Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Connarty Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We now have 1.6 million new private sector jobs, meaning that there are 1.3 million more people employed in our country. We are seeing that growth in employment in every region of the country. Some are growing faster than others, and we need to keep up the work to make sure that this is a broadly balanced recovery, but one of the indicators of economic success is that week in, week out, the leader of the Labour party comes to the House of Commons and cannot mention employment. He cannot talk about the economy or about jobs, investment and growth, because all the things he said would never happen are happening in our economy.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

Could the Prime Minister focus on the fact that Atos now wants to give up its contract for the work capability test? Is it not time to change the test back to one based on the medical evidence of the consultants of those who are applying? When 158,000 appeals are upheld, surely it is time for him also to rescind his decision to charge people for appeals.

[The Prime Minister]

First, I hope it is not too uncharitable to point out that the Atos contract was actually awarded by the last Labour Government. Of course we are now discussing and debating with the company how this should be taken forward, but the fact is that we do need in this country a way of determining whether people are fit for work. When it comes also to the issue of sanctions in our benefits system, frankly it is right that people who are offered a job and do not take it should now face a sanction. I think that will be the choice at the next election: one party in favour of hard-working people; another party obsessed by bigger and bigger benefits.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Connarty Excerpts

Wednesday 6th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

I certainly understand that and I gather that the right hon. Gentleman had some lively discussions on that matter at the Alliance party conference. The Prime Minister is well aware of that perspective on corporation tax and I have discussed it with him and with the Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister on a number of occasions.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

9. When the most recent report of the investigation into the McGurk’s bar bombing will be made public.

[The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (Mike Penning)]

I understand that the most recent public report on that tragic event was published by the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in February 2011. I tried to place a copy in the House today but have been told that that is not possible, but it will be on the police ombudsman’s website and it is available now.

[Michael Connarty]

I am disappointed that the Minister of State is replying, as I would have thought that the Secretary of State would take the chance to repeat her apology to me to the people affected by the McGurk’s bar bombing, which was the biggest bombing before Omagh. Do the Government accept that they cannot devolve the past and that their response should ensure that the suppression of witnesses that happened and the expert evidence that was given but then supplanted by lies and fabrication from the Northern Ireland police are not allowed to continue, so that we get to the truth about the collusion that took place before and after the bomb?

[Mr Speaker]

We are grateful to the hon. Gentleman.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this. There are some particular issues we should really focus on. Female genital mutilation is a completely unacceptable practice that we need to deal with right across the world, but including here in the United Kingdom, and we will be making an announcement about that. We should also do more to crack down on the completely unacceptable practice of forced marriages. Forced marriages are still taking place right here with people involved from the United Kingdom, and we need to do more to put a stop to it.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

Q2. I have been asked by the good people of Whitburn to open a food bank for West Lothian. I am very proud of these people who are pulling together as community, but I have to say that I carry a sense of absolute shame that this Government are driving people, even working people, more and more to have to use food banks. I can see people waving this away. It is a question of morality. The Government must surely look after the poor as well as look after the rich.

[The Prime Minister]

I welcome people making this contribution in our country, as the last Labour Government did by giving the organisation that founded food banks a prize and an award for its work. I point out to the hon. Gentleman that the use of food banks went up 10 times under Labour, but one thing Labour refused to do, which we have done, is to allow jobcentres to point people towards food banks if they need them. The last Labour Government were worried about the adverse publicity, and they put that worry before the needs of people up and down the country.

Northern Ireland

Michael Connarty Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Villiers]

As I have said, I have repeated on many occasions the Government’s support for the Union and for Northern Ireland’s place within it. The question of Northern Ireland’s future is settled on the principles of the Belfast agreement; it will only ever be decided by democracy and by consent. When it comes to the politics of identity, I think that it is very important that when decisions are taken, whether on flags or other issues, the very different traditions, perspectives and perceptions of identity in Northern Ireland are taken into account, but I will never be in doubt about my support for the Union or about the UK Government’s support for it.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

I fear that in many of these replies to the questions on the statement the idea of identity in Northern Ireland is being treated as somehow a theoretical construct. Last Thursday, when you, Mr Speaker, assisted by calling me to speak on the 41st anniversary of the McGurk’s bar bombing, what was revealed to me was that the people who had researched a book on the bombing and come here to launch it are deeply locked in the past. Clearly those people from west Belfast still feel a deep bitterness towards the United Kingdom and the involvement of its armed forces in their community. Similarly, in my work in the peace process over there, I have found that the people on the ground, not the politicians, feel deeply threatened by the turmoil that goes on at street level about identity, which leads to continued violence by IRA paramilitaries and the clear ability in loyalist communities to round up people on the streets and create violence. I urge the Secretary of State, apart from helping me get to the truth about the McGurk’s bar bombing, to get on the ground, talk to people and stop lecturing them from above.

[Mrs Villiers]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that I and the Minister of State do talk with people on the ground about these matters—it is a crucial part of being effective in our roles. With regard to the matter of identity, the important thing is to remember that one of the fundamental principles of the Belfast agreement was the need to recognise that people in Northern Ireland view their identities differently. The agreement recognised the ability of individuals in Northern Ireland to define themselves as British or Irish, and indeed some may choose to define themselves simply as Northern Irish. The politics of identity is fluid and changing, but a key part of the Belfast agreement was recognition of an individual’s right to define their identity in whatever way they choose.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Connarty Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

On the latter part of my hon. Friend’s question, I will certainly look at that. I was as shocked as he was when I found out about this case. I will do everything I can to try to expedite—as he says—a conclusion to it. I am sure that the sincere condolences of everyone in this House go to Private Wade’s family. This is an absolutely dreadful situation and it cannot be allowed to continue. The Ministry of Defence is aware of it, and it raises some complicated legal issues, but the reaction from colleagues around the House when my hon. Friend said what he said shows that we have to move quickly and get this sorted.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

Q14. Does the Prime Minister recall telling the House last year that the UK would lead the world in eradicating modern-day slavery? Could he explain to the House why his Whips organised, last Friday, to talk out my Bill that would eradicate that problem in the supply chains of British companies? Will he meet me and the people who support the Bill so that we can move this campaign forward?

[The Prime Minister]

This Government have an excellent record in combating modern-day slavery, not least because we continue to commit, through our international aid programme, to tackle those countries where it still, so regrettably, exists. I will look very carefully at the Bill that the hon. Gentleman mentions and perhaps write to him about the issue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Connarty Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady has a long record of supporting children’s day and the United Nations convention, which was signed in 1990. I think we should raise the profile of the day, and I know she will be pleased to note that the coalition is making good progress on that. Only this morning the Minister of State, Department for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), held a seminar about special needs children and how we must ensure that their needs are properly protected under this coalition Government.

[Michael Connarty (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (Lab)]

Q12. The Prime Minister might have noticed that the people of Scotland did not choose his party, except in one seat out of 59, and they did not choose the Conservatives’ poodles, the Liberal Democrats, either. Can he assure the House, as an absolute chill runs through Scotland at the 1.3 million hidden job losses that he did not publish, that any proposals for cuts in public services and expenditure in Scotland, and any Barnett formula cuts, will be brought before the Select Committee on Scottish Affairs—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We are grateful to the hon. Gentleman, but the question is too long.