Oral Answers to Questions

Tim Loughton Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The issue of social care has been ducked by Governments for too long. That is why this Government will provide a long-term sustainable system for social care that gives people reassurance. The right hon. Gentleman talks about Governments ducking social care, so let us look at the 13 years of Labour government. In 1997, they said in their manifesto that they would sort it. They had a royal commission in 1999, a Green Paper in 2005 and the Wanless report in 2006. They said they would sort it in the 2007 comprehensive spending review. In 2009, they had another Green Paper: 13 years and no action whatsoever.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

Q11. Today, a constituent of mine from Shoreham will struggle to get to University College hospital, London, for life-saving cancer drug trials, and across Sussex thousands of others will be unable to get to work, to school or to college because ASLEF objects to their drivers on Southern operating the doors. Yet today, ASLEF drivers will be driving Thameslink trains on the same rails, operating the doors on the London to Brighton line. Can the Prime Minister give her assurance that everything will be done at the ACAS talks today to end this nonsense of a strike, address any residual safety issues and give our constituents their lives back?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. This is an appalling strike and he is right to raise the discrepancy in the attitude of ASLEF; we have seen driver-only operated trains on rail networks in the UK for decades and they are on Thameslink. I hope that the talks at ACAS are going to lead to an end to this strike, but I have a suggestion for the Leader of the Opposition, as he could do something to help members of the public. The Labour party is funded by ASLEF. Why does he not get on the phone and tell it to call the strike off immediately?