Business of the House

Debate between Paul Blomfield and Penny Mordaunt

Thursday 20th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I heard approving noises coming from my Front-Bench colleague, my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Anne-Marie Trevelyan). I also point to this Government’s record during the pandemic: we saw those services as needing support, and followed up with action. I thank my hon. Friend for his helpful suggestion, which has gone down well with my colleague.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

Sunshine Pre-School, which serves families in my constituency on some of the lowest incomes, is facing closure, and several other constituents have written to me because their children have had their nursery places withdrawn due to staff shortages and funding problems. Clearly, this is a national problem. It is not, as the Government seem to think, a question of ratios of staff to children: it is about the failure of funded early learning rates to keep up with costs. Can we have a debate on the crisis in childcare, to urge Ministers to bring forward proper support for that vital social provision which is so important, not only to parents, but to supporting economic growth?

[Penny Mordaunt]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: those services are incredibly important for children’s development and to support families, but also to enable people to remain in work and progress through work. I will raise that matter, which I know is a concern across the House, with the Department for Education. Colleagues involved in the work the Government have been doing on early years, to take a more holistic approach to that whole area and make sure it is doing what parents need it to do, will also want to hear the hon. Gentleman’s remarks.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Blomfield and Penny Mordaunt

Wednesday 28th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I do agree with my hon. Friend, which is why the Department has shifted its funding focus to those issues that are needed over the longer term, as well as to those in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

T5. Stability is clearly key to delivering aid in Yemen. The Southern Transitional Council appears to be providing some stability. What discussions is the Secretary of State having with it to secure the delivery of aid to both North and South Yemen?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Blomfield and Penny Mordaunt

Monday 27th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

16. What estimate he has made of the number of disabled people who will be affected by the changes introduced by the Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Penny Mordaunt)]

Recent changes to the PIP regulations clarify the original criteria used to decide how much benefit a person receives. This is not a policy change or a budget change, and it will not result in any claimants, regardless of their health conditions, seeing a reduction in the amount of PIP they have been awarded.

--- Later in debate ---

[Penny Mordaunt]

The Committee is within its rights to look at the decision. It did so, and it concluded that it would not formally review that decision. We have used the urgency procedure, as it was within our rights to do, to establish certainty. We do not want there to be a long period of uncertainty around this, and we do not want to be in the position of having to take money off people. What we have done is to restore that certainty. Everyone knows where they are, and people know that there is no change and their awards will not be changing.

[Paul Blomfield]

It was a constituent of mine whose case led to the recent tribunal ruling that clarified the eligibility criteria for PIP, and to the Government’s subsequent amendments to the regulations. She lives with multiple health problems and was supported by Sheffield Citizens Advice, which is due to publish a report later this week on the wider impact of the shift from DLA to PIP and the particular effect that it is having on the over-65s. Will the Minister agree to meet me and Citizens Advice to discuss its recommendations?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I would be very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to do so. PIP is a better benefit than DLA—it better serves a wider range of people with a wider range of conditions better—but we can always make improvements to the system, and I would be very happy to meet him.

High Cost Credit Bill

Debate between Paul Blomfield and Penny Mordaunt

Friday 12th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield]

That is an important point. It is one I have looked at in relation to the United States, where unregulated markets have been regulated. Where such regulation is introduced in the measured way that the Bill seeks, there is no evidence that people turn to the sort of illegal loan sharks about whom we should be very concerned.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on introducing the Bill and other Members who have worked on the issue, including my hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds). Does the hon. Gentleman agree that often people are in such dire straits from taking out payday loans at massive credit rates that they turn to loan sharks and other disreputable creditors in order to pay back the first loan?

[Paul Blomfield]

The hon. Lady makes an important point and she is absolutely right.

Let me conclude by giving an example from Sheffield of a single parent, not currently working but supporting three young children. She used various payday loans from different companies to pay household bills and found herself trapped in a spiral of debt. The Money Shop, for example, gave her three roll-overs at £30 a time. It used a CPA to withdraw money needed for essential household bills from her account and she subsequently fell behind with her rent. When she approached the companies, they were very unsympathetic. The Cheque Centre was at one point calling her five to seven times a day. She feels, as many Members of this House do, that payday loan companies prey on the most vulnerable, offering credit to those who have no realistic prospect of paying the money back. This House has a responsibility to ensure that that does not happen. That is why I commend the Bill to the House.

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Debate between Paul Blomfield and Penny Mordaunt

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield]

Indeed; the plan was pretty transparent, and it seems to be falling apart under the scrutiny of another place and with the support of other parties across the House. I am delighted about that because accepting Lords amendments 5 and 23 will provide the pause that we need to ensure that our democracy is not weakened. That would give us the time to get this right, and I look forward to the House supporting those amendments.

[Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) (Con)]

I hope I can cheer up my hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman) and the whole House by quoting Edmund Burke, who told the electors of Bristol:

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment”.

We cannot be on autopilot in the House; we must do what we think is right, in the interests of our constituents and the country, which is why I did not join my Government in voting against the measures on payday loans proposed by the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy), or Labour’s proposed extension to the national insurance contribution holiday to the south-east, and it is why I voted against my Government over the constitutional car crash that was the House of Lords Reform Bill.