Oral Answers to Questions

Martin Docherty-Hughes Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We very much value the work done by the explosive ordnance disposal units of 33 and 101 Engineer Regiments. The veterans strategy recently launched by my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary is groundbreaking. There will be a Government taskforce from Departments across the whole of Whitehall that will focus on exactly the sorts of issues that my hon. Friend raised. It will be assessing how we can help veterans to meet the financial demands of civilian life, crucially ensuring that mental and physical wellbeing is maximised and offering the best possible advice to veterans on housing. These are key issues for veterans and they are exactly what we will be focusing on in the strategy.

[Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbarton- shire) (SNP)]

Q2. Evidence of the inhumane and cruel impact of the Government’s flagship universal credit policy is clear for all to see. Its impact has been devastating, and the Prime Minister can no longer bury their head in the sand as they have done with the Windrush scandal. Therefore, will the Prime Minister get a grip and take action to protect families from being forced further into crisis; or does the Prime Minister simply believe that the damage being done to the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities is a price worth paying?

[The Prime Minister]

We have been rolling out universal credit at a pace that ensures we have been able to hear from those who have been affected by it and to make changes—and changes have been made in the way that universal credit is introduced in this country. We have ensured that we have reduced the seven days’ waiting time, for example. But what lies behind universal credit is the belief that the important thing to help to sustain families is to get people into work. The evidence on universal credit is that it is doing just that: it is helping people into work. I would have thought that the hon. Gentleman should welcome a policy that helps people to get into the workplace.