Oral Answers to Questions

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Secretary of State for her time covering this role, notwithstanding her answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), who asked a very important question.

Today’s inflation figures confirm that prices continue to rise. Broadband customers are dealing with inflation-busting price hikes, as a direct result of the Government’s choices. They lifted the cap on wholesale costs, which has caused retail prices to rise. Will the Secretary of State apologise to hard-pressed families and tackle the cost of living crisis for broadband customers?

[The Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure (Sir John Whittingdale)]

We recognise that households are having a very difficult time due to the cost of living, which is why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has met the regulators to press them to do more to help. We have agreement that social tariffs are now available to all those in receipt of universal credit and other benefits. At the same time, Ofcom has agreed with providers that anybody who wishes to switch to a cheaper tariff can do so without charge.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Wednesday 14th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does the Secretary of State agree with the Prime Minister that her AI White Paper is now defunct? Also, the data Bill does not even mention AI. The Online Safety Bill is hardly an advert for speedy action and the semiconductor strategy was slammed by an expert as “quite frankly flaccid”. Does she accept that to show international leadership, the Government need to get their act together at home?

[Chloe Smith]

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister set out this week at London Tech Week, we will be leading at home and overseas and leading change in our public services. That is the right approach. It is pro-innovation. We will capture those benefits for British businesses and British citizens, and I think that the Opposition could do an awful lot better than what they have just presented.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Wednesday 10th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend; I know that this issue is very close to her heart, and she is right to raise it. Of course there are pressures from covid, but we are also worried that some people may not be coming forward for the cancer treatments that they need. I urge everybody who needs to get their treatment: help the NHS to help you. Come forward and get your treatment as you normally would.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

The Prime Minister said in November that the £1.5 billion green homes grant would be extended to March 2022, yet in a written answer last week, the Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth said that the money would not be carried over from this financial year to next. With just seven weeks to go, a paltry £71 million has been spent so far. Why is he cutting £1 billion from the green homes grant that he promised for businesses, homeowners and the environment?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is on to something, but she is barking up the wrong tree. We are not cutting the green homes grant. The problem is that there has not been enough take-up, and we want to encourage people to take it up and make use of the opportunity to reduce the carbon emissions of their homes.

Covid-19

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Pettifogging, yes; malicious, no. I am going to have to take the hit here. The intention is to stop the virus, protect the NHS and save lives. To do that, we have to engage in restricting transmission between human beings. I know that my right hon. Friend and other right hon. and hon. Members will find all sorts of reasons to oppose all sorts of restrictions, but in the end, we have to look at the overall budget of risk caused by transmission between members of the human race, and that is what we are trying to restrict.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

I have just come from a call with the big business organisations. I know that the Prime Minister is meeting them later, so let me give him the heads-up. Businesses are on their knees. It has been a year of lost trade and mounting debt. Cash grants are welcome, but they are not enough, and most businesses will not get them anyway. What they desperately want is not more sticking plasters but a proper long-term plan to help them survive to the spring and then thrive beyond it. It cannot wait until the Budget, because many will be bust by then, so will the Prime Minister urgently tell his Chancellor to come to the House with a proper plan for jobs and businesses? I say to him, please do not insult us by re-rehearsing what he has already done, because honestly, it is just not enough.

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady asks for a timetable, as indeed have many colleagues on both sides of the House. Business rightly wants as much certainty as possible. What we have now, for the first time since this pandemic began, is clear sight of the end and the way to the end. We have set a deadline, as she knows, of the middle of February—15 February—to vaccinate the first four cohorts. I am sure she will appreciate that those groups comprise the overwhelming majority of those who have already, alas, died from covid. She will readily appreciate the implications of that for our ability to reopen our economy, and she will also understand, I hope, the implications that that could have, if all the conditions that I have already described are satisfied, for businesses across the country. I do believe that there are real grounds now for them to be very hopeful and very confident about the months ahead.

Covid-19 Update

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Well, it is a very difficult balance to strike, as he rightly says, but I think that the medical data is, alas, overwhelming. The virus is doubling everywhere, including in East Sussex, and eventually the NHS would be overwhelmed even in East Sussex with, I am afraid, catastrophic consequences. We can prevent that by taking the action that we are, and that is why I hope he will support it.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

I do not know about you, Mr Speaker, but I am still not clear what has actually changed from two or three weeks ago, when the Prime Minister ridiculed my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, apart from the Prime Minister yet again changing his strategy. As he himself has said, infection rate rises have slowed over that period and hospital admissions reflect the infection rate from two or three weeks ago. This was entirely predictable, and indeed it was predicted. Given that the Prime Minister cannot stick with a plan for more than a week, can he now give some real clarity about the criteria for the exit strategy from this national lockdown?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady asks what has changed in the past couple of weeks. I am afraid the facts have changed, and the number of people admitted to hospital, as I said, is up every day. We now have 2,000 more people in hospital this Sunday than last Sunday. We cannot escape these inescapable facts. She also asks about the exit strategy and, as I have told the House several times, the way forward is to get the R down below 1 with a package of measures that I believe carries support across the House, and to exploit the many technical advances that we are making.

Covid-19 Update

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is completely right, and that is why I made the point, in almost identical terms, earlier on.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

Can I thank the Prime Minister for listening to calls from Members from across Greater Manchester on both sides of the House to work with us locally to tackle the virus while remaining in tier 2, which I think he has announced today? But does he agree with me that it is vital we take the public with us, and that means credibility that the tough measures he is outlining really do follow the evidence of where transmission is occurring? He has yet to provide evidence that closing pubs and restaurants would make a material difference in transmission, but action on households would, so will he today recommit to working with Greater Manchester leaders on tackling household transmission—proposals put forward to his office last night?

[The Prime Minister]

The deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, addressed that point directly earlier on today about transmission in hospitality settings. Clearly, we need to reduce the overall budget of transmission that is going on in the country, and that is one sector that we can address. I am interested in what she says about Greater Manchester; my information is slightly different. What I would hope is that we can work together to bring down the rates in Greater Manchester, which at present are certainly worrying.

Covid-19 Update

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am not sure I can wait until I get to Fylde to have my hair cut. Certainly, my hon. Friend’s appeal for the M55 relief road is well judged and has been heard by those on the Government Benches, and of course he should look forward to the further steps in the infrastructure revolution that we will be unveiling.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

Hairdressers, restaurants and pubs in Manchester will warmly welcome today’s announcement. If the Prime Minister does not mind, I will not follow suit in inviting him to join me for a drink in one of them. He will be aware, however, that 80% of the more than 3 million people who work in hospitality and leisure are currently furloughed. How does he expect businesses such as gyms, nightclubs, theatres and others that have to remain closed to contribute to the furlough scheme at the beginning of August without causing mass redundancies?

[The Prime Minister]

That is why we have set up the various taskforces that we have, to ensure that we work with everybody in the sectors to enable them to open as fast as possible in a covid-compliant way; that is our ambition.

Global Britain

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I believe that what is proposed by Israel would amount to a breach of international law. We have strongly objected. We believe profoundly in a two-state solution and we will continue to make that case.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

If the Prime Minister is serious about global Britain, why has he left our world-leading aerospace and defence industry in a downward holding pattern? We have already seen thousands of job losses in communities that can ill afford to lose them. With the right action now, the UK could lead the global race in a green revolution in defence and aerospace. Will he make that his vision of global Britain, rather than another unnecessary Whitehall reorganisation?

[The Prime Minister]

That is indeed what we are doing. I have spoken to the head of Rolls-Royce and other companies about exactly the vision for aerospace that the hon. Lady describes. There is a big opportunity for this country to lead the world in low-carbon aerospace technologies and that is what this Government are going to do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Milling]

The Government have been working around the clock to get frontline NHS and care workers the equipment that they need to do their jobs safely and to save lives. Since the start of the outbreak, we have delivered over 1.7 billion items of PPE across the health and social care system within England. Plus, tens of millions of items have been distributed to the devolved Administrations. We will continue to pursue every possible domestic and international option for PPE procurement.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Michael Gove)]

Tomorrow I will chair the UK delegation at the second meeting of the Joint Committee overseeing the withdrawal agreement, and I look forward to having productive discussions with Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič.

[Mr Speaker]

We now go to marvellous Manchester again. I call Lucy Powell.

[Lucy Powell [V]]

It is marvellous here, Mr Speaker. Given the Cabinet Office’s unique role in co-ordinating across Government, will the Secretary of State commit to taking up the Leader of the Opposition’s call for a national mission to get children active, social and ready for learning this summer by using charities, clubs, theatres, musicians, libraries and others, given the damage caused by his Government’s mismanagement of school reopening?

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady. She is very knowledgeable and committed when it comes to ensuring that our schools do better for all students. We will work not just with the Leader of the Opposition but with others across civil society and do everything possible to ensure that those children who have lost out as a result of not being able to be in school can benefit from appropriate learning in appropriate circumstances.

Transport Infrastructure

Lucy Powell Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Absolutely. We cannot have the gains of one without the other. Local productivity will not be boosted unless we improve national connectivity up the spine of this country, and that is what HS2 is all about.

[Lucy Powell (Manchester Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

I strongly welcome the announcement today on HS2, but let us be clear: the question mark was written by the Prime Minister and his Government, and it should not have been written at all. Under the terms of the review we are now seeing, can he ensure that the full benefits of NPR and HS2 are fully integrated at Manchester Piccadilly station and that no stone is left unturned in making sure that that can happen?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I certainly can.