Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

The hon. Lady makes an incredibly important and accurate point. The fact that my noble Friend Lord Goldsmith is a Minister across the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office shows the integrated approach that this Government take. Our work on development, our diplomatic work and our work to protect biodiversity and the environment all work together to ensure that women and other people who are vulnerable are not hit harder by changes to our climate.

[Mr Speaker]

I welcome to the Dispatch Box shadow Minister Anna McMorrin.

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[Nigel Adams]

It is a great pleasure to answer what will be my last DFID oral question from my hon. Friend. DFID and the FCO are strong supporters of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy’s work. I thank him for his commitment to democracy via his work as chair of the WFD. In 2019-20, FCO funding of £3.3 million and DFID funding of £3.9 million has been allocated. There will be constraints on ODA over the next few months as we respond to covid-19. Via the integrated review, we will examine all options for enhancing UK democracy support. The merger and the establishment of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office presents an exciting opportunity to strengthen the UK’s support for democracy, governance and open societies.

[Mr Speaker]

Answers are far too long, folks—we are going to have to move on.

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

How much of the funding the UK in response to the covid-19 pandemic has (a) been allocated to and (b) reached the global south.

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[The Prime Minister]

I join with, I think, every Member of the House in mourning the loss of everybody who has died in this epidemic. I can assure the right hon. and learned Gentleman, and through him the victims and their families, that we will do absolutely everything in our power to prevent a second spike in this epidemic. That is why we are taking the steps that we are. That is why we have set up, as I say, an unprecedented test and trace operation. That is why we are investing massively in our NHS and our frontline staff, as I say, in the last year, recruiting 12,000 more nurses, as part of a programme to recruit 50,000 more, and preparing our NHS for winter. We will do absolutely everything we can to protect our country and to stop a second spike.

What the right hon. and learned Gentleman has to decide is whether he wants to back that programme or not. One day he says it is safe to go back to school. The next day he is taking the line of the unions. One day they are supporting our economic programme. The next day they are saying our stamp duty cut is an unacceptable bung. One day they are saying they accept the result of the Brexit referendum. The next day, today, they are going to tell their troops to do the exact opposite. He needs to make up his mind which brief he is going to take today. At the moment, it looks like he has got more briefs than Calvin Klein. We are getting on with delivering on our agenda for the country, getting this country through this pandemic and taking it forward.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Can I just say to the Prime Minister that we are going to work through the Chair? The audience is not that way, it is this way.

[Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con)]

My constituency is home to many farms producing excellent British food. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the new trade deals our Government are working on will safeguard our high food standards and provide fantastic new opportunities to the hardworking farmers in my part of Buckinghamshire?

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[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

In my constituency of Filton and Bradley Stoke, well over 20,000 people are directly employed in the aerospace and defence sectors, and 17,500 people are employed in the supply chain throughout the south-west region. Those jobs not only are vital to the individuals and families supported by them, but are crucial to the economy of our region and our country at large, our future export prospects, connectivity and our sovereign defence manufacturing capability with programmes such as Tempest, the next generation of fighter aircraft. When will the Prime Minister announce a wide-ranging support package for the aerospace industry, which must include a scrappage scheme for old and highly polluting aircraft? When—

[Mr Speaker]

Prime Minister. We have got to move on.

[The Prime Minister]

I will examine the idea of a scrappage scheme for old and highly polluting aircraft, but I can tell my hon. Friend that long before then, we are putting £3.9 billion into the Aerospace Technology Institute. As I am sure he knows, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has set up, with the Department for Transport, a joint taskforce to create “Jet Zero”, a zero-emissions passenger plane in which this country will lead the world.

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[Katherine Fletcher (South Ribble) (Con)]

Out and about talking to the good people of South Ribble, I find that they are worried about the economic effects of covid, although they do also say, “Thank God that other lot didn’t get in, because I can’t imagine how much trouble we’d be in right now.” Can the Prime Minister confirm that while there might be tough days ahead, this Conservative Government are throwing the kitchen sink at fixing it?

[Mr Speaker]

Come on, Mr Plumber.

[The Prime Minister]

It is not only the kitchen sink, but every part of the kitchen. We are going to build, build, build our way forward. We are going to be supporting the building of 300,000 new homes a year. We are going to do everything we can to ensure that we get jobs, jobs, jobs throughout this country. Whether by installing kitchen sinks or any other part of the house, we will take this country forward.

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[The Prime Minister]

Yes, indeed. Hybrids and plug-in cars can certainly make a huge difference and are an important part of our transition to zero emission vehicles, in which this country—certainly in battery technology—leads the world.

[Mr Speaker]

I welcome the new SNP deputy leader, Kirsten Oswald.

[Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.My constituent Daniel Caplan, who has just turned 17, has been diagnosed with a diffuse midline glioma—a brain stem tumour. That is a terminal diagnosis and an absolutely crushing one. There have been no new treatments for conditions like Daniel’s for 40 years, so no progress in treating childhood brain stem tumours. Will the Prime Minister join me in supporting Daniel’s family in their call for a renewed focus on research and for a light to be shone on awareness of childhood brain stem cancers, so that other families in future do not have to face the heartbreak that Daniel and his family are facing today?

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[The Prime Minister]

I know that everybody’s sympathies will be with the family of the victim in the hon. Lady’s constituency, as they are with the families of all victims of knife crime. I think that there are two things we have to do. First, I entirely agree with her that we need a cross-departmental medical approach focused on the needs of the families with the kids who particularly get involved in knife crime, and we need to put our arms around them and stop them being diverted into the gangs that are so often the root cause of the problem.

But we also need a tough policing solution. I have been concerned for the last few years that in London in particular, which the hon. Lady represents, we have not seen the approach that we saw under the previous Mayor, for instance, when there was a significant reduction in knife crime and a significant reduction in murder by dint of having proportionate policing that included the use of stop-and-search to stop young kids carrying knives. We need to have zero tolerance of kids going out on the street armed with a bladed weapon. That is absolutely vital. [Interruption.] An Opposition Member says, “Shocking.” In my experience, the people who are most supportive of taking the knives off kids on the streets of our city are the mothers of those kids who are most at risk of being killed. They support stop-and-search, and I hope the hon. Lady does, too.

[Mr Speaker]

In order to allow the safe exit of hon. Members participating in this item of business and the safe arrival of those participating in the next, I suspend the House for three minutes.