(3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberI thank my hon. Friend; he has been a dedicated campaigner on this issue for a very long time. As he knows, 14 years of mismanagement by the Conservative party left councils on their knees, with a total failure to improve and update how councils are funded. Through £69 billion of funding this year and the upcoming multi-year settlement—the first in over a decade—we will give councils far greater certainty and stability. Our detailed funding review will create a fairer system to make sure that his constituents see strong, affordable local services.
Further evidence of the decline of the Tory party: they say that going to Ukraine at the weekend to try to secure peace for Ukraine, for the security and defence of Europe, is somehow the wrong priority. That conflict has already massively impacted people in this country through the cost of living crisis and energy. Ukraine, Europe and we deserve peace, and to live in peace.
Dealing with the bin strikes is a priority. We continue to call on Unite to suspend the strike immediately and bring the disruption to an end. We are supporting the council to ramp up the cleaning operation. We are now collecting over 1,100 tonnes of waste every day and continue to offer our support so that the backlog does not reappear.
(4 months ago)
Commons ChamberUrgent 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.
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To be honest, that sounded like a bid to send AstraZeneca to the United States of America. I do not think that is what hon. Members of this House should be doing; I think they should be standing up for the UK as the best place for AstraZeneca to invest. [Interruption.] There is no point in pointing at me like a child: that does nobody any favours. The honest truth is that AstraZeneca is and will remain one of the biggest investors in the UK economy.
No matter how the Minister tries to dress it up, this is a blow to the UK economy, to life sciences and to manufacturing. What message about the Government’s lack of support for manufacturing does this decision send to global investors and, importantly, to the local jobs market?
It does not send any kind of message like that. The point is that in the UK we have secured dramatic amounts of additional investment since the general election. What is interesting is that all the Conservative Members are praising something that was never delivered by the previous Government; it was only announced. It is like so many parts of the DSIT budget that I discovered when I became a Minister. Theoretically, the previous Government had said that they were doing this, that and the other, but they had not actually set aside a single penny, because they had not done a proper comprehensive spending review for many, many years. That is precisely the black hole that we have had to fill.