Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Melanie Onn and Keir Starmer

Wednesday 15th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Lady very much for that. This is the last question I will face from the Leader of the Opposition, so let me wish her and her family well. We have had robust exchanges across this Dispatch Box, but she has extended kindness to me privately at very difficult times, including when there was an attempt to burn down our family home, which deeply affected my family. She reached out to me then, and when my brother died of cancer she reached out to me privately, not across this Dispatch Box. I thank her for that and for the tribute that she just made to my wife and children, who mean the world to me. I do thank her for that. She knows that this is robust, and it has to be robust—that is the way politics is done—but the kindnesses that sit behind it privately are often just as powerful, if not more powerful, and I thank her for that.

I also stood at the Opposition Dispatch Box, for four years as Leader of the Opposition. I know at first hand that it is the most difficult job in politics, and that is what the right hon. Lady is doing. When I did it, we had just lost the 2019 election, which nearly broke my party. It was the worst result since 1935, and we were found to be institutionally antisemitic. I picked up our party. I turned it round. I made a promise to rip antisemitism out of my party, and I did. I turned my party to face the country and Labour won a landslide general election. After two years, we have stabilised the economy. We have invested heavily in our public services. We have put better protections in for children, particularly on child poverty. We have strengthened our defence and we have enhanced our international reputation. I am proud to leave this country in a better shape than I found it.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

Q9. It is an emotional Prime Minister’s Question Time today, and I really welcome the tone that has been struck. I think we should hear more of this, more often. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”]Last year, I convened a roundtable of stakeholders in my constituency to explore joined-up solutions to tackling the scourge of violence against women and girls, and I have been really pleased that over the last two years, the Prime Minister has made that central to his Government’s mission. He has ensured that spiking and sexual deepfakes have been criminalised and that police forces have been mandated to have rape and sexual offences teams, and he has embedded trauma support for victims across all services. Does he agree that the Government absolutely must stick to the pledge that the Labour party put in its 2024 manifesto to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes I do, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s campaigning on this issue. Yesterday I was with John and Penny Clough, who I first met nearly 16 years ago. They lost their daughter to domestic violence of the most extreme sort in appalling circumstances, and in many ways my journey campaigning on violence against women and girls started with them 16 years ago this year. I pay tribute to them and everybody else who campaigns on this. That is why we set the mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. Whatever role I do next, I will continue to campaign for that for as long as I have breath in my body.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Melanie Onn and Keir Starmer

Wednesday 9th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It is another shameful legacy of the Conservative party that one in four adults struggles with NHS care and that tooth decay is the most common reason for hospital admissions for children aged five to nine—that happened on their watch. We are fixing this, and I can set out what we are doing. We are rolling out 700,000 urgent and emergency appointments, reforming the dental contract, and recruiting more dentists and newly qualified dentists, who will practice in the NHS for a minimum period. All of that is made possible only by the investment we put in in the Budget, which the Conservatives all opposed.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

Q15.   Tax evasion, money laundering, illicit goods and illegal working all undermine our high streets, including Freeman Street in my constituency. They undermine local business confidence and challenge community cohesion. That is the reality around the country because of the explosion of vape shops, fake barbers, Harry Potter shops and American candy stores. Will the Prime Minister commit to working with his Cabinet to bring in a national strategy to tackle the scourges of the high street and restore high street confidence?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight this issue. In March, we saw a major crackdown against criminals using high street businesses to launder money at almost 400 properties, which involved securing freezing orders over bank accounts totalling more than £1 million and arresting 35 individuals. There is much more to come, and I thank her for highlighting this really important issue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Melanie Onn and Keir Starmer

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Member’s constituents have been badly let down by the previous Government’s empty promises, which were never going to be delivered. We have put the new hospitals programme on a sustainable financial footing and increased the NHS capital budget to record levels, so that we can address the backlog of critical maintenance, repairs and upgrades. I will make sure that he gets a meeting with the relevant Minister to discuss that particular case.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

Q13.   Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes is the renewable energy capital of England, delivering home-grown, secure energy and boosting local skills. More than 12,000 people are employed in a clean energy job in Greater Lincolnshire, but those jobs are now under threat from Reform’s new mayor, who has declared war on renewables, putting livelihoods at risk. What steps will the Prime Minister take to protect jobs by supporting the supply chain and delivery of renewable projects?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a superb champion for energy security, driving down bills and the good secure jobs that renewables offer. Those on the Opposition Benches are climate defeatists—anti-jobs, anti-growth, anti-business and anti-investment—and they should try to peddle their policies to the tens of thousands of people in this country who work in renewables every single day. Those on the Opposition Benches do not think that Britain has the skills and they would deny us incredible opportunities. We are focused on securing billions in investment, creating tens of thousands of jobs and taking us off the rollercoaster of international fossil fuels.

G20 and COP29 Summits

Debate between Melanie Onn and Keir Starmer

Thursday 21st November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising that issue, because I think it is very important that that work goes on. We are making our own contribution to that. I will not go into the details here, as he will understand, but I can make sure that he has a meeting, should he wish one, to give some of the details of that.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

In the Prime Minister’s statement, he refers to the £1 billion investment for wind turbines in Hull. How does he envision that will benefit and improve lives and opportunities for my constituents in Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes?

[The Prime Minister]

I was very pleased to announce the work in Hull, with about 1,300 well-paid jobs there, making the blades for wind turbines. It was not that many years ago that I went to the Whitelee wind farm just outside Glasgow; there are 350 or so wind turbines up there. I asked how many were built in Britain and the answer was none—not a single component. Not only is this announcement very good for Hull, with well-paid, secure jobs, but it is very good for the United Kingdom that we are beginning to make the components for wind turbines.