Oral Answers to Questions

Katherine Fletcher Excerpts

Wednesday 13th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I continually advise the members of the Scottish National party—or nationalist party, I should say—they should look at what is happening to educational standards in Scotland, which they are responsible for, instead of endlessly asking for a repeat of a constitutional event that we had in 2014. We had a vote, and they lost.

[Katherine Fletcher (South Ribble) (Con)]

Q7. The Prime Minister knows how proud we are of our industrial heritage in the north of England and what it means for our future. Last Friday, it was a joy to be on the banks of the Ribble with the friends of the Old Tram Bridge—a group who are asking for this historic piece of industrial architecture that crosses the Ribble to be reopened, both for utility and because we are bloody proud of it. Does the Prime Minister share my hope that Preston City Council will include the plans to get the bridge reopened as part of its levelling-up fund bid?

[The Prime Minister]

It is possibly fair to say that I am responsible for building more river crossings and bridges than anybody else in this House, including the Suggitts Lane crossing, which I delivered for my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers). At this stage in my political career, I could not in all honesty promise that I will deliver this bridge, but my hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Katherine Fletcher) has eight people to whom she can direct that request right now, and she is in a strong bargaining position.