Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 20th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has raised a particularly important issue, but if I may, I will pull him up on just one point. The unemployment rate across the UK is actually 3.9%. Employment in Scotland has risen by 239,000 since the 2010 election, and we saw in the spring statement that the economy is growing every year, borrowing is lower than expected and debt is falling, but I absolutely recognise my hon. Friend’s concerns. That is why we will continue to work as a UK Government to deliver more jobs, healthier finances and an economy that is fit for the future across the whole of the United Kingdom.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q9. Hate crime is on the rise, and our democracy is increasingly based on fear, both in Parliament and in the country. Shocking Home Office figures show that hate crimes doubled from 2011 to more than 100,000 last year. The country looks to politicians to set a high standard, but last week the Prime Minister’s allies were texting fellow hon. Members saying:“I’m going to chloroform you and drag you through the lobbies” to vote for the Prime Minister’s deal. Does she find that behaviour acceptable, or will she be removing the Whip from the offending Member?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that politicians at all levels need to think very carefully about the terms in which we address others and in which we put our arguments. There are many Members across this House who have suffered significant verbal abuse and online abuse of various sorts. This is a matter that we should all be taking seriously, and I will be ensuring that, across this House, we work to ensure that people are not subject to the sort of abuse that, sadly, some Members have been subjected to from outside this House.