Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 22nd May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

According to the Government, fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, costing almost £7 billion a year, with one in 15 people falling victim. The number of victims has skyrocketed amid the cost of living crisis, and victims are left without hope. Police forces up and down the country are crying out for resources to tackle the ever growing and advancing ways in which criminals exploit people to commit fraud. If the Government care and are serious about fraud and its victims, why do Ministers persistently exclude fraud from crime statistics?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 20th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

This week, the five young men who murdered a 17-year-old boy from Poplar using knives were pictured for the first time. Those young men were sentenced to a total of 93 years in prison. Although sentencing is a form of justice, the reality is that this Government have lost their grip on preventing such violent crimes. Time and again, they have failed to act until it is too late—sticking-plaster politics at the heart of power. When will the Secretary of State show some leadership and lay out a proper plan for crime prevention?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 6th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

In the third quarter of 2022, over 4,500 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the national referral mechanism—a record since its introduction—and 43% of those were children. Just last month, people up and down the country were shocked to learn that over 200 children seeking asylum have gone missing from Home Office hotels. The Home Office ignored repeated warnings that the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 would make things worse. What have we seen since then? A failure to appoint a new anti-slavery commissioner and just one conviction for child trafficking last year. Does the Minister think that that one conviction shows that the Government are on top of this? Does it not show that they are continuing to let dangerous criminal gangs get away with their crimes?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 19th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

The Home Secretary likes to talk about back to basics policing, but last week’s police grants saw core Government funding for the police fall by £62 million, with more of the budget funded through council tax, shifting the extra burden onto struggling households during the cost of living crisis. In the meantime, funding for core priorities such as fraud and serious violence has been cut by £5 million and £4.5 million respectively. Can the Home Secretary explain these cuts, or is this just a case of her Government’s abject failure to grow the economy, back our police and keep our streets safe?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 14th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

Neighbourhood policing and PCSOs should be at the heart of communities, providing proactive policing to keep communities safe, yet after cutting thousands of neighbourhood police officers from our streets, the Tories have cut 8,000 PCSOs. Labour has made a commitment to hire thousands more PCSOs as part of a fully funded neighbourhood policing programme. Will the Minister match that commitment, or will further cuts be coming after Thursday’s Budget?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 5th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

While the Conservative party has spent the summer infighting, our country and our communities have been left fearful about the plight of antisocial behaviour that is rife across Britain. Because of a lack of legislative support, families and the most vulnerable in our communities are left suffering from fireworks and nuisance into the early hours of the morning without any help, including in my constituency of Bradford West. Car theft has gone up, burglary has gone up, individual theft has gone up, car crime has gone up, and dangerous driving has gone up, and all the while families are feeling unsafe to walk the streets of Britain. The Government have simply gone and are nowhere to be seen. Can the Minister explain why, after 12 years in Government, the Conservatives have failed so badly?

Functioning of Government

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Thursday 7th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

I am looking at many Tory MPs in the Lobby and everywhere using the word “sadness”, but each and every one of them upheld the Prime Minister and let him carry on. He should have resigned when partygate happened, when Durhamgate happened, when his ethics adviser resigned—he should have resigned a long time ago. Each and every one of them kept him here and now they are trying to take the moral high ground when he is finally on his way out. I will not feel sorry for them. Mr Speaker, how can the Opposition hold Ministers to account when there is not a governing Government?

[Mr Speaker]

It is not for me to answer.

Shireen Abu Aqla

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 16th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Let us help each other by trying to be brief because we have major pressures afterwards—but I understand the feeling in the House. I am now going to call the others who put in for the UQ that unfortunately was not taken. I call Naz Shah.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

First, I send my condolences to the family and friends of Shireen Abu Aqla, a true Palestinian heroine who was brutally shot in the head and murdered. Let us be clear: this is not a one-off attack on journalists by Israel. We cannot forget that Israel had a raid last May on the al-Jalaa building that hosted Al Jazeera and the Associated Press office. This is not just the story of Shireen either, but many other journalists, including the 55 Palestinian journalists killed since 2000. How can the Palestinians have any faith in Israel to hand over any bullet and with this whitewash of an idea that they are going to investigate when nobody has been held to account over lots and lots of years? What representations are the Minister and this Government making to their Israeli counterparts to make sure that we get justice on this occasion, not just for Shireen but for all the Palestinians who are continually being brutalised?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 25th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister, Naz Shah.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

In 2021, fraud and computer misuse increased by 47%. In 2020, an estimated 99.99% of total cyber-crime went unpunished. Just weeks ago, academics at the University of Oxford estimated that during covid alone, £37 billion—or one third of the total NHS annual budget, and twice the annual budget for policing—is likely to have been lost to fraud. When working families are facing rising energy costs and a cost of living crisis, and are paying more and more taxes and more for services, can the Minister tell me why, under this Tory Government, gangs of criminals are getting a free run at the public purse?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Monday 22nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Thank goodness we are not having a political broadcast, as we now move to the shadow Minister in Yorkshire, Naz Shah.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab) [V]]

Cumbria County Council has been hemmed in by the planning system over the application for the west Cumbria coalmine, which it will likely be forced to pass to avoid the threat of legal costs. This is despite the environmental damage and the small number of unsustainable jobs that the mine will create. Leaving aside fixing the flaws in a system that allows for the opening of a polluting coalmine in the year that the UK hosts COP26, will the Secretary of State now do the right thing on this issue of national—if not global—importance, block this application and work with his colleagues in the Cabinet to provide the long-term, secure and green jobs that west Cumbrians deserve instead?

Covid-19: Economy Update

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Naz Shah

Thursday 22nd October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Let us head to Ludlow and Philip Dunne. There is no sound, so I call Naz Shah.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

I do not need to tell the Chancellor about the way we are going, with the economy plunging further into a crisis. The biggest thing that businesses in my constituency tell me is that uncertainty is their biggest enemy. We have now been under extra restrictions for more than 150 days. If we go into tier 3, and given that the Chancellor does not want a planned circuit breaker, what support will he give to businesses in my constituency of Bradford West? Importantly, how long should they be prepared for uncertainty?