Government Procurement Strategy
Shockat Adam Excerpts(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Chris Ward
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There is a link between food security, national security and economic security, which is an increasingly important part. The reforms that we have announced deal, in the first instance, with the four sectors that we feel are the most immediately available with the powers we have, but that is not where we want to end. I am happy to work with him, the farming industry and others to see what more we can do.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
I appreciate much of the statement that the Minister has made regarding procurement. I will deflect his attention to textile procurement, especially as the Ministry of Defence has contracted £37 million-worth of military gear to foreign factories, including in China. Some £23 million-worth of NHS personal protective equipment is manufactured abroad. All the while, my constituency has factories and a workforce, and we are ready. We are suffering with a cost of living crisis, so can I ask the Minister to consider onshoring textile procurement?
Chris Ward
Yes, the hon. Gentleman can. As he can clearly detect from what I am trying to say, the thrust is that I want to do more to support British businesses and industries, and I want to ensure that we are doing everything we can within the existing powers to do that. We have set out four sectors in which we feel we can do that straightaway, and I am sure there are others that we can look at. I am happy to work with him on that.
Security Vetting
Shockat Adam Excerpts(1 week, 6 days ago)
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The Prime Minister
As I have made clear, I did know what was in the due diligence report, and I have made that clear to the House a number of times today. I have actually made it clear to the House on previous occasions.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
My concern is that this Prime Minister will run out of buses before he runs out of people to throw under them. The issue is this. The Prime Minister has said:
“I never turn on my staff and you should never turn on your staff.”
Well, we have Sue Gray scapegoated, Tim Allan canned, Sir Chris Wormald forced out, Morgan McSweeney axed and now Olly Robbins sacked. Will the Prime Minister accept that the buck stops with him? This is his fault. He should do the honourable thing.
The Prime Minister
The information was withheld from me by the FCDO in the circumstances I have set out to the House.
Middle East
Shockat Adam Excerpts(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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The Prime Minister
Those are both very important points, and I can give my hon. Friend’s constituents that assurance on both fronts.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
Oxfam has warned that the Gaza playbook is being repeated. The Israeli military is demolishing villages in the south of Lebanon, displacing more than 1.3 million people, killing more than 2,000 and injuring more than 6,400. Journalists are being killed by the Israelis. NGO workers are being killed by the Israelis. United Nations peacekeepers are being targeted by the IDF. It is all well and good for the Prime Minister to say it is wrong, but what tangible action will he take to stop Israel’s war machine in its tracks this time, and when will he do what he failed to do during the genocide in Gaza and say no to Israel and no to Benjamin Netanyahu?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Member is right: the attacks are wrong, and it is important that we are clear on that. Lebanon should be included in the ceasefire, and we are clear on that. We need to work with our allies to follow through on both those propositions.
Digital ID: Public Consultation
Shockat Adam Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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Darren Jones
On the question of mandation, I expect it will be on the front of the Bill coming to the House later this year that it is not mandatory. Should any Government in the future wish to change that, they will need to come back to this House to change the law in order to do so. That is the right and proper thing.
The hon. and learned Gentleman is right to have concerns, as we should in relation to any modern services, about cyber-security, hacking and the confidentiality and security of people’s data. That is precisely why we are building this in-house—in Government—with the National Cyber Security Centre as a sovereign capability to ensure that we are not reliant on external companies, whether they are in the UK or abroad, to cover those bases for us.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
My constituents are overwhelmingly against digital ID, and that appears to be the national consensus. Does the Chief Secretary agree that asking 100 members of the public to legitimise an already bad idea initially espoused by Tony Blair is a waste of time, resources and money? When will the Government go back to addressing issues that really matter to the public, such as the cost of living crisis?
Darren Jones
It is not for me to advise other Members on how to please their constituents, but if the hon. Gentleman asked his constituents, “Would you like better public services that are easier to use?”, they would probably say, “Yes.”
Oral Answers to Questions
Shockat Adam Excerpts(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Nick Thomas-Symonds
My hon. Friend makes a really important point. We have agreed an ambitious security and defence partnership with the EU. We are negotiating a deal on carbon emissions trading. We are in exploratory talks about an electricity agreement. All those things assist with our economic and energy security, and the Conservative party is opposed to them.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
Nick Thomas-Symonds
There is a robust recovery plan in place. On the specific case that the hon. Gentleman raises, if he could please ask his staff to escalate it up to me, I will look at it.
Middle East
Shockat Adam Excerpts(2 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
I have clearly set out the basis for the decisions I have taken, and my view that we should all do all we can to de-escalate the situation.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
I thank the Prime Minister for his measured statement and restraint. The illegal action by Israel and the USA over the weekend, taking out admittedly a very repressive and brutal regime leader, has left the region and the world in turmoil, which is creating real fear, especially for our children. In fact, my 14-year-old asked me over the weekend, “Dad, are we all going to be okay?” I ask the Prime Minister this, as a father: what assurance he can give my son, and all the children in this country and the middle east, that he will do everything in his power to prevent the outbreak of world war three, which Donald Trump and Netanyahu are driving us towards?
The Prime Minister
The protection and security of British nationals is my foremost duty. I take it very seriously—that is why I took the decisions that I did over the weekend—and will continue to do so.
Labour Together and APCO Worldwide: Cabinet Office Review
Shockat Adam Excerpts(2 months, 1 week ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
When in opposition, the Prime Minister said that Boris Johnson
“always looked the other way”
over standards in government, and that he was “corrupt”. Yet Labour Together has been led by key advisers to the Prime Minister, including my constituency predecessor, and some remain in his Cabinet to this day. Given the £730,000 in undeclared donations from millionaire venture capitalists, and a payment of almost £36,000 to a public relations firm to smear investigative journalists, does the Minister agree that the public were promised real change but all they are getting is much of the same, and that the great British people expect a lot better?
Darren Jones
When coming into office, the Prime Minister was committed to improving the systems that we inherited. That was established with the ethics adviser being made independent—being able to conduct his investigations independently and to advise the Prime Minister, irrespective of whether the Prime Minister asks him to do so. It was done by our establishment of the Ethics and Integrity Commission. It was done by our introduction of the Hillsborough law to bring a duty of candour into statute, to ensure that officials and politicians tell the truth, where in the past they have been shown not to do so. Those are a number of examples of how the Government are bolstering ethics and standards in public life—the hon. Gentleman is right that the public expect that from us. On this particular matter, as I have said, the independent adviser will consider the issues as they relate to the Minister in question, and advise the Prime Minister in the normal way.
Standards in Public Life
Shockat Adam Excerpts(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Darren Jones
As I have said, the Foreign Office will update the House in due course.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
I thank the Minister for his statement, and I definitely agree that Epstein’s crimes were disgusting and Mandelson’s behaviour despicable. I remind the Chief Secretary that, under the last Conservative Government, the now Prime Minister said,
“a fish rots from the head”
and that real change had to be
“led and modelled from the top”.
Yet here we are, and the issue is back. Despite the colour of the rosette changing, the Prime Minister’s closest circle must now take the fall for his poor decision making in appointing a man who was best friends with a paedophile. Given that there is now a criminal investigation into his closet advisers, should he not do the honourable thing and take his own advice?
Oral Answers to Questions
Shockat Adam Excerpts(4 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Chris Ward
I personally think all businesses should recognise and work with trade unions. Our social value model, which we are reforming and will shortly strengthen, allows contracting authorities to consider the economic and social impact and reputation of bidders. Of course, the Employment Rights Bill—the biggest upgrade in workers’ rights in a generation—will end the scandal of fire and rehire.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
On determining awards for public contracts, what steps are being taken to prioritise UK firms in public procurement, especially for the provision of vital equipment, like personal protective equipment, in our NHS?
Chris Ward
We are going to bring forward plans, hopefully in the next Session, to reform procurement rules. A big part of that, as the Chancellor has said many times, is to help people to buy British more, and to support local jobs and economies around the country. Despite all their other failings, the previous Government did make some progress on this matter through the Procurement Act 2023, and we will build on that in the next Session.
Oral Answers to Questions
Shockat Adam Excerpts(5 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
I thank my hon. Friend for fighting hard for her constituents who are facing awful uncertainty, which is bad enough at any time of the year but really bad at this time of the year. Our thoughts are with the workers and their families who are facing the uncertainty that she has flagged. Our landmark Employment Rights Bill will strengthen workers’ rights and put them in a better position, including by ending unscrupulous fire and rehire practices. I thank her for fighting for her constituents.
Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)
No religion, theology or philosophy is beyond critique or scrutiny, and we must protect freedom of speech at all costs. But Islamophobia is real, at least for Zainab Hussain in my city, who was run over not just once but twice, simply for being a Muslim. She survived. Not so lucky was Makram Ali, who was killed outside Finsbury Park mosque simply for being a Muslim, or Mohammed Saleem, who was stabbed to death simply for being a Muslim. When the Prime Minister was in opposition, a definition of Islamophobia was adopted, but in government it has been dropped. What has changed?
The Prime Minister
I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising those examples of hatred in his constituency. He is right to raise them and we should all condemn them. Hatred in all its forms should be condemned by all of us in this House, and that includes anti-Muslim hatred as well. We intend to act on it.