Oral Answers to Questions

Ruth Edwards Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. and learned Gentleman talks about leadership. This summer, I stood on my principles and told the country what they needed to hear, even though it was difficult. When he ran for leader, he told his party what it wanted to hear, and even now, he says one thing and does the other. He says that he cares for working people, but he will not stand up to the unions. He said that he would honour Brexit, but he tried to have a second referendum. And now he tries to talk tough about immigration, but he promised to defend free movement. You can trust him to deliver for his party; you can trust me to deliver for the country.

[Ruth Edwards (Rushcliffe) (Con)]

Q3.   As we debate how to best help our constituents with their energy costs, 10 million people in Ukraine are without power due to Russia’s barbaric strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure. Will my right hon. Friend set out what support we will provide to our Ukrainian allies to help them to repair the damage and keep their citizens warm this winter?

[The Prime Minister]

I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend that I spent time discussing that with President Zelensky at the weekend and talking to Ukrainian families about the impact that these awful strikes are having on them. I know that the whole House will be proud to know that we are providing millions of pounds of immediate support, with generators, shelter and water repairs, on top of the 570 mobile power generators that we are donating to power facilities across Ukraine. We are also working with the Government to repair critical infrastructure, with eight projects identified by UK Export Finance to be delivered in the near future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ruth Edwards Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Ruth Edwards (Rushcliffe) (Con)]

2. What assessment he has made of the role of the Union during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Secretary of State for Wales (Simon Hart)]

Our co-ordinated UK-wide response to the threat posed by covid-19 is testament to the strength and value of the Union. People and businesses in Wales and across the UK have benefited from the Government’s unprecedented package of support, which is far beyond the scale that any UK nation could offer alone.

[Ruth Edwards]

I thank the Secretary of State. As all nations start to lift lockdown measures and interconnectivity starts to increase, it is really important that we work together to track and trace the movement of any covid-19 cases, especially across porous borders such as the one between England and Wales. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this is in fact an opportunity to show how we are stronger working together and that we are better off tackling the crisis as one United Kingdom?

[Simon Hart]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I absolutely agree with her. Covid does not respect political boundaries and it does not respect national boundaries. As a result of that, we have had something in the region of 110 meetings now at which the Welsh Government were present so that we can approach this issue, for example through the joint biosecurity centre, as one United Kingdom, because that is the why that we will crack this.