. First and foremost, we have to be resolute in protecting regional security and standing up for Israel when situations such as this happen. Secondly, we have to be committed to a two-state solution, and we are doing everything we can to bring that about—the regional co-operation over the weekend demonstrated that there is much to be hopeful for. Thirdly, we must see an immediate humanitarian pause in Gaza, so that we can get the hostages out and aid in. That is the British approach. It is the right approach and we will work very hard to bring it about.

Illegal Immigration

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am confident because, in the Home Secretary and the Immigration Minister, we have a crack team. I know they will work tirelessly with their team to drive through the reforms announced today. My hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Richard Fuller) is right to hold us to account for that. Transparent metrics on processing, for example, are already published quarterly. People want to see flights returning people to Albania and elsewhere, and people coming out of hotels. That is what we want to deliver next year.

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

The independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency found in July 2006 that there was a backlog of between 400,000 and 450,000 cases. On that basis, this announcement is very welcome. I thank the Prime Minister for taking hold of this issue. When will we see an actual reduction in the number of people in hotels across the country? What capacity will we have to maintain those who claim asylum, and who have a valid claim, in facilities other than hotels across the UK?

[The Prime Minister]

The Immigration Minister, the Home Secretary and I are keen to deliver alternative sites as quickly as we can commercially negotiate and get them up and running. I want to see what my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Jane Hunt) wants to see, which is people moving out of hotels and less pressure on local communities. That is the type of accommodation we want to deliver.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

I rise to speak on behalf of the constituents of Loughborough, Shepshed, Quorn, Barrow, Sileby, Hathern, Mountsorrel and the Wolds villages to express their deep sorrow at the loss of our sovereign, Her Majesty the Queen.

Loughborough had the privilege of hosting Her Majesty on a number of occasions during her reign, including in 1996 when she opened the new English and drama building at Loughborough Grammar School, which was named the Queen’s Building in her honour. Her Majesty also visited in 1966 when she signed and sealed the Royal Charter of Incorporation that granted university status to Loughborough College of Technology, which became Loughborough University.

We were also very proud to be involved in the Queen’s baton relay in the lead-up to the Commonwealth games in Birmingham this summer. I spoke on behalf of Loughborough constituency in the Humble Address speech for her platinum jubilee earlier this year, saying that the Commonwealth is, of course, the jewel in the crown. Throughout her reign, Her Majesty has overseen its modernisation to ensure that it represents everyone and brings together communities from across the world, and that is undoubtedly true.

Loughborough will again be on the world stage this weekend when bells will ring across the country and across the world. Many of those bells will have been made in Loughborough at Taylor’s Bell Foundry, the world’s largest working bell foundry, including the casting of the Great Paul Bell at St Paul’s cathedral. We will be filled with both sadness and great pride that our bells say goodbye to our sovereign Queen and also welcome our new monarch, King Charles III. Loughborough is honoured to play its part in marking this solemn and moving occasion in British history.

In closing, I quote Her late Majesty when she said that

“grief is the price we pay for love.”

There will be a great deal of grief felt over these next few weeks and that is because there was a great deal of love for her throughout the 96 years of her life. Truly, she was Elizabeth the Great. May she rest in peace. God save the King.

CHOGM, G7 and NATO Summits

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is right to raise that. No, we are not looking at doing that. There are alternative solutions that do not involve the presence of UK or other warships in the Black sea, although they might involve a tougher approach. We are also looking at the possibility of using the rivers, particularly the Danube, and the railways to get the grain out in smaller quantities than we would be able to do with a giant maritime convoy through the Black sea. We are looking at all the options, including smaller packets of grain coming out in that way.

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend stated that

“Ukraine must have the strength to finish this war on the terms that President Zelensky has described.”

Are we confident that all our allies are as involved and supportive as the UK has been and continues to be for as long as it takes?

[The Prime Minister]

I think the answer to that is yes, because every time we go to one of these summits and we think that the alliance is friable and that the strength of the pro-Ukrainian coalition is weak, people gravitate towards the centre and towards what the UK is saying because there is no alternative: Putin is not offering any kind of deal, and President Zelenskyy cannot do any kind of land-for-peace deal. There is no other option for us but to continue to support the Ukrainians in the way that we are, and that is why the unity remains so compelling.

Address to Her Majesty: Platinum Jubilee

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

I am delighted to participate in the debate. What an historic moment it is—the first time we can celebrate a platinum jubilee in this place. I join colleagues in wholeheartedly thanking Her Majesty the Queen. I also thank her on behalf of all the residents of Loughborough, Shepshed, Barrow upon Soar, Quorn, Hathern, Sileby, Mountsorrel and the Wolds villages for her lifetime of public service and her unwavering dedication to the people of the UK and those across the Commonwealth. What an impressive feat to be both the longest serving monarch in the UK and the third—soon to be the second—longest serving monarch ever to have lived.

Loughborough has had the privilege of hosting Her Majesty on a number of occasions during her reign, including on 28 June 1996, when she came to open the new English and drama building at Loughborough Grammar School; it was named the Queen’s Building in her honour. The school’s deputy head, John Weitzel, shared this anecdote with me:

“The Queen arrived in pouring rain to be greeted by the 2,000 children of the Loughborough Schools’ Foundation. After formally opening the new English and Drama Studio, as she entered the building for a tour she gave instructions that the children should return to their respective Schools, rather than continue to get wet waiting for her. I chose to ignore the instructions, and fortunately the rain ceased and after touring the building she walked through the Quad to the main Hall. To me this showed that she cared more about the children’s welfare than I did.”

Her Majesty also visited Loughborough on 19 April 1966, when she signed and sealed the royal charter of incorporation that granted university status to Loughborough College of Technology. The Loughborough University of Technology was the first technological university in England and Wales. Since then, the university has thrived, becoming the largest employer in Loughborough and having a global reputation for its cutting-edge theoretical and applied research. Professor Nick Jennings, the university’s vice-chancellor, said:

“Loughborough University was granted its Royal Charter by Her Majesty in April 1966 and we are immensely proud of the success we have achieved through our teaching, research, enterprise and sport activities since that time. We have been honoured to receive seven Queen’s Anniversary Prizes and it has also been a great privilege to host Her Majesty on campus several times, most notedly in 2003 when she visited with the Duke of Edinburgh to open the ECB National Cricket Academy. Everyone at the University is excited and delighted that the Queen’s baton relay will pass through the campus on 11 July as it makes its way to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games. On behalf of all staff and students at Loughborough I would like to thank Her Majesty for her 70 years of service to the country. We send our best wishes for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.”

Of course, as well as academic achievements, Loughborough University is synonymous with sporting excellence, having trained many athletes who have gone on to represent the UK in international competitions, including at the Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic games. I am proud to say that Loughborough is the unofficial home of Commonwealth sport in England, and I share the vice-chancellor’s delight that we will be hosting a leg of the Queen’s baton relay.

The Commonwealth is, of course, the jewel in the crown. Throughout her reign, Her Majesty has overseen the Commonwealth’s modernisation to ensure that it represents everyone and brings together communities from across the world. Indeed, shortly after her accession to the throne, Her Majesty stated:

“The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace. To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.”

Her Majesty has been absolutely true to her word, as this strong commitment to bridging the gaps between communities for their own betterment has been a common thread throughout her reign.

In the same way, local residents in my constituency from all backgrounds will be coming together next weekend to celebrate Her Majesty’s achievements. In Loughborough, on 30 and 31 May, the Bellfoundry Museum is holding a “ring for royalty” event. There is also a Great Central Railway celebration and the lighting of the beacon in Queen’s Park on 2 June. Queen’s Park also plays host to a big lunch on 5 June. In addition, there are a number of Thorpe Acre village events from 2 to 5 June, and the Wheeltapper pub will be holding a jubilee party from 3 to 5 June.

In Shepshed, the Word of Life church is holding a family fun day on 3 June, and there is a platinum jubilee concert on 4 June at Glenmore Park. In Mountsorrel, there is an afternoon tea dance at Memorial Hall on 3 June, and the Peter Le Marchant Trust is running jubilee boat trips throughout the week. In Quorn, there is a jubilee fair at Stafford orchard on 4 June. In Barrow upon Soar, there is a party in the park on 4 June. And there is a street party at the Stockwell in Wymeswold on 5 June. We are very keen on the Queen.

All these community events are testament to the huge impact Her Majesty’s hard work and dedication have had on the people of Loughborough and, indeed, on people in every corner of the world. I am sure I speak for all of Loughborough when I say, “God bless Her Majesty the Queen, and thank you.”

Oral Answers to Questions

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Tuesday 8th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I absolutely endorse what my hon. Friend said. She will have seen that section 28, which deals with pre-recorded evidence from victims of rape, is set out in there. We will be articulating more clearly a plan to move from the limited trials we have at the moment to a national roll-out, which will be done in the first half of this year.

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

Two excellent support providers in Loughborough, the Exaireo Trust and the Carpenter’s Arms, look after people who have been repeat offenders and/or suffered from addiction for many years. As one resident put it, they were

“lost, broken and with no hope”.

These two organisations completely transform the lives of those residents in their service. What is my right hon. Friend doing to work with local providers and support these organisations financially to help people into work?

[The Minister for Crime and Policing (Kit Malthouse)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend and those organisations on their fantastic work. She is right that, if we are going to get ahead particularly of acquisitive crime, we have to look at the root causes of people’s offending and so often that is drug addiction. As part of our 10-year drugs strategy, we are committed to binding together coalitions of organisations, including the kind of organisations she described, to make an assault on this kind of crime and addiction in every area of the United Kingdom.

Afghanistan

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Wednesday 18th August 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

Above my desk in my constituency office there is a picture of Sir Winston Churchill, under which are the words:

“We are all of us defending…a cause…the cause of freedom and of justice, of the weak against the strong, of law against violence, of mercy and tolerance against brutality and ironbound tyranny.”

Sir Winston Churchill was speaking in 1942, but in many ways his words speak of Afghanistan throughout the centuries, and certainly in the 21st century.

When we think of Afghanistan, we think of our heroes—of the soldiers who went to serve and who did not return, or who were injured, their lives changed forever. We think of heroes such as Flight Lieutenant Alan Scott, a former Loughborough University student, or Guardsman Jack Davies of Loughborough, who was only 23 at the time of his death. We think of the Royal Anglian Regiment, whose members were awarded the freedom to enter the borough of Charnwood in 2006, in recognition of their service to our country and our town.

Sadly, I remember 9/11 very well and can understand the need at the time to, as the President of the USA said, “degrade the terrorist threat” and to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base from which attacks against the United States could continue. Given that no more terrorist attacks on that scale have been launched from Afghanistan in the last 20 years, it is clear that the intervention achieved its aims. However, the President also justified the fast-paced withdrawal of military personnel by claiming that the USA

“did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.”

Despite that being the case, the USA, with the support of NATO and the UK, has moved the nation forward. That is demonstrated by the fact that today millions of girls in Afghanistan go to school and women hold more than a quarter of the seats in Afghanistan’s parliament, in stark contrast with the situation under the previous Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in which no girls attended school and women were excluded from governance. We absolutely must not sit back and allow that progress to be undermined.

I do not advocate the imposition of our western society on any other society—countries should of course be free to do as their people wish—but I do advocate democracy and the people of every country being afforded their basic human rights, including free will and the choice to determine how they live and the environment in which their children grow up. As such, the UK Government continue to play a role as we transition to a new phase of international support for Afghanistan. We must be clear with the Taliban that if they continue to abuse domestic human rights, they cannot expect to enjoy any legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan people or the international community. A small number of my constituents have relatives in Afghanistan, and I would like their applications for refugee status, or discretionary right to remain in the case of spouses, to be dealt with swiftly and positively.

For 20 years, the work of our armed forces has protected the Afghan people and denied terrorists a safe haven from which to launch attacks against the UK. Those same forces have enabled development to take place that has improved the lives of millions and transformed Afghan society. I thank our armed forces for their huge sacrifice and the contribution that each has made, and I ask that those who helped our armed forces to deliver that help and support in Afghanistan also be helped and supported here in the UK.

Covid-19: NAO Report on Government Procurement

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 Westminster Hall

[Dan Carden]

Thank you, Ms Eagle. I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. Story after story has come forward in a similar vein.

Public procurement regulations are designed to safeguard public confidence in the spending of public money. On 18 March 2020, the Cabinet Office implemented emergency procedures for procurement to allow for extreme urgency, including directly awarding contracts to suppliers without competition. That guidance referred to the need to keep proper records of decisions and actions on individual contracts; to have transparency and publication requirements; and to achieve value for money—basic requirements that the report and other information in the public domain now show the Government failed to meet.

The NAO highlights that, remarkably, the Cabinet Office guidance failed to give direction on managing the risks that should be considered as a result of using direct awards. The usual Cabinet Office spending controls on contracts over £10 million were not applied to the procurement of personal protective equipment. A clearance board was later set up, with an eight-stage process to approve PPE contracts over £5 million, but we know that £1.5 billion was awarded in contracts before proper processes were in place and before any financial and company due diligence process was standardised.

By 31 July 2020, over 8,600 contracts, worth £18 billion, had been awarded, of which £10.5 billion-worth were awarded directly without competition. Under the cover of the pandemic, billions of pounds of public money was handed to private companies, including Tory-linked firms, without competition, transparency or accountability.

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we were on daily calls at the time discussing the pandemic and how we could help our constituents and companies? People from all parties were there, including Labour Members who were rightly asking for PPE for care homes and other organisations in their constituencies.

[Dan Carden]

I will move on because I want to go through the ways in which the system was set up. I will move on to some of the case studies highlighted in the report. PestFix, a pest control supplier, was handed a contract worth £350 million for PPE. The Government contracted with PestFix to purchase 25 million FFP2 masks, which we now know did not meet the Government’s published PPE specifications at the time of the order. Only after 600,000 masks were completed and delivered did the Department communicate the problem to PestFix and alter the contract.

Ayanda Capital—a London-based investment firm whose senior adviser was Andrew Mills—was awarded a PPE contract worth £252 million. At the time, Mills was also an adviser to the Board of Trade, part of the Department for International Trade. The 50 million masks purchased from Ayanda Capital failed to meet NHS specifications and were never able to be used. The deal’s documentation failed to identify any conflicts of interest.

Other cases have come to light. P14 Medical, a small firm based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, which recorded significant losses in 2019, was handed a £156 million contract to import PPE from China. Its director is a Conservative councillor. PPE Medpro, which has already been mentioned and is run by Anthony Page, a business associate of Conservative peer Baroness Mone, was handed a £122 million contract weeks after it was set up. In fact, PPE Medpro was set up on the day that Page quit as secretary of the company that deals with Baroness Mone’s brand.

In another case, Spanish businessman Gabriel González Andersson received £21 million of taxpayer’s money for acting as an agent to an American jewellery designer who, despite the absence of relevant experience, received major contracts for the supply of PPE. The Health Secretary’s former neighbour, who runs a pub in his village and has no previous experience in medical supplies, was awarded a £30 million contract to make millions of plastic vials for covid tests. He first contacted the Health Secretary by WhatsApp.

It is not just in the procurement of PPE that the Government have serious questions to answer. Some £840,000 was handed to the communications company, Public First, to run focus groups. The contract for that work was awarded retrospectively. Public First was founded by husband and wife Mr Frayne and Ms Wolf in 2016. Both Frayne and Wolf have worked in senior positions at different times for the former Education Secretary, and now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, the right hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove).

The NAO stated:

“We found no documentation on the consideration of conflicts of interest, no recorded process for choosing the supplier, and no specific justification for using emergency procurement.”

The Government have tried to claim that the NAO report shows Ministers properly declared their interests and that there is no evidence of Ministers’ involvement in procurement decisions or contract management. The truth is that we just do not know what role Ministers played.

The Government’s only explanation is that this was an emergency and they were sourcing PPE as quickly as possible. Yes, the Government had to source PPE quickly—a problem of their own making. During years of cutbacks, emergency stockpiles of PPE dwindled and went out of date. The Government ignored warnings from their own advisers to buy missing equipment, and pandemic planning became yet another casualty of austerity and incompetence. It took Ministers until March to realise that the NHS supply chain, fragmented by years of marketisation, could not distribute PPE quickly enough to meet demand, which left Ministers scrambling to source PPE from elsewhere and overpaying by tens of billions of pounds.

[Jane Hunt]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Dan Carden]

No, I do not have time.

Despite the enormous sums being spent, PPE was still not making it to the frontline. There was a huge disconnect between the boasts being made by Ministers in Parliament and the reality on the ground, where key workers were pleading for the kit that they needed to do their job safely. We all recognised that this was an emergency, but the need to act fast does not explain or excuse the Government’s actions. It does not explain why the emergency procurement rules should have been applied to non-PPE or non-emergency suppliers, such as public relations agencies, and nor does it justify why some consultants were paid in one week what a nurse earns in an entire year. It does not explain why rules around transparency, which were not suspended by the emergency procedures, were not followed, or why the Government still refuse to reveal basic information about who was bidding for contracts and how decisions about contracts were made.

Here is where the Government’s story really falls apart. We know that dozens of experienced local suppliers that offered to provide PPE were ignored. These qualified businesses had the capacity to produce large quantities of PPE quickly, but they were overlooked for contracts while businesses that had no prior experience were deemed fit. Ahead of this debate, I was contacted by reputable PPE suppliers that say they were crowded out during the pandemic by organisations that had no history of PPE manufacture or supply, some of which we now know had existed only for a matter of weeks. One established family-run company in Merseyside was forced to lay off staff after its offer of PPE to Government was ignored and then refused, as contracts instead went to Tory-linked firms buying from abroad.

The cronyism does not stop with contracts. We have also witnessed an opaque and troubling appointment process, whereby senior figures with close ties to the Conservative party have won public jobs that are of great importance in the national response to the pandemic. I pay tribute to Gabriel Pogrund and Tom Calver at The Sunday Times for their investigation, which was headlined, “Chumocracy first in line as Ministers splash covid cash”. Their investigation really is essential reading; it is extensive, and there is not time to do it justice in this debate, but it starts with the Prime Minister’s appointment of a close family friend, Kate Bingham, who is also the wife of a Conservative MP, to head up the vaccines taskforce. There was no formal appointment process, and Ms Bingham was appointed despite being a venture capitalist who had no previous experience in the field. She herself has said that her initial reaction to the Prime Minister’s offer was to say:

“I am not a vaccine expert, why should I be the right person?”

Bingham has spent £670,000 on consultants from a small PR agency with close links to the family of Dominic Cummings. She is also facing accusations that she shared sensitive Government information at a private equity networking event in the United States.

Then there is Lord Feldman, a former chairman of the Conservative party, who was secretly appointed as an unpaid adviser to the Department of Health. He sat in on discussions between health Ministers and Tory donor David Meller. Meller was later handed a £163 million contract for PPE despite his company having no track record of producing PPE. I wonder whether Mr Meller will be making any more donations to the Conservative party any time soon—he certainly must be flush for cash.

George Pascoe-Watson and Tory peer Lord O'Shaughnessy, chairman and senior adviser of the lobbying firm Portland Communications, were appointed as advisers at the Department of Health. They quite literally split their time between advising the Government on their covid response and advising their corporate clients on what was going on in Government. Lord O’Shaughnessy took part in calls with Boston Consulting Group, a Portland Communications client, which went on to be handed a £21 million contract from Government.

Of course, if anyone has a problem with any of this, they could take it up with the Government’s anti-corruption champion, the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose), who is here with us today in Westminster Hall. He is also a Conservative MP and the husband of Dido Harding, the Conservative peer appointed to head the nation’s test and trace programme. Her appointment is now facing a possible judicial review.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Eagle. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Dan Carden) for securing this important debate.

From wasting taxpayers’ money on PPE that was not fit for purpose and Serco’s inept contact tracing system, to setting up a VIP procurement channel for people with political connections, this Government have disregarded their own rules, operated secretly and made dangerous decisions that have jeopardised public health. The OECD foreign bribery report found that public procurement is particularly vulnerable to corruption. It is worth bearing that in mind when we look more closely at some of the eye-watering examples that Members have set out.

[Jane Hunt]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Nadia Whittome]

No. The hon. Lady has made many interventions already. Let me tell Members here, on behalf of our key workers in Nottingham and across the country, that these dodgy dealings might feel like games to Ministers, but they have very real life consequences for people across the country. Myself, my colleagues and thousands of frontline care workers struggled during the heat of the pandemic, when it was widely reported that a lack of adequate PPE and staff testing in care homes created a major risk of the virus spreading. We were smeared in the media, including by Members on the Government Benches.

Let me state again for the record: the lucrative contracts that this Government were handing out to their pals led to failures and delays that had a direct impact on frontline workers during the pandemic. People die when the Government get these things wrong. People have died. Does the Minister unequivocally accept the recommendations of the National Audit Office report, and by what date will they be implemented?

The Government need to immediately outline a list of all contracts awarded during the pandemic that are unlawful, terminate them and procure further services by way of fair and lawful competition. Will the Minister commit to that today? Ultimately, procurement for the public sector needs to be re-established, with the reliance on management consultants scrapped. People deserve to know that their money is being spent on keeping them safe, in a way that is fair and above board. We demand action and we demand answers.

Public Health

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

Prior to this debate, I was contacted by many constituents with their opinions on how to vote today. My default position would be to support those who wish for fewer restrictions, to allow others to live their lives as they choose to, and to help and support each and every constituent in that choice. However, this is an unprecedented situation, and the first duty of any Government must be to protect their citizens. I know that the Government—and especially the Prime Minister—have not taken any of these difficult decisions lightly.

I have supported and will continue to support the tiered structure, and the ability to look at the situation at a very local level and understand what is going on in each locality. That has enabled some of the country to remain at a low level of restriction for an extended period. However, in order to prevent a deluge of intensive care beds being needed, I have come to the conclusion that we must have a heightened restriction of our liberty throughout November to stem the tide of the virus. That is not to say that our constituents have not followed the rules. I thank the people of the Loughborough constituency—residents, visitors, students and pupils alike—who have very clearly followed the rules, which has helped not only themselves but their friends and neighbours.

There is a hard task ahead for many during November. There are a number of religious festivals and commemorations which in other years have attracted huge crowds and gatherings, such as Diwali, Advent and the birthday of Guru Nanak. These are often times when families get together to celebrate their faith. That will not be possible in private homes this year, but I still press for churches and places of worship to be allowed to open for those specific events in order to support their communities. Loughborough usually has a large and very moving remembrance service in Queen’s Park, along with others in Shepshed and the surrounding villages. Again, they will not be able to happen in the same way this year, but that does not diminish our need to honour our fallen; we will remember them.

My friends, colleagues and those who live in the Loughborough constituency will know that I have been “going on”—as they would put it—about a V-shaped recovery for a long time. We owe it to those who have lost their lives to ensure that we come back stronger and better as a country and as a constituency. In Loughborough, we have capitalised on all the support from the Government: the grants and support for small businesses; the loans that have been available to keep businesses going; and the individual support for those who have found themselves in a difficult situation. Programmes such as eat out to help out and kickstart, and the early town deal funding, have all supported the local community. I welcome the fact that the support package has been extended to ensure that a safety net remains for those who need it.

Let us get ready for the time that these new restrictions will ease. Let us take the time to plan—each individual, each family, each business and each organisation. Let every one of us make a positive decision to create a good recovery for ourselves, our local communities and our businesses. Risk assessment is the key to this. With risk, we eradicate if we can and mitigate where we cannot. This is a global pandemic; we cannot eradicate, so we must mitigate. As part of the planning process, we should therefore look at taking a different approach to events and venues, whereby each produces its own risk assessment of how many people it can safely accommodate while adhering to social distancing guidelines. Let us spend this month making sure that each of us has a plan to get on in life. Let us turn the negative into a positive, and all take part in the recovery of this great country.

Covid-19 Update

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do not know whether £190 billion counts as a promissory note or empty rhetoric, but that is what the Chancellor has provided so far in support. I am grateful for what the hon. Gentleman says about local responses. That is entirely right, and we are certainly looking for locally led responses to help us to get the virus down.

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

Could the Prime Minister say how we can use the three-tier system to enable all types of businesses to use a risk assessment base to their operation to help them remain open and fully working in all but the very high-tier instances?

[The Prime Minister]

All businesses that are covid-secure should be able to keep going, and I hope that they will.