Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Sweeney Excerpts

Wednesday 6th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paul Sweeney (Glasgow North East) (Lab/Co-op)]

The roll-out of universal credit and personal independence payments has led to £56 million of cuts in disability payments every year, hitting Scotland’s poorest the hardest. Six out of the 10 worst-hit constituencies are in Glasgow, and the annual loss to disabled people in my constituency is £2 million. If the Secretary of State is really standing up for Scottish interests, what is he doing to stop this atrocious assault on disabled people?

[Stuart Andrew]

I point out to the hon. Gentleman that the Government are spending billions and billions of pounds on disability payments, and we are ensuring that we give the support to those people who need it most and encourage people in receipt of such benefits who want to work. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State—[Interruption.]

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, we are taking action on the issues on the railways, to ensure that trains are able to arrive without delay. We will be leaving the European Union on 29 March 2019, and the implementation period will last until the end of December 2020. That is our commitment, and that is what is going to happen.

[Mr Paul Sweeney (Glasgow North East) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q10. My constituent Giorgi is 10 years old. He was tragically orphaned in February. He has lived in Glasgow since he was three years old. His only language is English and he speaks it with the same accent as mine. Yet he now faces being deported to Georgia, his late mother’s country of birth, becoming another statistic who suffers at the hands of this Prime Minister’s hostile environment policy. Will the Prime Minister promise today that Giorgi will not, under any circumstances, be torn from his school friends in Glasgow and sent to a country that is entirely foreign to him?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very specific individual case. It is right that it be looked at properly, and that is what I will ask the Home Office to do.