Oral Answers to Questions

Naz Shah Excerpts

Wednesday 17th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for his role in championing the rail industry in the UK. As he rightly said, the Department for Transport and the Secretary of State have been actively engaged with companies to ensure that we have a robust supply chain. As my hon. Friend knows, we are investing record amounts in rail, particularly in the north, and we are pleased to see that that is being delivered.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister is no doubt aware of the collapse of SSB Law, and many constituents, including hundreds in my constituency, have been affected and have bills of up to hundreds of thousands. One constituent had to sell his wedding gifts, and his father had a heart attack with the stress. People are having to raid their pension pots; they are getting bills, and bailiffs are knocking on the door. Will the Prime Minister meet me and my constituents’ representatives on the collapse of SSB Law, and make sure that the Government respond to this injustice that has happened to people across the country?

Iran-Israel Update

Naz Shah Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The Foreign Secretary recently spoke to his counterpart on exactly that topic. More broadly, we are discussing with our G7 partners and allies what further measures we can take to deal with the threat, economically, that Iran poses.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

Much has been said by the Prime Minister and other Conservative Members about the normalisation process between Saudi Arabia and Israel. On 9 January, the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom told Radio 4 that that normalisation process was subject to a two-state solution and a fully recognised Palestine.

Having put that on the record, I remind the Prime Minister that support for any nation is not like the unconditional support that he has for his football team. When Iran acts like a rogue state in Syria, we rightly call it out and, when Israel taunts Iran by bombing its consulate building, knowing full well that Iran will respond and risking further escalation, we must call it out as well. What is the Prime Minister doing in his efforts to ensure that the two-state solution and the recognition of Palestine are being actively pursued?

[The Prime Minister]

I refer the hon. Lady to my statement, in which I was clear about my commitment to a two-state solution and our diplomatic efforts to help to bring that about.

Defending the UK and Allies

Naz Shah Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right about the necessity of doing that. It was a feature of our conversations last week, but we also facilitated a visit by some of our leading defence companies to Ukraine at the end of last year to further the co-operation between our two countries. There is a path forward to see how we can build that—to build the defence industrial base in Ukraine to help it to defend itself in future.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

I associate myself with all the comments made by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on the commitment to root out antisemitism. It is unacceptable for British Jews to be held responsible for the actions of Israel as a Government, as is the idea that they can have any effect on the Israeli Prime Minister or his Cabinet. In the same vein, given the rise of Islamophobia, it has been a new low and a painful blow today for the Prime Minister to say to a British Muslim in this House, my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Zarah Sultana), that she should tell Hamas and the Houthis to stop doing what they are doing. That is an Islamophobic trope. Maybe the Prime Minister will reflect, withdraw and take the opportunity to show leadership and apologise. Coming back to the question, the Government—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Order. I think the hon. Lady has asked a question.

Israel and Gaza

Naz Shah Excerpts

Monday 16th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As we heard previously, there are complexities with ensuring the safe opening of the Rafah crossing. We are having conversations with the Israelis, the Egyptians and other partners to see how best we can provide humanitarian assistance to the region, not least through the deployment of our Royal Navy assets, which will arrive over the course of the coming week, and the increase in aid funding, which we announced today, that will provide support to people in the region.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

The use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas against civilians is illegal. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported the use of white phosphorous against civilians in Gaza. Has the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office received confirmation of those reports? If such weapons have been used against civilian populations in Gaza, what will the Prime Minister’s response be?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, we keep everything under review, but I am not going to comment or speculate on reports where we do not have full access to information or are unable to verify facts.

Oral Answers to Questions

Naz Shah Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

Q5. I know how it feels to be homeless, squatting from one place to another with your entire belongings in one single black bin liner. Hard-working families, including in Bradford West, are at risk of homelessness because of the Tory mortgage bombshell and the failure to legislate to protect renters. Apart from totally losing grip of the whole situation, what is the Prime Minister doing to stop half a million people becoming homeless?

[The Prime Minister]

Actually, rough sleeping levels were about a third lower in 2022 compared with the peak in 2017. Since our landmark Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 came into force, more than 600,00 households have successfully had their homelessness prevented or relieved, and we are investing £2 billion over the next three years to continue to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Naz Shah Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

So many of us are trying to find the words to describe the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Many have eloquently, philosophically, emotionally and even poetically alluded to her legacy and reign. Despite all the great words that have been and will be said, we all fall short, not because of the lack of words or of heartfelt emotion on this momentous occasion, but because even our greatest words fall short when it comes to doing justice to the life, legacy and reign of an extraordinary monarch.

We look around the world and we realise that these are sombre moments not just for the people of Britain or the Commonwealth, but for the entire world. Indeed, the elegant words of President Macron of France,

“ To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was the Queen.”

highlight how she was a worldly figure who existed beyond the nations and realm, in the hearts of people across the world. She was a unifying monarch, who brought people together in a way that was unique to her. That is why, when we look across our nation at the sadness and grief that people and communities are feeling, we see that people of all races, of all religions and of all communities are united in the devotion and heartfelt emotion they are showing at the passing of their Queen.

This unified attachment to Her Majesty did not just appear out of nowhere, but was directly a symbol she expressed throughout her reign. In 1952, in her first Christmas broadcast, at a time when inclusion and diversity were very much unseen in society, she addressed the nations and asked that people, whatever their religion, pray for her and her reign. We heard the same message of inclusivity and diversity from our new monarch, King Charles III.

In the same way, despite Her Majesty keeping her views close to her heart, her deep-felt connection to the Commonwealth and to justice was obvious. By summer 1986, the Queen’s apparent objection to the refusal by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to place sanctions on apartheid South Africa was widely known. It is no wonder that her favourite African leader was Nelson Mandela, with whom she held a deep friendship until he sadly passed.

On a more local front, the Queen made several visits and was welcomed by the people of Bradford throughout her 70-year reign. Eighteen months after her coronation, on her nationwide tour, she visited Bradford, marking the city’s first royal visit since 1942. She visited Bradford Park Avenue during this trip and was sung to by 30,000 schoolchildren. On behalf of all my constituents, I hope I can express their thoughts, feelings and condolences to the royal family at this difficult time.

As one era comes to an end, we pray for the next. As a woman of faith, I admired Her Majesty as she was a person of deep faith and belief. I end with the words of a great Muslim poet, Rumi:

“You are not a drop in the ocean; you are an entire ocean in a drop”.

Her Majesty was an ocean in her kindness, selflessness and humour, and she made herself a drop through her humbleness, sense of duty and service to her people. God save our King.

Confidence in Her Majesty’s Government

Naz Shah Excerpts

Monday 18th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

This place is always interesting, but it has been particularly interesting to listen to all the Conservative Members standing up, time and again, to suggest they will support this motion. They do not even need to listen to us; they need only tune in to the next leadership debate to hear their own candidates talk about the litany of abysmal failures overseen by this Government over the past 12 years. We will not let the Conservative leadership candidates wipe the slate clean after 12 years of Conservative rule. They walked through the Lobby to vote for 15 tax rises, against hungry children getting free school meals and against the windfall tax on the multibillion-pound profits of oil companies, before they adopted Labour’s policy and tried to give it a new name.

There is loads I could mention. People forget that all the leadership candidates supported the Prime Minister through partygate, the Owen Paterson crisis and the dodgy covid contracts—the list is longer than my arm. The failures of this Conservative Government led to record NHS waiting lists and record delays in A&E, delays at the Passport Office, delays in our courts, delays in prosecuting rapists and murderers, delays in issuing driving licences and delays at our airports. There is record neglect in the cities of the north of England such as Bradford, where we have had years of austerity, years of underfunding and years of false promises, including on Northern Powerhouse Rail, none of which have come to fruition.

This Government have completely wrecked this country’s industries—that is their record. We have a skills crisis in this country. There is a crisis with our criminal barristers that is leading to further delays in our courts, a crisis in our care sector, a crisis with HGV drivers, a crisis with train drivers, a crisis with airport workers, a crisis with school teachers and a crisis looming in the civil service. Do Conservative Members really want to stand by this record?

I do not know where to begin on the record of successive Conservative Governments on engagement with Muslim communities. When I saw the front page of the Daily Mail last night and heard about the so-called “dodgy judgment” of the Minister for Trade Policy, the right hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt), in meeting a “controversial” Muslim group, I did not expect the meeting to be with a mainstream Muslim organisation that Members on both sides of the House meet on a regular basis.

The Muslim Council of Britain is a mainstream Muslim organisation backed by mainstream British Muslim mosques, organisations and institutions. Yesterday, No. 10’s long-held secret boycott of a mainstream Muslim group was finally admitted on the front page of a tabloid newspaper. This Government’s record is that the Prime Minister’s comments led to a 375% increase in attacks on Muslim women. Previous Conservative Governments refused to form a working definition of Islamophobia, and then they refused to adopt the definition used by the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims. They then promised to make a definition of their own, before appointing and then unappointing their own adviser. Almost a decade later, hate crime against Muslims is rising, and what do we have from this Government? Absolutely nothing but a mainstream Muslim organisation boycotted by No. 10.

I am sorry to tell this Conservative Government that the days are gone when they could prop up Muslim organisations with one or two members, funded and supported for the purposes of the Government’s policy agenda. Those days are over. Mainstream British Muslims sit in Parliament and represent our nations in sport. We are the doctors and nurses in our hospitals, and we are the teachers who teach our children and future leaders. We are equally British and must equally be heard. The record of this Government is nothing to be celebrated, and those who vote for this confidence motion are equally responsible because they are endorsing the Government’s actions.

Functioning of Government

Naz Shah Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Ellis]

I think the hon. Gentleman asked a rhetorical question, but I will say that the Government will continue to function as the country would expect.

[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.

Draft Police Act 1996 (Amendment and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2022

Naz Shah Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2022 General Committees

[The Chair]

Would the Opposition spokesperson like to contribute?

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

I had wanted to ask the Minister to clarify that there would be no cost implications, but he mentioned it earlier.

Question put and agreed to.

Sue Gray Report

Naz Shah Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As the hon. Lady knows, those are matters for the Met.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister said:

“I briefly attended such gatherings to thank them for their service, which I believe is one of the essential duties of leadership”.

He would not know leadership if it hit him in the face—that is where my constituents stand, and I will tell him why. Doctors gave their lives and their families were not allowed to attend their funerals. I was on the phone when the trust that I work with had to make leadership decisions to separate people and not let them see their dying relatives; I was on the phone to somebody while a person died—they were begging me to let them see him. That is what leadership is; those were difficult decisions they had to make. Nurses could not go home and had to book into hotels so that they did not spread infections. If the Prime Minister had an ounce of leadership, he would resign. So why doesn’t he?

[The Prime Minister]

I refer the hon. Lady to what I have already said.