Oral Answers to Questions

Ruth Cadbury Excerpts

Wednesday 1st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Pitchfork’s crimes were heinous, and our thoughts remain with Lynda and Dawn’s friends and families. My hon. Friend knows that it is for the Parole Board to make these decisions, but my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister will be submitting his views on the Pitchford case to the board before the oral hearing and will be happy to meet my hon. Friend again. We recently published a root-and-branch review of the Parole Board system that outlined our plans to introduce greater ministerial oversight, and I look forward to my hon. Friend’s contributions and thoughts on that.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

Q8. Yesterday, new figures showed that there had been a 26% increase in the number of people sleeping rough. Meanwhile, a Conservative party donor has spent £25,000 on a crystal-encrusted portrait of the Prime Minister, and another has paid £40,000 for a shooting trip. Does this not demonstrate just how out of touch the Conservative party is with the cost of living crisis?

[The Prime Minister]

Rough sleeping levels have been 35% lower this year than the peak, partly as a result of our £2 billion of extra investment over the last three years to tackle rough sleeping. We still have one of the lowest rates in the world, according to when it was last measured, but we will continue to do more. We do not want anyone to have to sleep rough. Because of the innovations that we have made we are taking more and more people off the streets, and we will keep delivering more.