Election of Speaker

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Tuesday 9th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Wyre) (Lab)]

I beg to move, That Sir Lindsay Hoyle do take the Chair of this House as Speaker.

As far as I am concerned, the best thing about having Lindsay as Speaker is how good it is to have someone in the Chair who does not have an accent. I have been talking to lots of my constituents over the past six weeks, and they agree with me! So I have figured it out, Lindsay. We are not the ones with the accents; it is everyone else.

But seriously, Lindsay is a great champion for Lancashire, just as he is for this House of Commons. None of us in Lancashire could have imagined that Nancy Pelosi would walk those famous cobbles of Coronation Street, but Lindsay, you did it. It seems that no part of Lancashire’s cultural reputation is out of bounds for Lindsay when hosting international speakers—indeed, having a pint of mild in the Rovers Return with Nancy Pelosi.

It is a great pleasure today to be able to speak about my good friend from Chorley. I have several friends from Chorley, including my office manager Steven, who often regales my Lancaster constituency office with tales of his childhood in Lancashire’s second town. One of my favourite anecdotes is of Chorley zoo—I did not know that Chorley had a zoo. Apparently, it is known as Chog zoo; that might be the first reference in Hansard to Chog, which is the slang for Chorley. Upon further investigation, the zoo was in fact Pets Corner in Astley Park. However, to this day, I suspect that a young Steven was mistaking the Hoyle household menagerie for an actual zoo. With cats, dogs, parrots and tortoises, Lindsay Hoyle really does live out the truism that we are a nation of animal lovers.

If you head three hours south from Lancashire, you will find yourself here. Arriving in this grand building as a newly elected Member is daunting—the weight of pressure that you feel to deliver for your constituents, using parliamentary procedures that seem so confusing to bring about the change you have promised, can be immense. It can be difficult to know where to start, but a good place to start is by electing a good Speaker of the House of Commons, one with experience of eventualities that could not be foreseen. Lindsay recalled in his remarks the covid restrictions we needed to adapt to at speed during the pandemic. Indeed, he is the Speaker who steered us through that pandemic and steered us through those Rees-Mogg congas. He adapted procedures for the times we found ourselves in.

It is also important to know that we have a Speaker who champions the voices of us Back Benchers, and one who ensures that all voices—Government and Opposition—are heard. Our Speaker is fair, impartial and independent. Newly elected Members will find a great friend in our Speaker, and I know I have. Being from Lancashire myself, I had the good fortune of knowing Lindsay before I was elected, and over the years he has been a great source of advice and guidance, some of which I took and some of which I chose to ignore. All I can say is that the advice I ignored I regret ignoring, and live to tell the consequences. Despite being annoyingly right about many things, which is a good Lancashire trait by the way, he will ensure that his door is open to all Members at times of need. I can vouch that he does a good brew—it is Yorkshire Tea though—but for those who prefer something from the right side of the Pennines and from the red rose county, I can say that his is the only place on this estate outside my own office I have managed to get a hot Vimto.

However, we all have our character flaws, and regrettably Lindsay does not support Lancashire’s finest football team, Barrow, instead donning the colours of Bolton Wanderers.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South and Walkden) (Lab)]

Yay!

[Cat Smith]

We have a Bolton Wanderers fan.

We should note that that team has both blue and red on its crest, and I think that exemplifies Mr Speaker’s even-handedness. As a proud champion of Lancashire’s rugby league tradition, outside Westminster his favourite place is cheering on Warrington Wolves, and in the summer months Lancashire county cricket club. Like all good sports people, Lindsay knows fair play and hard work. For all those reasons and so many more, I am proud and honoured to propose that Sir Lindsay Hoyle takes the Chair today.

Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 1A), That Sir Lindsay Hoyle do take the Chair of this House as Speaker.

Question agreed to.

Sir Edward Leigh left the Chair, and Sir Lindsay Hoyle was conducted to the Chair by Cat Smith and Sir David Davis.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 25th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

The Labour party has more women and ethnic minority MPs than the rest of the political parties put together. We know that that leads to better outcomes for British people, but there is always further to go. That is why we have committed to enacting section 106 of the Equality Act so that all political parties would be required to be transparent about the diversity of their candidates. Why will the Government not do the same?

[Kemi Badenoch]

At the end of the day, it is the electorate who decide who gets to represent them. The hon. Member might be cherry-picking statistics on which party is the most diverse. We can do the same and talk about how the Conservatives have had three female Prime Ministers when Labour has not had even a single leader. If she wants to dive deep down and be granular, we have more black men in our party than in all the other parties combined. This splitting hairs is not helpful; what we need to do is ensure that the process is as meritocratic as possible.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

The Government are determined to ensure that the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing. Hydrogen fuel cells and their upstream supply chains are already in the scope of the ATF, and support for the fund has enabled Johnson Matthey’s £60 million investment in Hertfordshire to develop hydrogen technologies. I am told by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade that the Department for Business and Trade is continuing to look at the future possibilities for renewable hydrogen and will consider the fund’s eligibility in light of the new developments in this space.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

There is an email in my inbox from a constituent who has family in Gaza. It reads:

“My heart can’t handle this anymore. We are being massacred, relentlessly bombed. Homes destroyed. No water, no food, no electricity.”

Save the Children reports that one child is killed every 15 minutes. As I speak, the lives of 130 babies in incubators are in danger if fuel does not reach their hospital in time. This is collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza, for crimes they did not commit. How many more innocent Palestinians must die before the Prime Minister calls for a humanitarian ceasefire?

[The Prime Minister]

I welcome the unity across the House on Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of an unspeakable act of terror, but it is also clear that we must support the Palestinian people; they are victims of Hamas, too. Hamas use innocent people as human shields, and we mourn the loss of every innocent life of every people, every faith and every nationality. We are working as hard as we can to get as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as quickly as practically possible.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 12th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

Under the Conservatives, just 12% of executive directors of FTSE 250 companies are women—a gap that will not close until 2058 at the current rate. Women who want to go into business cannot wait for the Conservatives to get their act together. They need a new deal for working people, a review of the gender pay gap, and a menopause action plan in the workplace. That is Labour’s pro-business, pro-women plan to smash the glass ceiling and break down the barriers. Does the Minister have a plan?

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 7th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

Research from Scope shows that, in the last four years, the cost of running a disabled household rose from £583 a month to £975 a month. The Conservative cost of living crisis has forced disabled people to choose between using life-saving equipment and food. After 13 years of this Government, there are now over 1 million disabled people living in poverty. What action has the Minister taken to support these people?

[Alex Burghart]

The hon. Lady will know the extraordinary lengths to which this Government have gone to support people through the cost of living crisis. Help has been extended to people of all means and abilities, including the people she is speaking about, and we will continue to do what is necessary to help them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 26th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

Last year, nearly 5,000 spiking incidents were reported to the police in England and Wales, but the real number is likely to be far higher. Spiking is endemic in the night-time economy. Women and girls should be able to go about their business and enjoy nights out without fear. While the Government pay lip service, cases across the country are rising, yet we have no actual reporting system for this heinous crime. When will the Minister do the right thing by victims and make spiking a separate criminal offence?

[Miss Dines]

The Government are looking carefully and speaking to stakeholders about spiking. There are adequate criminal offences for this sort of behaviour, and we have had some quite high-profile convictions. However, the hon. Lady is right to highlight the issue. The Government will review it. Specific funding has been given, and there is better testing. Evidence is important, but we need to get women and girls, and men and boys, to come forward when they have been spiked. Spiking also affects older people; I read a case the other day of someone in their 40s who was spiked. It is essential that we work in this area.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 25th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West) asked about deep poverty among minority children. I shall repeat the point again: black, Asian and minority ethnic households are twice as likely to be in deep poverty, struggling to afford everyday basics such as food and energy. That is 46% of ethnic minority children living below the breadline. Is the Minister proud of her Government’s record, and will she answer the question that was put by my hon. Friend?

[Mims Davies]

I refer the hon. Lady to my previous answer. We do know that work is the best route out of poverty and the best way to tackle those deep-rooted disadvantages. I recently joined a No.10 roundtable on a mentoring and support pipeline to help understand what is holding people back. No one should be left behind because of their postcode or their background. Mentoring circles at the DWP can make a real difference, particularly to young people who are looking to progress from that deep disadvantage.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

Of course, the health disparities White Paper is important, but work has already started on disparities. As I set out, the NHS has already launched the Core20PLUS5, where the 20% most deprived communities are being targeted with interventions in the five most clinically significant areas. Those are maternity, mental health, respiratory disease, cancer and hypertension. Work has already started, and I know that that is of particular interest in areas such as Stoke.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

A new World Health Organisation study, published in The Lancet, found that poorer women in Britain have some of the highest cancer death rates in Europe. Income levels should not be the marker of someone’s chances of getting and dying from cancer. Does the Minister recognise that that is not acceptable, and will she commit to a cross-Government strategy that tackles health inequalities?

[Maria Caulfield]

I refer the shadow Minister to the work that the Government are already doing. Cancer in particular is one of the five core areas in which we are investing significant resources to diagnose people earlier. She may be interested in the lung cancer detection vans, which go to those communities with the highest incidence rates and poorer outcomes for lung cancer. Some 70% of people with stage 1 or 2 cancer are being detected, significantly improving their life expectancy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Q3. Many areas like mine have already had massive new housing development with no commensurate increase in general practice—

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

Sorry—a point of order? The hon. Lady has been here long enough to know that points of order come at the end.

--- Later in debate ---

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I think this is becoming a continuation of Prime Minister’s questions, so we will leave it at that.

[Yasmin Qureshi]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, in Prime Minister’s questions the Prime Minister said that the Leader of the Opposition was a supporter of people traffickers. I think that should be taken out of the record.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I thank the hon. Lady for her point of order. Frankly, the level of noise during PMQs meant that it was not possible for the Chair to hear everything, but I understand that the Prime Minister did say, as she says, that the Opposition were on the side of people traffickers. That seems to me—and, I have to say, to the Speaker—to fall well short of the good temper and moderation that should characterise our debates. I say to the Prime Minister and to all Members here that we need to refer to each other in this place in more respectful terms, and I am sure that that spirit will be adopted in the statement to come.

Judicial Review and Courts Bill

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 26th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

That is one reflection among many who sit on the other side of the debate, including those who have looked into this matter in great detail.

Why are the Government still pushing ahead with this reform? If we accept the Secretary of State’s reasoning, it comes down to cost and

“a disproportionate use of valuable judicial resource”.

In reality, however, the cost of Cart reviews is no more than £400,000 a year. That is a drop in the ocean compared with the Ministry of Justice’s overall budget. It is less than the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spent on its art collection last year. Put another way, the Government Legal Department’s total administrative costs for the last year were £226.7 million, more than 500 times the upper estimate for yearly Cart judicial review costs.

As with clause 1, there could be another, murkier reason that the Government are so keen to abolish Cart judicial reviews. In its press release, the Ministry of Justice said that

“it is expected that the legal text that removes the Cart judgment will serve as a framework that can be replicated in other legislation.”

With those words, the Government let their mask slip. If that is indeed their intention—I look forward to the Lord Chancellor confirming that it is not—that would allow them to insulate whole sections of Government decision making from challenge by members of the public. I am sure that Members on both sides of the House would agree that that would be a truly chilling development. Governments have to be challenged. Governments suffer defeats in the courts. Why would we start to oust Government decisions in other areas, beyond this small but important area of immigration law?

Beyond judicial review, there are several provisions dealing with a shift towards greater use of online procedures and technology. While Labour supports measures that would make the justice system more efficient, we must ensure that no one is left behind and that adequate safeguards are in place to prevent serious injustices. As the Bill currently stands, there is only a vague duty for the Lord Chancellor to provide digital support

“for those who require it”.

Labour feels that a specific commitment to assist digitally excluded individuals would offer better protection. While the creation of an online procedure rule committee is a positive step, the Bill currently puts too much power in the hands of the Lord Chancellor. As it stands, the Lord Chancellor could amend, repeal or revoke any law he feels necessary to create the online procedure rules, and he would only have to consult the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals before making amendments to them.

The last area I want to address is the coroners court. As with provisions on criminal procedure, any efforts to reduce “unnecessary procedures” or allow for greater online participation must be accompanied with robust protections for those who could be excluded. More fundamentally, there is nothing in the Bill to address the inequality in the inquest system that sees bereaved families denied the legal aid that my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Vicky Foxcroft) mentioned earlier, while the state has the benefit of the finest Government lawyers that taxpayers’ money can buy.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that hospital authorities can hire Queen’s Counsel and spend millions of pounds on defending themselves, yet lone individuals cannot even get legal aid following the death of their immediate family? How disgusting is that?

[Mr Lammy]

It goes to the fundamental principle in our justice system of trying to have equality of arms. That is why the Bill is of so much concern.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yasmin Qureshi Excerpts

Wednesday 10th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for the excellent point he makes about Crewe and the way it is now in the forefront of deep geothermal energy exploration. I am very happy to meet him to discuss what we can to further geothermal energy in Crewe, diary permitting.

[Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East) (Lab) [V]]

This Government said that no council would be suffering as a result of the pandemic, and the Chancellor said that he would do everything—“whatever it takes”—to help them. Yet Tory-controlled Bolton Council has just announced £35 million of cuts in towns and an increase in the council tax budget of 3.8%. Can the Prime Minister assure my constituents and my town that that money will be given to them, or will this join a long list of Tory failed promises?

[The Prime Minister]

I want to congratulate the great Conservative-controlled council of Bolton on everything that it is doing and continuing to do throughout this pandemic to look after the people of Bolton. I know what incredible work the local officials do, and I thank them very much for it. Since we believe so strongly in local government, as a creature of local government myself, I am proud that we have invested £4.6 billion in supporting local government just so far in this pandemic.