Oral Answers to Questions

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 16th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Academic and scientific freedom are an invaluable part of our country, and I note that my scientific colleagues would echo my sentiment that we need to learn to live with covid.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

  The Government’s two- child cap and childcare proof of payment rules mean that my hard-working constituent, Ms Cowan, who is a single parent on universal credit supporting four kids, faces £1,000 of nursery arrears. She is therefore at risk of losing the kids’ nursery places, as a result of which she would have to give up work and would therefore be at risk of sanction and forced further into debt and poverty. Can the Prime Minister help my constituent out of this trap and fix these rules that are pushing people out of work and into poverty?

[The Prime Minister]

I would be happy to study the case, but the whole point of universal credit, which this Government introduced, is that it is helping hundreds of thousands of people into work. That is its success.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 9th June 2021 Commons Chamber

The President of COP26 was asked—

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on increasing international engagement on climate change ahead of COP26.

[The COP26 President (Alok Sharma)]

I am in regular contact with Cabinet colleagues on COP26, including on co-ordinating our international engagement. The Prime Minister and Ministers across Government are raising climate change with international counterparts to secure ambitious climate commitments by November this year.

[Stuart C. McDonald]

Does the President agree that diplomatic efforts ahead of COP will need to be more than discussions with other states, and with non-state actors as well? What discussions is he having with non-governmental organisations—in particular, with the Under2 Coalition—ahead of COP, and what role does he envisage their playing in November?

[Alok Sharma]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very important point. We want this to be the most inclusive COP ever. As he will know, we have set up a civil society and youth advisory group, which is an opportunity for groups from the global south and the global north to come together and discuss issues. I can say to him that, ahead of the climate and development ministerial meeting we had on 31 March, we took a lot of feedback from this grouping in deciding what we needed to discuss.

Integrated Review

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 16th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP) [V]]

Why on earth slash budgets used to tackle corruption and promote good governance around the world? Why slash support for the research that our universities do to help the poorest countries to combat disease? Are not these exactly the sort of soft-power policies that deliver positive results and earn respect, rather than extortionate, grotesque and provocative nuclear weapons spending?

[The Prime Minister]

This is the country that spends the most on the global vaccine alliance. This is the country that spends £548 million on COVAX and £1.6 billion on Gavi. We lead the world in health protection, in tackling conflict and poverty, in championing female education around the world. I really think international observers who come across Britons around the world working in these fields would simply not recognise the discussion and debate that they are hearing today in the House of Commons. They know that this is a country that is massively committed to the welfare of the poorest and neediest in the world and will remain so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 24th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right in what he says about home building and the need for housing across the country. We sometimes hear that this is a problem mainly in London and the south-east. It is not at all; it is everywhere in the country, as he rightly says. I thank Tim Bowles, the Mayor of the West of England, for everything that he has done as he stands down. We intend to help build on his legacy with a massive home building programme and home ownership programme across the country.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP) [V]]

  Before the Budget is finalised, will the Prime Minister ensure that his Chancellor reads the Trussell Trust’s new report, “Dignity or Destitution? The case for keeping the Universal Credit lifeline”? His Government have been incredibly generous to pals with personal protective equipment contracts, so surely, instead of cutting employment-related benefits to the lowest real-terms level in 30 years, he must now afford some basic dignity to 6 million people on universal credit and make the uplift permanent.

[The Prime Minister]

We will continue to look after people throughout this pandemic and beyond, and the best thing we can do across the whole country is to bounce our economy back as fast as we can and get people into high-quality jobs. As I said in response to the hon. Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), that is the agenda of this Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 20th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a great advocate for his constituents in Colne Valley, and I much enjoy my exchanges with him. I thank him for what he says about those groups. We must rely on what the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has to say and the priorities that the experts have decided, but of course we want to see those groups that he mentions vaccinated as soon as possible. I am very pleased that in spite of all the difficulties in supply, last week we gave 1.5 million people their first dose, up half a million on the week before.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP) [V]]

  When we praise our social care workers for their immense response to the pandemic, that includes more than 100,000 care workers from the EU. New research from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants shows that many of them do not know anything about the Prime Minister’s EU settlement scheme, and many more do not know that they must apply by the end of June. We could see thousands of essential care workers and possibly hundreds of thousands of valued EU nationals losing their rights to live and work here overnight on 1 July. Will the Prime Minister please cancel or postpone the application deadline or, better still, extend the rights of EU nationals in the UK automatically, just as he previously promised to do?

Covid-19: Winter Plan

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

This is a really important issue. It is another example of how the increased testing capacity we have built can help improve lives. I have worked with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport, the airline industry and the airports, including the important regional airports, to try to get a better regime in place. My right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) will not have to wait very long to get an answer.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP) [V]]

The uplift to universal credit was welcome, but people on legacy benefits, the sick and the disabled have also faced additional costs and hardships because of the pandemic, many of which were incurred to follow Government advice on shielding or protecting themselves. How does the right hon. Gentleman justify not applying the same uplift to those people, and can this injustice be rectified going forward?

[Matt Hancock]

Many people in those circumstances are also in receipt of universal credit. We have put in an increase of £1,000 for those in receipt of universal credit, which is a very significant and generous increase, alongside the furlough arrangements. That is a very substantial package of financial support, and the International Monetary Fund has described it as one of the most generous in the world.

Covid-19 Update

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

All businesses that are covid-secure should be able to keep going, and I hope that they will.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP) [V]]

Will the Prime Minister look at the case of a young constituent of mine who has gone from a successful career in banking to facing the real prospect of bankruptcy, all because he set up his own business on the wrong side of the completely unnecessary cut-off date for self-employed support? He has used up his savings; he cannot pay the bills. Will the Prime Minister act to close this significant gap in support for the newly self-employed?

[The Prime Minister]

We have to have some sort of cut-off date in order to deal with the possibility of fraud. I am obviously very sympathetic to the hon. Gentleman’s constituent and I wish him all the best. In the meantime, there is the support available under universal credit, but the best thing for him and for the whole economy is to keep things moving and to hope that he gets the kind of job that he wants as fast as possible.

United Kingdom Internal Market Bill

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons & Money resolution & Money resolution: House of Commons & Programme motion & Programme motion: House of Commons
Monday 14th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

This Bill is an outrage. We are thumbing our nose at international law, our Irish friends and EU allies, even while still in negotiations with them. It would be farcically funny, were it not so deadly serious. The Prime Minister has been double dealing not only with our international partners but with ordinary people, because the oven-ready deal he sold has been shown to be nothing more than a pig in a poke. That the Bill has been introduced, never mind that it will almost certainly be passed by the Chamber, is extraordinary. It is hugely damaging to the reputation of the UK, and it speaks starkly to the drastic weaknesses and feeble checks and balances at the heart of the UK constitution.

The Bill lays bare the Government’s attitudes to devolution and democratic accountability—in short, they do not care for it one jot. The Government pretend they are merely adopting an EU-style approach to creating a single market, but they are doing nothing of the sort. Where we should have had consent and co-operation, we have imposition; instead of subsidiarity, we have centralisation; instead of minimum standards, we have the starting gun for a race to the bottom; instead of protecting devolved powers, devolved powers are being reserved or utterly undermined.

The Bill speaks more broadly to the direction of travel that we face in the United Kingdom. Instead of a partnership of equals, it is “Westminster knows best.” Yet again, one Parliament—this Parliament—is unilaterally altering the competencies of another, and giving Ministers the power to do so again and again at the stroke of a pen. That does not happen in other western democracies where there would be double majorities, super majorities, and referendums before one Parliament or Government could take powers from another. Perhaps the one positive from the Bill is that it makes plain like never before that the constitution of the British state is not fit for purpose, and it flags up the real dangers that lie ahead if Scotland remains part of it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I think that is very unfair to one of our colleagues, and I ask the hon. Gentleman to reflect on that. I know that following last night’s events he tweeted that national security should always be placed ahead of politics, and he is right. On that basis, I urge him, as a fellow Portsmouth MP representing that great garrison and naval city, and as a shadow Defence Minister, to work to build a constructive relationship with the new National Security Adviser. If he actually met him, he might be pleasantly surprised. For the sake of our city and our armed forces, he owes them the opportunity to build that constructive relationship with the person who will lead the independent review.

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

What discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the proposal for an internal UK market after the transition period.

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Michael Gove)]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will outline the United Kingdom’s White Paper on the internal market later today. Not only will this approach deliver more powers to the devolved Administrations, as the Prime Minister made clear yesterday, it will allow business and trade across all parts of our United Kingdom to prosper and flourish.

[Stuart C. McDonald [V]]

The head of the Vote Leave campaign in Scotland was quite clear about the automatic devolution of powers to Holyrood after Brexit, saying:

“Any repatriated power that isn’t already explicitly denoted as ‘reserved’ in the Scotland Act 1998 is assumed to be the remit of the Scottish Parliament.”

Why is that promise being reneged on by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, just as his own promise of migration powers for Scotland is being reneged on?

[Michael Gove]

No promise is being reneged on; a power surge is occurring. Scores of new powers are going to the Scottish Parliament and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Moray (Douglas Ross) pointed out yesterday, no Scottish National party MP, MSP, councillor or activist can point to a single power currently exercised by the Scottish Parliament that is being taken away. There is no power grab; there is simply an example of SNP myth-making, which this internal market Bill finally puts to bed.