Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Priti Patel and Andrew Gwynne

Monday 22nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right in her comments. Through changes linked to the new plan for immigration we will end the use of hotel accommodation for asylum seekers, which was a result of the pandemic—we had to take decisive action to ensure that those seeking asylum in the UK were protected under covid measures. It was a short-term solution and the new plan for immigration includes long-term changes in the offing for asylum accommodation.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

One big reason why we need to use hotels is that the asylum processing system has basically imploded. The share of applications that received an initial decision within six months fell from 87% in 2014 to just 20% in 2019. What is the Home Secretary’s explanation for that?

[Priti Patel]

There are a number of factors in terms of why there has been slowing down in the processing of asylum claims. In particular, because of the covid pandemic last year, decisions were not made and we had to change our accommodation policies in the light of Public Health England guidance, which is well documented and well known. That has put pressures on the wider system. Of course, the hon. Gentleman will be well aware of the proposals in the new plan for immigration on not only processing, fast-track removals and the changes we are making in legislation, but the digitalisation of the system. We will move from paper-based decision making to digitalisation and that work is already in train.

New Plan for Immigration

Debate between Priti Patel and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I know he has raised concerns about this issue in the past. We have to break up the criminal trade in human misery. We will continue to do everything possible through the reforms that we are proposing today, which will go to public consultation, and then we want to bring in new legislation to achieve the outcomes that we are outlining.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

I have always believed that we have a duty to meet our international obligations in a fair, firm and humanitarian way, but the current system is failing on all three of those. It is important that we draw the distinction between legal migration, refugees, victims of people trafficking, and illegal immigration: they are all very different things. The Home Office has announced plans to introduce tougher age assessments. Can the Home Secretary confirm to the House that these new assessments will be sensitive to disabilities, trauma and medical needs, as well as being carried out with dignity and respect?

[Priti Patel]

The hon. Gentleman makes some valid points about not just age assessments, but the categories of vulnerability that we are speaking about. We are launching a consultation today that he will be aware of, and it is absolutely right that we give all due consideration to the different needs of individuals, as well as the circumstances and the situations that they are fleeing.

UK Border: Covid Protections

Debate between Priti Patel and Andrew Gwynne

Tuesday 26th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I do not want to speculate about new measures; he will bear with me, as he has heard me say this a number of times. There are processes around making decisions, and clearly, when changes come forward, the Government will announce the details in due course.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

It is not hindsight. The Home Secretary knows that the Home Affairs Committee, on which I sit, took evidence from New Zealand and Singapore last year about what they were doing to successfully apply effective covid controls at the border. Ten months on, it feels that the Home Secretary is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. I simply ask her this: why did our measures not work? Did they not go far enough, and does she take any responsibility for that?

[Priti Patel]

As a member of the Select Committee, the hon. Gentleman will be aware that in April last year, we discussed at the Select Committee health measures at the border and the work of the Government. In terms of the effectiveness of the measures, he will be very familiar with all the measures—the statutory instruments, the regulations and the directions to airports, Border Force and the ports. As I and other members of the Government have said throughout, and particularly today, all measures are under review, and that is the right thing to do.

Welfare Reform and Work Bill

Debate between Priti Patel and Andrew Gwynne

Tuesday 23rd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

No, I will not give way. I am speaking to Lords amendment 1.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Will the Minister give way?

[Priti Patel]

I am going to make some progress on Lords amendment 1, and then I will give way to the hon. Gentleman.

I turn to why statutory income measures failed. They are flawed as they do not drive the right action to transform children’s lives. It is worth demonstrating that with a few examples. The Government are undertaking crucial reforms to improve people’s life chances, such as introducing the national living wage and increasing the personal allowance for the hardest-pressed families. Those policies will provide support for the hard-working families who need it the most, yet, according to Labour’s failed approach to measuring child poverty, their introduction would have supposedly led to an increase in child poverty. That failed approach incentivised the wrong actions. For example, it led the previous Labour Government to tackle the symptoms of poverty through expensive income transfers, such as spending more than £300 billion on working-age welfare and tax credits between 2003-04 and 2008-09, with very little return. The strategy failed to tackle the root causes of child poverty and did not make a long-term difference to children’s prospects.

[Priti Patel]

I will give way shortly.

The number of children in relative poverty remained broadly unchanged. In short, there are fundamental weaknesses in that system, which the Government are seeking to put right through our life chances measures.

[Andrew Gwynne]

The Minister would perhaps want me to remind her that child poverty fell by 1 million under the Labour Government, which is something we should be proud of. Her own advisers advised against removing the child poverty indicators, so why is she headstrong in ignoring the advice not just of the other place but her own commission, which has said that this is wrong?

[Priti Patel]

We discussed this issue in Committee. I just reiterate that the Government are right in our approach: we are focused on tackling the root causes of poverty. Ultimately, as the Prime Minister said in his recent life chances speech, we are here to make sure we can tackle those long-term root causes. This is not just about measurement. The economy cannot be secure if we spend billions of pounds on picking up the pieces of social failure. Economic reform and social reform are not two separate agendas, they are connected to one another. Therefore, it is imperative that we focus our resources on how we can transform people’s lives, which is through tackling the root causes.

The path I urge the House to take is the one that will incentivise the right action, and the one that the evidence tells us will make the biggest difference to children’s life chances. That is precisely why the Government are seeking to introduce the life chances measures contained in the Bill. The statutory measures on worklessness and educational attainment, combined with the non-statutory measures in the forthcoming life chances strategy—such as family breakdown, problem debt, and drug and alcohol dependency—will drive the right actions to transform children’s lives.

DWP Data

Debate between Priti Patel and Andrew Gwynne

Tuesday 21st July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

We do not place our interpretation on data that my Department publishes, because we are bound by the UK Statistics Authority when it comes to how they are presented. As I have said, these data will be published. Let me also reiterate once again that ours is one of the most transparent Governments ever, in contrast to the hon. Gentleman’s Government.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The Minister has said that the data will be robust, but I simply do not accept the Government’s narrative that some people in receipt of employment and support allowance or incapacity benefit are not ill, because those are good epidemiological considerations when it comes to public health indicators. Why will the Minister not do the decent thing and publish the data in full today?

[Priti Patel]

I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman was disappointed by my response, but the data will be published. He should remember, when he criticises these schemes, that his Government set them up prior to 2010, and that it is we who are reforming the mess that we inherited.

The Economy

Debate between Priti Patel and Andrew Gwynne

Wednesday 26th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In his constituency and his region, the motor manufacturing sector is doing incredibly well and demand is incredibly high. Long may that continue. That is all about creating the right economic conditions to allow that to happen.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

I appreciate that we are entering the pantomime season and that this kind of political knockabout over whose spending plans stack up might play well to those in the gallery or to people outside, but the real way for the Minister to give confidence to the electorate that her £7 billion tax giveaway will stack up financially would be to allow her spending plans to be judged by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Labour has said that its spending plans will be put before the OBR; why does she not do the same?

[Priti Patel]

We are confident about our plans; it is the Opposition who should be worried about theirs.

The second way to recovery is by securing jobs and employment, and supporting businesses and the private sector. There is no better route to opportunity and success in our economy than being able to get a job; it is perhaps the closest thing we have to a silver economic bullet. Someone in work brings home money and is contributing to the economy, as we have all seen across our constituencies, and this makes an enormous difference to all our constituents. The 2 million private sector jobs created since 2010 have transformed people’s lives, while offsetting the reduction in public sector jobs many times over. This is what it is about: creating the conditions of growth so that the under-25s at the beginning of their careers get the right start in their working and professional lives, as many hon. Members have said. That is why the number of young people claiming benefits has fallen by more than half.