Oral Answers to Questions

Siobhain McDonagh Excerpts

Wednesday 30th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of the vote that took place last night. Winning that vote with a majority—agreeing what it was necessary to change in the withdrawal agreement in order to achieve a majority across this House—gave a very clear message to the European Union that a deal can go through this House, but it has to be a deal that recognises the concerns that have been expressed across the whole of this House in relation to the backstop. I am going to be fighting for the change that this House has been very clear that it wants to see in the future. Then, as my right hon. Friend says, I am confident that we can see a sustainable and substantial majority across this House for leaving with the deal.

[Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab)]

Q15. Anna is a carer for the elderly, living with her girls in a flat above Barclays bank. Because her husband left, she cannot pay the rent without claiming universal credit. She does not have a guarantor, so Barclays’ agents are evicting her—another private landlord evicting a hard-working family on universal credit. Will the Prime Minister intervene and ask Barclays to grant Anna a tenancy so that her girls are not just two more children added to the 130,000 children in this country in temporary accommodation?

[The Prime Minister]

Like one of her hon. Friends, the hon. Lady has raised an individual constituency case and the details of that individual constituency case. I will ask the relevant Minister to look into that case and to be—[Interruption.] She is asking me to take a position purely on the question that she has asked me. I am asking the Minister in the relevant Department to look into the case and to be able to assess that case and to respond to her.