Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Wednesday 21st November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con)]

3. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that UK aid is allocated to where it is most needed.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

7. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that UK aid is allocated to where it is most needed.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Harriett Baldwin)]

UK aid is allocated based on need, to help to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to achieve the UN’s global goals.

[Harriett Baldwin]

Of course, that is something we have to be constantly vigilant about in all our spending, but I draw my hon. Friend’s attention to the fact that we were successful in changing the OECD’s rules, so if a hurricane hits a relatively prosperous country and brings its income down, we can spend aid there as well.

[Robert Halfon]

Last week, Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired as many as 460 rockets towards Israeli civilian communities. Does the Minister share my concern that Hamas’s continued misuse of international aid worsens the suffering of the people of Gaza? How can she be sure that UK taxpayers’ money is reaching those who need it most?

[Harriett Baldwin]

Of course the UK Government strongly condemn Hamas’s rocket firing and are deeply concerned about the civilian casualties. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that the UK has zero tolerance and needs to be constantly vigilant. We do not fund Hamas, of course, but we need to be extremely careful to ensure that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman will know that we are putting extra money into school funding; he will know that we have changed the national funding formula to make it fairer across the country; and I would hope he welcomes the fact that in the north-west we now see over 895,000 children in good or outstanding schools—an increase of over 175,000 children since 2010. He focuses on the money going into schools; he also needs to look at school outcomes, at the excellent work being done by our teachers and at the children who are now in good or outstanding schools who were not in good or outstanding schools under the last Labour Government.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

Q8. Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming Debbie Pritchard, a specialist teacher from Harlow who is visiting us for #AskHerToStand day and is watching from the Public Gallery? Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is a question not just of getting more women into Parliament but of encouraging women from all walks of life, especially from disadvantaged, low-income and working-class backgrounds? Does she support initiatives by the Conservative Party Foundation such as the Conservative candidate bursary scheme to enable more women to access public life?

[The Prime Minister]

I am very happy to welcome my right hon. Friend’s constituent Debbie Pritchard, and I hope she will consider standing for Parliament. We talk about diversity in relation to getting more women into Parliament, but my right hon. Friend is right that we also need to ensure that we have people in this Chamber from a wide variety of backgrounds and with a wide variety of experience, because that is the way to get better decisions made in this Chamber. I am pleased that the Conservative party has been taking action through the bursary scheme and through its work to support disabled people into politics and to encourage people from a wide range of backgrounds and with a wide range of experience to stand for Parliament and represent constituents in this Chamber.