Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kemi Badenoch and Munira Wilson

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

My hon. Friend is right. Israel’s current relationship with the UK is worth about £6.4 billion, but our FTA is a roll-over of the one that Israel signed in 1995 with the EU. It does not take into account services, digital, artificial intelligence or genome sequencing. There is a lot that we can do. That is why we are working on this FTA. It is a priority for us. As I said earlier, we face many challenges in carrying on negotiations with a country that is at war, but we are working to overcome them.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

T8. Quarter 4 of 2023 was the 10th quarter in a row in which more British businesses closed their doors than opened up. Just yesterday, a small business owner in Twickenham contacted me to tell me that his business was on the brink. If the Secretary of State will not consider business rate reform, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) suggested, what is she doing to help our small and medium-sized businesses, and to stem the tide of insolvencies?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kemi Badenoch and Munira Wilson

Wednesday 8th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

My hon. Friend is referring to the reform of succession to the hereditary peerage, to which I am sympathetic, but which raises a variety of complex issues. Various approaches have been proposed in both Houses to address the issue of male primogeniture for hereditary peerages, but there is not yet a consensus on the way forward. I am happy to work with her to look at the issue.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

T5. This week is Carers Week, and I hope the Minister will agree that unpaid carers make an invaluable contribution to our society but are often unseen. Will she commit to making being an unpaid carer a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, as Carers UK has called for?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kemi Badenoch and Munira Wilson

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

T1.   If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Minister for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch)]

“Inclusive Britain” is the Government’s response to the report by the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, and it sets out a groundbreaking action plan to tackle negative disparities, promote unity and build a fairer Britain for all. This includes developing a new model history curriculum by 2024; working with a panel of academics and businesspeople to promote fairness in the workplace; and developing a new national framework for how the use of police powers is scrutinised at local level. The measures in the action plan will help to level up the country by tackling the drivers of persistent ethnic disparities in education, employment, health and criminal justice.

[Munira Wilson]

The Minister will be aware that a recent survey of 27,000 parents by Pregnant Then Screwed found that about two thirds are paying more for childcare than they are for their rent or mortgage. This is pushing many mothers out of the workforce or into working fewer hours. Does she agree that the Government need to address this as a matter of urgency if we want to keep women in the workforce and in well-paid jobs?

[Kemi Badenoch]

I agree with the hon. Lady that childcare is a very important issue if we want to keep women in the workplace. We have spent more than £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on our early education entitlement and we continue to support families with their childcare costs.

Covid-19: Disparate Impact

Debate between Kemi Badenoch and Munira Wilson

Thursday 22nd October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

That is an excellent question. I have been particularly disappointed at the amount of anti-vaxxer disinformation campaigns that are out there. I have received three separate messages myself from people telling ethnic minorities not to take part in vaccine trials. I am really sorry to say that an Opposition Member said in this House that the Government were using ethnic minorities as cannon fodder in their battle against coronavirus—one of the worst things that I have ever heard said in this House. That really causes division and tension. We need people to have faith in the Government. We need people to have faith in our health service and trust it in order to take part in things like vaccine trials. I hope that the work we are doing will go some way towards remedying some of the scaremongering.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

I welcome the Minister’s acknowledgement early on in her statement of the disproportionate impact of covid on disabled people. She said that work is ongoing and there will be future reports, but I hope she will agree that we need urgent action. She will know that disabled people are 11 times more likely to die from coronavirus. We have also heard very disturbing reports of “do not resuscitate” orders being put in place, particularly for those with learning difficulties, without consultation with their families. I recognise that the Care Quality Commission is investigating this, but will she commit to ending this injustice urgently?

[Kemi Badenoch]

The Government rightly take very seriously the outcomes for those with disabilities. The largest disparities were by age for both males and females, done by gender. However, there is a wider strand of work that the hon. Lady references, where this will be looked into. We cannot allow any part of the population to feel that they have been forgotten; they have not. I can assure her that we are taking this seriously, not just in the equality hub but in the Department for Work and Pensions.