Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Keir Starmer and Kirsteen Sullivan

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very proud that we have removed over 24,000 people: the highest record for nearly 10 years. We are taking other measures to get back control of our borders, including the Borders Bill, which gives our law enforcement enhanced powers, including terrorism-like powers. What did the hon. Member’s party do? What did he do? He voted against them, and I will tell you why: they do not want to fix this problem, because it benefits them not to fix it. Party before country.

It is very good that the hon. Member is standing in for the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) today. There was no sign of him yesterday at the EU summit. He was the first through the e-gates to somewhere in the south of France: Nice work if you can get it!

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q11. I welcome the Government’s investment of £680 million into mental health support. Meanwhile, in Scotland, many children in my constituency are stuck on an NHS Lothian neurodevelopmental waiting list, which only recently has seen patients referred in March 2022. This delay can lead to poor mental health, with children ending up on a child and adolescent mental health services waiting list too. How will the Prime Minister work with the devolved Governments to ensure faster diagnosis and greater support, so that no child across these isles grows up on a waiting list?

UK-EU Summit

Debate between Keir Starmer and Kirsteen Sullivan

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It will certainly not take years. The whole point of the fund is to be part of the collective response to the challenge in Ukraine. The fund was one of the initiatives that came out of the work that we were doing with the coalition of the willing. Everybody involved wants to move at speed, and that is the basis on which we have approached this matter. What yesterday does is knock out one of the gateway issues that we were otherwise facing, so that we can work with others to access the fund, but we will work as quickly as we can, because the situation in Ukraine is extremely serious and will need to be addressed as soon as possible.

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Prime Minister for negotiating this deal, which is good for the UK and, according to umpteen businesses, good for Scotland. As someone who benefited from a year in France many years ago, I welcome the work that is under way to give young people in my constituency access to a youth experience scheme, but will the Prime Minister work at pace to ensure that our sportspeople and musicians can showcase their talents and are no longer subjected to the Tories’ botched Brexit?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for her important question. We will work as quickly as we can on that issue, because, whichever way people voted, they did not vote to stop creatives and sportspeople crossing national boundaries to showcase their talent—in whatever way that may be—so we do need to resolve it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Keir Starmer and Kirsteen Sullivan

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Nobody likes pubs better than me, and we support them. This is the same old nonsense: the Opposition say they do not want the rise in national insurance contributions, but they do not have the courage to say they would reverse it, because they know that if they did say that, they would be unable to say where the money is coming from. That is how we got into the problem in the first place.

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q15. Few things are more harrowing than a parent’s desperate and repeated attempts to access the mental health support their child needs. Organisations such as Smile, a counselling service supporting young people in my constituency, are stepping into the breach while young people languish on waiting lists without the help they need. Over the past decade, Smile has been a lifeline for thousands. Will the Prime Minister join me in wishing Declan and the team at Smile a very happy 10th birthday, and thank them for their invaluable work in supporting our young people and families?

[The Prime Minister]

I join my hon. Friend and commend all the staff at Smile for their vital work. Far too many young people are left without the support they need, and that is why we are recruiting an additional 8,500 mental health workers, providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school and funding talking therapies across the country to bring down waiting times and get people the care they need.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Keir Starmer and Kirsteen Sullivan

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We welcome all investment into the United Kingdom. I am very pleased to have had record investment in the time we have been in office, and continue to welcome investors and investment to this country. The right hon. Member is absolutely right that the last Government lost control of immigration, as they lost control of health, the economy, the borders and everything else. Of course, it was the Leader of the Opposition who was championing the driving up of the numbers. We will bring those numbers down, get immigration back under control and encourage investment.

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q7. Dental deserts mean that routine dental check-ups and treatment are often unavailable in local communities. In my constituency, we have had a dedicated space for a dental practice in the Blackburn partnership centre since 2018, but NHS Lothian has been unable to secure a dental practice. What steps will the Prime Minister take to work with devolved Governments to improve access to local NHS dentists across the UK?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that issue, which shows the state of public services under the SNP. If you can believe it, Mr Speaker, a third of Scots struggle to access dentistry, and a quarter of Scottish children start primary school with tooth decay—that is really shocking. Clearly, there is much more that the SNP should be doing. [Interruption.] The SNP should be ashamed. When a quarter of children are starting school with tooth decay, that is nothing to crow about; it is something to be ashamed of. Here, we are delivering an additional 700,000 appointments and reforming the contract, and of course we will work with the Scottish Government to improve the health of children in Scotland.