Living with Covid-19

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Monday 21st February 2022

(2 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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Beautifully put.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)
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Are the 100 million vaccine doses that are being donated as part of the global response counted towards or in addition to the Government’s 0.5% official development target? And when will they stop blocking agreement on a TRIPS—trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights—waiver so that developing countries can take vaccine response into their own hands?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The hon. Gentleman is raising a very important but very difficult issue. In answer to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West), I mentioned the importance of the private sector. We need to ensure that the pharmaceutical companies have the wherewithal to make these colossal investments that offer hope for humanity.

G7 and NATO Summits

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Wednesday 16th June 2021

(2 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The people of Dudley North and the rest of the country will benefit massively from a new age of co-operation between our democracies; from the security that we are establishing, but also from our global commitment to work together to build back greener, so that we generate hundreds of thousands—millions—of high-wage, high-skilled jobs in Dudley, in the west midlands and around the whole of the UK.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP) [V]
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The Prime Minister said that no countries have raised concerns about the aid cuts. Well, I can give him a list as long as my arm of organisations and projects that are going to be devastated by these cuts. Does he not understand that as the only G7 country cutting aid, the UK is undermining any claim to be a soft power superpower and, more importantly, putting thousands and thousands of lives at risk?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Wednesday 3rd March 2021

(3 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I sympathise very much with Luke’s family and his friends, and there is nothing I can say that will alleviate their loss. But what we are doing is recruiting many more police officers to fight crime, rolling up the county lines drugs gangs wherever we can and setting out plans to keep serious sexual and violent offenders behind bars for longer. I can tell the House that we now have 6,620 of our target extra 20,000 police already recruited.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)
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We know that the Prime Minister is the proud leader of a British nationalist party, and he says that his no to another independence referendum in Scotland is final, so why are his colleagues in Scotland distributing leaflets that say a vote for the Tories is a vote to stop an independence referendum? If a vote for the British nationalist Tories in Scotland must be accepted as a legitimate vote against a referendum, surely a vote for the Scottish National party in May must be respected as a mandate for putting Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I was delighted to hear a sort of acceptance there that the hon. Gentleman is running a nationalist party, if that is what he was saying, because I am afraid I agree with that; they are not in respect of the whole of this country. But I think that most people will think it extraordinary that they are talking about another referendum—the Labour Chief Whip is nodding quite rightly—when, actually, what the people of this country want to see is us working together as one United Kingdom without further constitutional upheaval, to get through the pandemic and build back better.

Covid-19: Road Map

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Monday 22nd February 2021

(3 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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My hon. Friend raises a vital point, and that is why we have the £2 billion kickstart fund in addition to many other schemes to help young people into work and to help them with what could be a very difficult transition, but the best thing possible is to get the economy open and firing again.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)
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The German equivalent of furlough, the Kurzarbeit scheme, will be accessible to employers until at least the end of this year. Given that the Prime Minister said that the United Kingdom would “prosper mightily” outside the European Union, why cannot his Government—or why will not his Government—provide that level of certainty and support to employers on these islands so that they can plan with some confidence for our new post-pandemic normal?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The hon. Member will be hearing a lot more next week about the support that we are going to give throughout the whole of the UK. While we are on the subject, perhaps he could confirm that the Scottish nationalist party would have remained in the European Medicines Agency? I think he is a member of the SNP.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Wednesday 10th February 2021

(3 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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There you go, Mr Speaker. They believe fundamentally that it is the duty of the taxpayer to pay for more and more and more. We want to get people into jobs, and it is in that respect that the Scottish nationalist party is, I am afraid, failing—

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Wednesday 2nd December 2020

(3 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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We have abandoned nobody and we are continuing to support people. In addition to the support I have already mentioned, we have announced nearly £400 million to support vulnerable children and their families through the winter. We have increased universal credit, as I just mentioned to the House, increased the local housing allowance and provided billions more to local authorities to help those who are hardest to reach. I may say to the right hon. Gentleman that the best way to help the self-employed, and to help the economy of this whole country, is to get us moving again with the package of measures that the House voted for last night to allow retail to start up again and to allow business to start up again—

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The hon. Gentleman says it is shameful. We on the Government side of the House do not think retail is shameful. We want businesses to open up again, and that is the nature of the package that was voted for last night, which I think was quite right. It is a great, great shame that the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) could not bring himself to support it.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Monday 2nd November 2020

(3 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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That is certainly the intention, and that is why we are massively ramping up the tests in the way that my hon. Friend describes.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)
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The Prime Minister’s furlough is in place until December; the German equivalent is in place until December 2021. That is the kind of certainty that employers and employees in Glasgow North are looking for. He said that the furlough scheme is UK-wide, so does that mean that, if parts of the United Kingdom are still in a lockdown beyond December, devolved Administrations will have the resources they need to extend the 80% furlough?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The hon. Gentleman must have missed my answer to the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford). I can tell him that the furlough is a UK-wide scheme that applies throughout the whole of the United Kingdom. I remind him that the UK has already contributed £7.2 billion to support the people of Scotland throughout the crisis.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Wednesday 23rd September 2020

(3 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The cause of education in Tiverton can have no more fervent and effective advocate than my hon. Friend, and although the first 50 schools have not yet been announced, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education will have heard that powerful cry, and I have no doubt that my hon. Friend will be answered.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)
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Does the Prime Minister understand that as long as these powers are reserved, the Government have to meet the costs that come with the pandemic? He can do that either by extending the job retention schemes, especially for those who are excluded or through sector-specific support, or he can pay the long-term price of long-term unemployment, increased social security and all the damage to the economy and society that comes with that. Which of those is it going to be? What is the Prime Minister’s vision for “building back better”?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I thank the hon. Gentleman. Very simply, it is to keep doing what we have been doing, but to intensify our support for every part of the Union and—from spaceports to backing our armed services throughout the whole UK and investing in our healthcare—that is what we will do. The overall Barnett consequentials, as I have said, so far are £12.7 billion, and we will continue to provide that support.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Patrick Grady and Boris Johnson
Wednesday 29th January 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend any time.

Patrick Grady Portrait Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)
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Q15. Is the Prime Minister aware that the international strand of Glasgow’s fantastic Celtic Connections festival has been scaled back by almost 20% this year, because of what the director, Donald Shaw, described as the “hassle and stress” of sourcing visas for overseas artists? What is the Prime Minister’s message to artists who want to come here and share their talents, but who are put off by an over-complicated and extortionate application protest that signals they are not welcome?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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As the hon. Gentleman knows, this Government have already instituted new measures to ensure that people of talent, and who can contribute to this economy, can come without let or hindrance. I am surprised that the director of the festival he refers to is encountering any difficulties, but if he really has a problem, may I direct him to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary?