Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I commend my hon. Friend for his work in this vital area and for his responsible approach. He is right to focus on the need for renegotiation and for a changed relationship. The status quo in our relationship with the EU is simply not in the interests of this country. What surprises me is that Labour Members have decided to support a referendum, but still appear to believe that the status quo is in our national interest, when it palpably is not. They need to make their minds up.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

May we have an urgent statement or debate next week about the Cancer Drugs Fund decision not to make the drug sunitinib available on the NHS? My constituent Adrian Steel, who has kidney cancer, is having to pay for his treatment. May we have a debate on that as soon as possible?

[Chris Grayling]

I am aware of the concerns, and these are difficult and sensitive issues. Our system was rightly established by the previous Labour Government to assess the effectiveness of drugs and whether they should be made available on the NHS. Some decisions are controversial and difficult for those affected by those illnesses. I will ensure that the right hon. Gentleman’s concerns are passed today to the Department of Health. I know Ministers will want to return to the issue at an appropriate moment.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I have every sympathy with my hon. Friend and her constituents. These issues are partly being caused by the necessary improvement works at London Bridge; an investment in the future that is absolutely vital and will be enormously beneficial, but is disruptive while it happens. Nevertheless, she is aware that there have been some real issues concerning services on the Southern routes, and the company needs to address them. I urge her to raise this question again at Transport questions next Thursday.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

May we have an urgent statement next week on the plight of 25 British citizens who are trapped in Sana’a? The civil war in Yemen has so far cost 1,000 lives. Does the Leader of the House agree that there is an obligation to try to help our citizens in need? May we have a debate on this very important issue?

[Chris Grayling]

I share the right hon. Gentleman’s concern about what is happening in Yemen. We have every reason to be concerned about events in many parts of the middle east at the moment; it is an area of enormous challenge for the international community. He will, early next week, have an opportunity to raise this issue directly with the Foreign Secretary at Foreign Office questions, and I encourage him to do so.

Select Committees

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I support the motions, in particular the establishment of the Women and Equalities Committee. Members on both sides of the House have campaigned for a long time for the establishment of such a Committee. The problem has been that the equalities brief has travelled from the Home Office to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; it has sometimes been held by the Department for Communities and Local Government; and a bit of it has been with the Department for Work and Pensions. Now, for the first time, we will have a Select Committee that is able to scrutinise effectively women and equalities issues.

I too want to pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller) for the work she has done, and I welcome this motion.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I cannot offer a debate, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right: we believe in vigorous political debate in our elections, but I have seen comments made about my hon. Friend the Member for Witham that are offensive, malicious and often false, and which will be particularly offensive to women and to people of Asian origin. It is time the Labour party took that in hand in Witham.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I join others in paying tribute to the Leader of the House. He has clearly been one of the most outstanding parliamentarians, certainly in my time in the House. I played a small part in his career when I gave him his first job, as secretary of the all-party footwear and leather industries group, and look how well he has done!

Next Thursday will be a very important day in the history of Leicester when the interment of Richard III takes place. If the right hon. Gentleman wants a ticket for the occasion, I can try to arrange one for him. May we have an urgent look at the criteria for boroughs and cities being permitted to use the title “royal”? Leicester must surely be entitled to use it—as Kensington and Chelsea, and Greenwich, have done—and to become a royal city, given our new connection with royalty.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I did indeed make a memorable visit to Southend—it was so memorable that I actually remember it and will never forget it. I am a big fan of Southend, and it will never have a greater champion than my hon. Friend. As he knows, city status is a civic honour occasionally granted by the monarch to mark certain royal anniversaries. I recall that Southend submitted an enthusiastic and strong application at the diamond jubilee. That was not successful, but Southend did succeed in securing a significant city deal that will provide it with further investment. There are no plans at the moment for a new competition on city status, but I am sure Southend will have another opportunity to bid for it in the future.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

Thanks to the Backbench Business Committee there will be the first full-scale debate on Yemen on 24 February. The Leader of the House will recall his pivotal role in ensuring that Yemen remains on the path to democracy, including a memorable visit to Sana’a to meet the President. He will also know that the American and French embassies, and yesterday the British embassy, have been evacuated. May we have a quarterly statement on the situation in Yemen and the Gulf, as we do on Afghanistan, because that country plays an important role in our national security?

[Mr Hague]

The right hon. Gentleman is assiduous in pursuing matters relating to Yemen, and as he says, as Foreign Secretary I was heavily involved in events there and visited that country. We have temporarily suspended embassy operations in Sana’a, and withdrawn diplomatic staff until the security situation becomes clearer—as the House will appreciate, that is a consequence of recent events. It is good that the Backbench Business Committee has chosen that topic, and important that my Foreign Office colleagues keep the House up to date on Yemen and developments throughout the Gulf. I will tell them of the right hon. Gentleman’s point, and remind them of the need to have regular updates in the House.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The Prime Minister indicated yesterday that we will give consideration to that matter. It is an important and topical issue, on which there are very strong feelings—not on any party basis—and there is intense interest in the debate about it in the House of Lords tomorrow. I will reflect on when it would be appropriate to have such a debate, as well as on the various means of bringing it about. I cannot yet promise one in Government time.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I join Members in their unanimous welcome to the new Leader of the House, and I pay tribute to him for his outstanding work at the Foreign Office. May I take him back to one of his successes—Yemen—and the democratic transition that resulted in the election of President Hadi? The situation is now very critical, with 11 million people in poverty and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula making enormous gains. May we have a statement or a debate on that? I know we have Foreign Office questions on Tuesday, but we cannot deal with it in just one question.

[Mr Hague]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, whose knowledge of and concern about Yemen has been remarkable, constant and much respected over many years. He is right that a great deal of progress has been made, as we saw when the Friends of Yemen met in London under our chairmanship a couple of months ago. He is also right that formidable problems remain, and it is now very important that the help the international community has pledged is delivered and used successfully by President Hadi and his colleagues. There has been widespread demand in the House for statements by the Foreign Secretary, and I will not commit my successor to a long list of them—hon. Members will have to use Foreign Office questions—but I know that he will make as many statements as he can about such topical issues.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

From my own constituency, I know of precisely the kind of circumstances to which my hon. Friend refers, which can be very distressing to a local community. We do not believe it is necessarily a solution to give local authorities powers to remove horses and kill them at public expense. We need to tackle the perpetrators directly. We need a co-ordinated and co-operative approach, using the available legislation. There is some legislation that was previously available, but there are also new measures to tackle antisocial behaviour that will soon become available, following the legislation passed in the last Session. I hope that will enable us to act more effectively in relation to those responsible for fly-grazing.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

May I press the Leader of the House for an urgent statement on the issue, raised by the shadow Leader of the House, of the number of British citizens fighting abroad? Information from Iraq this morning suggests that 400 are currently fighting there, and if we add that to the 400 identified as fighting in Syria, it becomes a very large number of people. This is separate from a discussion about the security situation in Iraq or indeed the proscription of ISIS, which will be debated later today. May we please have a statement on how we can stop our citizens going to fight abroad?

[Mr Lansley]

I completely understand the right hon. Gentleman’s point that there is a distinct issue here—a very important one, as the Prime Minister made perfectly clear yesterday—and we take it extremely seriously. It is linked, of course, to the question of the proscription and the more general debate about the situation in Iraq, but the issue of people going from this country to fight, the training they receive and their returning to this country, is a very important one. I cannot promise an immediate statement or debate, but we keep the issue very much in mind, and we will keep the House updated. The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that the House of Lords is currently considering legislation that includes measures to make the planning of terrorist attacks abroad a criminal offence in this country. That will give us more direct powers to deal with the issue.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who will recall that, some two and a half or three years ago, I initiated work on how to improve health outcomes for children and young people, which led directly to the work of the children and young people’s health outcomes forum. It forms part of the NHS England mandate that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has put in place and is a key part of Public Health England’s work. However, outcomes for children and young people depend on things far wider than what the health service does, such as being ready for school and avoiding periods when young people are not in education, employment or training. Such measures are critical, which is why the Government are focused on them.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I do not know whether the Leader of the House likes mangoes, but today marks the first day of the EU ban on the importation of Indian Alphonso mangos, a decision taken by Brussels without consultation with the House that will cost businesses in Leicester and beyond millions of pounds. May we have an urgent debate on the matter, with an action plan to get the ban reversed?

[Mr Speaker]

I have sampled the mango in question and can testify that it is extremely tasty.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. I hope that between now and next week it will be possible, as he says, for not only Government Members to be clear that whatever one’s disputes may be, it is wrong to pursue those grievances by damaging the education of the young people whom we are there to look after. I hope that the Opposition spokesman will do exactly the same thing and advise the NUT not to proceed with this.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

The Leader of the House will know that next Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the launch of the responsibility deal, of which he was the architect. He will also know that of the 40 pledges that businesses have to sign up to, none relates to a reduction in sugar. May we have a debate or statement on the progress of the responsibility deal to see whether we can include the reduction in sugar as one of the pledges that should be made?

[Mr Lansley]

Yes, I am very familiar with that, and I am proud of what the responsibility deal has been able to achieve in terms of the further reduction in salt content and the calorie challenge, which is relevant to the point to which the right hon. Gentleman alludes. The calorie challenge in itself—the reduction of the equivalent of 100 calories per person per day in this country on average—would bring the population to a sustainable weight, broadly speaking. That would make an enormous difference to our long-term prospects on morbidity in older age. There are other responsibility deal achievements that are too numerous to mention, but questions on the levels of consumption of fat and sugars are part of achieving that calorie challenge.

Business of the House

Keith Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend does indeed ask a very good question, and an interesting one. If I may, rather than detain the House now, I will ask my right hon. and hon. Friends at the Foreign Office to respond to him. I will be interested in the reply.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

May I begin by congratulating you on your double celebration this week, Mr Speaker—not just an honorary degree from City university but, more importantly, an honorary doctorate from De Montfort university, Leicester, which it was delighted to hand you?

[Chris Bryant]

Utter creep!

[Keith Vaz]

I have learned well from my hon. Friend.

On the subject of education, may I ask the Leader of the House when we can have an urgent statement from the International Development Secretary about the Government’s decision to withdraw from the Government of Yemen £14 million of funding to help with their education system? We do not want Yemen to become another Syria, and the withdrawal of that funding is causing serious problems.

[Mr Lansley]

I will of course ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development to respond to the right hon. Gentleman and, if appropriate, to inform the House by means of a statement.

When we spoke earlier this week, Mr Speaker, modesty clearly forbade you from alerting me to those splendid honours.