Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Wednesday 7th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Cancer is a devastating disease, and it is particularly heartbreaking when children have cancer. We will certainly proceed with the strategy that my hon. Friend has mentioned, and I know that our new Health Secretary will do all she can to help those children with cancer.

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

Q8. On the theme of children, the Prime Minister will know from her time as Children’s Minister that children whose young lungs are exposed to cold and damp housing are more likely to fall seriously ill and possibly die. Child poverty has been growing during her time in different ministerial offices. Will she give a solemn pledge—with no evasion—that no child will go to bed in a cold, damp house this winter and beyond because the parents cannot afford to put the heating on?

[The Prime Minister]

This is why it is so important that we tackle the issue of energy. I will make sure that people are able to afford their energy bills, at the same time as dealing with the long-term supply issues to ensure that we are resilient in energy and never get into this position again.

Ukraine

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 28th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend makes a good point about the priorities that people put on various events. What we have seen—the appalling aggression that we have seen in Ukraine—is an epoch-defining moment. We will absolutely not forget that, and we will not make the mistakes of the past, of ignoring and normalising Russian behaviour. This time, we must ensure that Putin loses and we must tackle Russian aggression for the long term. I will continue to work on that together with our allies across the world, and we will not let the issue drop.

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

I point out to the Foreign Secretary that most of Ukraine’s neighbours are protected by EU and NATO membership. One that is not is Moldova, which has already taken in huge numbers of refugees. Does she agree that, particularly because of the situation of Transnistria, it is vital that we are able to offer some support to the democratic Moldovan Government, who share our values and aspirations but are in a parlous state?

[Elizabeth Truss]

The hon. Gentleman is completely right about Moldova. We are working closely with our allies to provide direct support to it and to help it with the refugee situation. That is something that we discussed at the G7 meeting and that we will be working on further over the next week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Tuesday 8th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

We know that the National Crime Agency is underpowered, but we also know we have a common interest with our European allies in the search for credible information about those oligarchs who should be sanctioned, so what steps are being taken to internationalise this search process to make sure we sanction those who should be sanctioned?

[Elizabeth Truss]

We are working with our international partners. I attended a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council along with the US and Canada. We are talking about enforcement and are sharing lists and information to make sure our crime agencies are able to tackle this illicit activity.

Sanctions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 28th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

We would be absolutely delighted to do that.

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

The House should commend the Foreign Secretary’s statement, but does she agree that with any sanctions regime it is the detail that ensures we can police it? In that light, will she look into the case of the plane of Mikhail Gutseriev, a friend of Putin who is already sanctioned under Belarus sanctions? The plane itself was sanctioned by the Foreign Secretary’s predecessor, but, I am told, landed twice at Luton airport. That cannot be right.

[Elizabeth Truss]

I will look into the case the hon. Gentleman raises.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Tuesday 25th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

T5. The country will be astonished by the Minister’s answer on the TRIPS waiver. If it is right that nobody is safe until the whole world is vaccinated, how is it that the United States, for example, thinks that the waiver would allow vaccines to be produced in the right places for the right people but we are one of the very few countries sticking out to prevent it?

[Elizabeth Truss]

This is the country where the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was developed. It has been supplied at cost around the world and I have seen it being produced in the Serum Institute in India, as well as in Mexico. The fact is that we have supported the roll-out of vaccines around the world and donated to developing countries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Thursday 3rd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

Environmental protections do work in bilateral trade agreements, but they work best when the process is genuinely internationalised. Will Ministers tell the House and the country what steps are being taken in the preparations for COP26 to make sure that international trade with strong environmental protections is a major item, to ensure that we can save the planet?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I strongly agree with the hon. Gentleman. As we take up our independent seat at the World Trade Organisation we intend, alongside pushing our agenda on technology and services, to work with like-minded partners on the environment to get strong environmental agreement alongside our work on COP26.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Tuesday 16th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

T5. With Carillion now the poster child for dodgy market capitalism, what duty does the Treasury owe to the wider public to prevent Government spending Ministers from engaging in inappropriate contracts, and what steps did the Treasury take?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Elizabeth Truss)]

We have very clear rules about managing public money. Let me point out to the hon. Gentleman that we are not bailing out this company. It has gone into liquidation, and we are taking the proper steps to protect public services, which is the right approach to take.

Public Sector Pay Cap

Debate between Tony Lloyd and Elizabeth Truss

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend’s great expertise as a former nurse is shown by the detailed question she has asked. We need to make sure that we reform public services and give people the opportunity to progress and be trained in the roles they fill. One of the roles of the pay review body is to look at such structures, as well as at rates of pay. During the processes they go through, those bodies certainly take evidence from frontline workers, unions and experts in the area, and I hope that they will take such issues into consideration.

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

The Chief Secretary referred to productivity increases in the public sector. We recently saw firefighters racing into Grenfell Tower, paramedics and police racing into the Manchester Arena after the bomb, and doctors, nurses and other medical professionals working around the clock to save people’s lives. What advice would she give to her hon. Friends on the Government Benches about productivity increases by those people, who have served the people of this country?

[Elizabeth Truss]

Those firefighters, police and others in the emergency services have done a tremendous job, and I am sure we are all extremely grateful to them for regularly putting themselves on the line of danger. The hon. Gentleman is right to point that out.

What does productivity mean? I talked earlier about empowering people on the frontline to be able to make decisions and do things more quickly. When I talk to nurses and teachers, they sometimes say that they want less bureaucracy so that they can get on with the real jobs that they have been employed to do, and that is why more police are spending more time on the frontline. Productivity means giving people more job satisfaction—spending more of their time doing the job that they have come in to public services to do—and that is why we are reforming public services and seeing improvements.