Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Karl Turner Excerpts
Wednesday 20th May 2026

(3 weeks, 5 days ago)

Commons Chamber
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Keir Starmer Portrait The Prime Minister
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I am really sorry: the answer is no, and I cannot bring myself to congratulate the councillors. I apologise.

Karl Turner Portrait Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Ind)
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From 1997, the Prime Minister campaigned to scrap single-judge trials in Northern Ireland, yet when I opposed his Government’s plan to bring in single-judge trials in England and Wales, I received hostile briefings and smears about my mental health from the lads in No. 10 Downing Street. The Chief Whip is shaking his head, but he knows about it. The Prime Minister knows that my nephew Matty took his own life as a result of work-related stress as a young criminal lawyer. During Mental Health Awareness Week, when Ministers spoke with compassion about health and wellbeing, did the Prime Minister reflect on those hostile, discriminatory briefings, which he knew about and allowed to happen?

Keir Starmer Portrait The Prime Minister
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The hon. Gentleman has previously told me about Matty and the impact that that had on him. I totally understand that, and I want to be absolutely clear that nobody should be smeared in relation to mental health—nobody—on any issue, whatever they may argue on any other issue. I will do everything I can to make sure that that is the position.