Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Mike Amesbury

Tuesday 4th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

20. What recent discussions he has had with his European counterparts on continued diplomatic co-operation after the UK leaves the EU.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

I have recently discussed post-Brexit diplomatic co-operation with my French, German, Belgian and Norwegian counterparts, and I am confident that it will continue post Brexit.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

On the contrary, I think this deal allows us to project ourselves with confidence and strength across the world. I have had conversations with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, who is grateful for the staunch support that the UK has given his country in this challenging situation. It is fair to say that the UK has been one of the leading voices, if not the leading voice, among EU countries on foreign policy issues such as this, and I am confident that we will continue to do that.

[Mike Amesbury]

When he spoke to Andrew Marr last weekend, the Foreign Secretary said that the Prime Minister’s proposed deal

“mitigates most of the negative impacts”

of leaving the EU. Can he tell us which of the negative impacts of leaving the EU the deal does not mitigate?

[Mr Hunt]

That is a very clever partial quotation. What I said was that this deal gets us most of what people voted for, and that it can be a staging post to getting everything that we voted for. That is why I shall be supporting the deal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Mike Amesbury

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

This is a very important issue and the hon. Lady is right to raise it. The Time to Change campaign has said that this year it will focus on men, specifically to try to address the issues she mentioned. We are rolling out crisis plans throughout the country to make sure we are better able to reach people who reach out to us.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

What reassurance can the Secretary of State give to the Amplify youth project in Northwich in my constituency that timely and improved access to mental health services will be provided?

[Mr Hunt]

We have said that by 2020-21 we want to be treating an extra 70,000 young people every year, but the truth is that that is still not enough. We need to bring down waiting times much more dramatically, which is why we are doing a lot of work across Government and we have a Green Paper coming out shortly.