Oral Answers to Questions

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Wednesday 13th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[David T. C. Davies]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend; it is hugely concerning that the Welsh Labour Government were even willing to consider independence for Wales with this commission. They should be sorting out the longest NHS waiting lists in the UK and doing something about the fact that we have the lowest educational standards and some of the highest business rates in the UK. As a result of the last bit of legislation, we also have some of the slowest speed limits in the UK. It is time the Welsh Labour Government addressed the real priorities of the people in Wales with the powers they already have.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

Is the reality not that the Conservative party never wanted devolution in Wales or Scotland in the first place, which is why it does not want to see powers extended to either the Senedd or the Scottish Parliament?

[David T. C. Davies]

I campaigned against the Senedd in the first place, but I was perfectly happy to accept the results of the referendum. I suggest that Scottish National party Members ought similarly to respect the results of independence referendums, be they about independence from the UK or independence from the European Union.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises an excellent question, because while Conservative Members believe in a country where hard work is rewarded and people can keep more of their hard-earned money—which is why we are cutting their taxes by an average of £900 each—we hear consistently from Labour Members that they not only disagree with that approach, but continue to cling to unfunded spending promises that would put taxes up. Also, just yesterday the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones), described our plan to end the double taxation on work as “morally abhorrent”. That is the contrast between us and them: Labour will put your taxes up, and the Conservatives will keep cutting them.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

Q9. Many of his Back Benchers—and now, it seems, the Prime Minister himself—have taken to referring to the European Court of Human Rights as a foreign court, as if there is something inherently wrong with things being foreign, or people being foreign. In what way can a court that the UK has belonged to since 1953, and which has an Irish president and a UK justice with an LLB from the University of Dundee, be considered foreign? The House needs to hear the Prime Minister commit today to the UK’s continued membership of a court and convention that have protected our rights and freedoms for over 70 years.