Oral Answers to Questions

Karen Buck Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend, and he is absolutely right not just that this matters very much to him and to his constituents, but that the welfare of communities in Kashmir is of profound concern to the UK Government. He also knows, of course, that it is the long-standing position of the UK Government that the crisis in Kashmir is fundamentally a matter for India and Pakistan to resolve and, alas, since we were there at the very beginning of this crisis, he will understand that, for long-standing reasons, it is not for us as the UK to prescribe a solution in that dispute.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

Q5.   In my constituency, the squeeze on Government spending has meant that we have a third fewer police than we had in 2010, we have lost half our children’s centres and the state of disrepair at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, is so acute that, last week, the out-patients department was closed because of leaking sewage. How, then, can the Prime Minister justify squandering £2 billion of public money on no-deal Brexit preparations following his feeble pledge to exit the EU tomorrow, do or die?

[The Prime Minister]

I might ask the hon. Lady how she can justify this country spending another £1 billion per month on delaying our exit from the European Union, which is what she voted for.

I remind the hon. Lady that, under this Government, we are spending £225 million more per year on policing in London than was the case when I was Mayor of London. She might ask her friend the Mayor of London what he is doing with that money and why he cannot do better. Frankly, his record on policing in London is utterly shameful. She should be holding him to account.