October EU Council

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Any negotiation is about two sides coming together and reaching an agreement that they can both sign up to. Does that mean that both sides get 100% of what they started off wanting? Actually, no, by the very nature of the negotiation. What is important is that we get a good deal out of this and that we work hard to get the sort of deal that we think is in the interests of this country.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

I often disagree with the Prime Minister on matters of policy, but I stand in full solidarity with her against the dreadful language that was used and the threats that were made at the weekend. We have only about five months to go until the end of March, so how does she think we should work to eradicate that sort of language and those sorts of threats, particularly towards female MPs, given that we in this House are supposed to set an example?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, and as I have said, I am also grateful for the comments of other hon. Members who have shared similar sentiments in their interventions. It is incumbent on all of us to be careful about the language that we use in public, and comments such as the ones she and others have made today are part of encouraging the recognition of the importance of being careful and of carefully considering the impact of the language we use.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As my hon. Friend will know, it is not normally the case that any request to a civil servant to appear before a Committee is automatically accepted; decisions are taken about the levels at which civil servants should appear before Committees. As he said, he has had a number of my right hon. Friends appear before his Committee—I remember, I am not sure I can say with fond memory, the time when I appeared before the European Scrutiny Committee when I was Home Secretary—but I will certainly look at the request that he has made.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

Q11. The interim report of the Mental Health Act review stated that BAME men and women are more likely to come into contact with mental health services through the police, to be admitted to secure hospitals and to have poorer mental health outcomes over time. The Prime Minister has talked about ending the burning injustice of mental ill health, so why have her Government still not appointed an equalities champion to tackle these inequalities, nearly two years after that was recommended by the “Five Year Forward View for Mental Health”?

[The Prime Minister]

It was precisely to identify this sort of disparity in public services that I launched the race disparity audit when I became Prime Minister. In some areas that does make for uncomfortable reading for our society, but it is absolutely right that we have done it and it is absolutely right that we then address the issues that it has raised.

The hon. Lady talks about the interaction of people with mental health problems and the police. This is not something that I waited to do something about until the race disparity audit; I did something about it when I was Home Secretary. We have significantly reduced the number of people with mental health problems who are being taken to a cell in a police station as a place of refuge, and we have ensured that there is health support available for the police. As a result, people who are in a mental health crisis are getting better treatment than they did previously. There is more to do, but we have already started to take action.

Voter ID Pilots

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chloe Smith]

That is an excellent question. As I said earlier, each local authority conducting the pilots has been sure to communicate to voters in the way that will work best. That supports why we are doing this as local pilots: because returning officers in given areas know their electorates best. I have confidence that each pilot authority has communicated locally and the use of other languages will have been taken into account where required.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

Further to the excellent points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith), will the Minister please confirm how many prosecutions have been undertaken regarding people voting twice or inappropriately?

[Chloe Smith]

People voting twice is not what this policy is about. I wish that the hon. Lady and the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) on the Front Bench knew their policies better.

Syria

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 16th April 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

It is always good to be able to call a fairly new and young Member, particularly when that Member is celebrating her birthday. I call Paula Sherriff.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

After the appalling scenes we saw in Douma, all of us in this House agree that there is a desperate need to provide humanitarian relief and medical care to the civilians who have fled the city and to those who have remained. What action has the Prime Minister taken to that end?

[The Prime Minister]

May I first wish the hon. Lady a very happy birthday?

We will be continuing to work with our international partners to see what more we can do regarding our humanitarian support and to press for humanitarian access. As the hon. Lady and others will know, this has been one of the problems. Time and again, groups of people in Syria have been suffering as a result of the conflict and it has not been possible to get humanitarian access to them. We will continue to press for that access at the international level.

European Council

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to reiterate that confirmation to my hon. Friend. What we will be looking for in our future partnership is obviously a trade arrangement and a security arrangement, but in the trade arrangement we will be talking about both goods and services. We recognise the importance of services to the UK economy.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

In her statement, the Prime Minister pointedly referred to the abuse that her election candidates received. Unless she and everybody else in this House, and the Daily Mail, accept that abuse comes from all sides and from all political parties, we will not make any progress. If she so wishes, I can accommodate her this week by showing her the litany of abuse that I have received during the election and since. Please will she accept that unless we accept that this comes from all areas, we will not move forward?

[The Prime Minister]

What I said in the statement was this: “there can never be a place for the threats of violence and intimidation against some Members that we have seen in recent days. Our politics must be better than that.” I stand by that. All political parties in this House must be aware of the need to ensure that our politics is conducted in the right way and there is no place for threats and intimidation.

UK Plans for Leaving the EU

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We continue to believe that NATO is the bedrock of European security and we will continue to play a full role in NATO, as we have done over the years since its formation. I am pleased that we have British troops involved in NATO operations on the eastern border of the EU, protecting that border and giving that guarantee of European security.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has said that there will be no new infrastructure on the Irish border and no customs border over the Irish sea, and that we will not remain a member of the customs union. If all those options are ruled out, can she explain exactly what kind of customs border we will have?

UK Elections: Abuse and Intimidation

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Wednesday 12th July 2017 Westminster Hall

[Simon Hart (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered abuse and intimidation of candidates and the public in UK elections.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. I should start by saying that since the election the Conservative Whips Office has been dealing with at least three credible threats to colleagues every week, including death threats, criminal damage, sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and general thuggishness around and after the election. For all I know, other parties’ Whips Offices may be having similar experiences, and I look forward to hearing cross-party contributions on that score. It is for that reason, and a few others, that I thought it was appropriate to call this debate now.

When I first entered the House seven years ago, it never crossed my mind for one minute that I would end up making a speech like this. As far as I was concerned, elections were four or five weeks of robust banter followed by a shake of the hand and a pint in the pub, yet now it all seems so different, with swastikas on election boards and offensive slogans and language on posters.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this important debate. I have been an MP for just over two years, and I cannot remember a single day that has gone by without me receiving some sort of abuse, whether that is death threats or a picture of me mocked up as a used sanitary towel and various other things. The last election was the most brutal I can imagine. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we have to look at this issue with a non-partisan view and accept that in all our parties, as much as it hurts us, there are people who do not represent our values? For some to suggest that it is only one party doing it is wrong.

[Simon Hart]

I absolutely recognise that point, and I will come to it later in my speech. There will be individual contributions from Members who might have had particular experiences that defy that challenge, but I agree with the hon. Lady, and I am grateful to her for making that point so early in proceedings.

Northern Ireland

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Monday 26th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

I rarely disagree with my hon. Friend, but I disagree with him on that point. I do not believe that the SNP speaks for Scotland on this matter. I am interested in the prosperity and future of the Scottish people, just as I am in the people of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. That is the logic of being a Unionist, and I will preserve that logic to the end.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

Hospitals, schools and other public services in my constituency continue to face unprecedented cuts, so how do the Government justify finding £1.5 billion in order to achieve self-preservation? Is there any money on the magic money tree for the Dewsbury constituency?

[Damian Green]

As I have explained to the shadow First Secretary, this Government are committed to spending an extra £8 billion on the NHS in this Parliament, as well as an extra £4 billion on education and an extra £23 billion on infrastructure as a whole around the whole of the United Kingdom. I hope and expect that the people of Dewsbury will be able to benefit from that like everyone else.

European Council

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. He will be aware that the Treasury has offered reassurances on the funds that are currently received from the European Union while we are still members of the European Union and, in some cases, thereafter as well. Leaving the European Union gives us an opportunity to look at how support can best be provided by the United Kingdom Government.

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

Last December, just 101 EU nurses came over to work in our NHS. That is a decrease of more than 90% from pre-referendum months. How does the Prime Minister intend to tackle that so we do not have any more hospital wards—like many in my own constituency—that are dangerously understaffed?

[The Prime Minister]

I recognise the contribution that nurses from the European Union have made to the NHS over the years, and that is one group of EU citizens whom we will be thinking of when we start those negotiations on EU citizens living here and their rights. The Government also recognise that there are many people here in the United Kingdom who wish to train as nurses but who have not been able to do so because of the cap on numbers. We have removed that cap, which will enable more to take up those training positions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paula Sherriff Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2016 Commons Chamber

The Prime Minister was asked—

[Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) (Lab)]

Q1. If she will list her official engagements for Wednesday 12 October.

[The Prime Minister (Mrs Theresa May)]

This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Paula Sherriff]

Previously, I worked in an NHS service that the coalition Government gifted to Virgin Care, which is now seeking another contract covering my constituency. Among many unethical practices that I witnessed, Virgin imposed a system of double appointments, forcing patients to have unnecessary extra consultations before surgery, boosting its profits at the expense of the taxpayer and patient safety. Is that acceptable? If not, what is the Prime Minister prepared to do about it?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course, what we want to see in the provision of local services are the best services possible for local people. The hon. Lady talks about outsourcing of services in the NHS; I have to say to her that the party that put greater privatisation into the NHS was not my party but the Labour party.