Infected Blood Inquiry

Paulette Hamilton Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd April 2024 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his remarks and for what he has done on this matter. He is right: I feel responsibility both to get the substantive announcement agreed as quickly as possible and to ensure clear communication with the infected and affected community so that they have clear expectations of what will happen following that announcement. From all I have read and all that my officials have briefed me on, I recognise that this is likely to be one of the biggest scandals in the NHS that this country has seen. I respect Sir Brian Langstaff and his extensive work over several years. I wait respectfully for his final report on the wider issues on 20 May.

[Mrs Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

My constituent contacted me again yesterday. His father and uncles were all infected with contaminated blood, and all but two of the uncles have now died. He said to me:

“I had to grow up in care due to my father being too ill to look after me. We have been fighting for many, many years for justice.”

He thinks that the Government are dragging their feet on compensating victims. He is right, isn’t he?

[John Glen]

All I can do is account for what I have done since 13 November. I cannot really comment on the several decades previous to that. As the hon. Lady will know, we have had a series of ad hoc schemes, but the Government’s accepting culpability for what happened many years ago and the subsequent failure to respond will need to be addressed fully after 20 May. The Government’s amendment in the House of Lords is the first time that we will have put in legislation a duty to pay compensation. That is the start of a more comprehensive response that I am working on to secure collective agreement across Government, and I want to bring that forward as quickly as I am able to do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paulette Hamilton Excerpts

Wednesday 10th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I join my hon. Friend in welcoming this fantastic discovery. We have been capitalising on the benefits of Brexit since we left the European Union and we are making sure that we can transform opportunity in the UK, particularly in fishing communities. I know my right hon. Friend the Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries will be happy to meet her to discuss what more that could mean, and I hope I also have the opportunity to come and see her and see this incredible discovery for myself.

[Mrs Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

Q6.   I was a nurse in our NHS for 25 years. It is an offence to my colleagues and our patients when the Prime Minister pretends that he has a grip on NHS waiting times. Despite his big pledge to cut waiting lists, they have grown by half a million patients in the last year alone. He can blame striking all he likes, but after 14 years of the Tories, who can possibly say that the NHS is better off?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for her decades of service in the NHS, and commend all the work of our fantastic hard-working nurses in the NHS. I am pleased that we have delivered early on our manifesto pledge to have 50,000 more nurses in the NHS, together with record numbers of doctors, elective surgical hubs and community diagnostic centres, all of which means that we are now treating more people in the NHS than we have ever done before. One thing that is hampering progress on tackling the waiting lists is obviously industrial action, so I hope that the hon. Lady will join the million NHS workers, including nurses, midwives, therapists, paramedics, consultants and specialty doctors, all of whom have reached a fair and reasonable pay settlement with the Government, and urge the junior doctors to do the same.

Papers Relating to the Home Secretary

Paulette Hamilton Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister faces serious questions about security concerns relating to the appointment of his Cabinet Ministers. The Home Secretary resigned only 20 days ago, saying:

“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have...is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.”

In a letter to the Select Committee on Home Affairs, she then admitted to six separate breaches of security—one for every week she was in post. The Prime Minister’s decision to reappoint her as Home Secretary six days after she broke the ministerial code, and to appoint the right hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Gavin Williamson) as a Minister after he was sacked for leaking sensitive information, was irresponsible and reckless. Once again, it showed the Tories putting party before country.

We need to know whether the Prime Minister even considered questions of security or the ministerial code when he made his Cabinet appointments. That is why Labour is calling on the Government to publish the papers relating to those decisions. Labour has called this debate because our constituents deserve to know what the Prime Minister was advised, whether he knew about security lapses at the Home Office, and whether the Home Secretary was involved in other leaks when she was Attorney General.

We all watched with horror as recent events unfolded at Manston asylum centre. It is disturbing that even though reports say that the Home Secretary was repeatedly warned, yet again she did not act quickly enough to make sure that vulnerable people were being held safely. In fact, on her watch the Home Office dumped some of those vulnerable people on the streets of London in the middle of the night.

The Prime Minister and his Cabinet have overseen constant chaos since he was imposed on us, but the Government are unable to be straight with us about whether their own Ministers are fit for the job. At a time when the public desperately need reassurance, the Prime Minister’s actions have done absolutely nothing to reassure my constituents.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Paulette Hamilton Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

On behalf of my constituents in Birmingham, Erdington, I offer my sincere condolences following the passing of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and prayers are with the King and the royal family at this time. The sad loss of our greatest and longest serving monarch is being felt around the world, and she will be greatly missed, but we should also celebrate her lifetime of extraordinary service to our nation. The Queen’s devotion to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth should be an inspiration to us all. Her dedication to the Christian faith, as the head of the Church of England, was also a shining example of duty and integrity.

Most people across our country have never known a time when the Queen was not there, and that is especially true for me as one of our Birmingham MPs, as I represent the youngest city in Europe. During her 70-year reign, the Queen visited Birmingham over a dozen times, including Castle Vale and the Jaguar car factory in my constituency in 1998. She met thousands of local people during that time, and we know that every person she met went away with a memory that will be treasured for a lifetime.

As a Birmingham City councillor, I had the privilege of being invited to share afternoon tea with members of the royal family at Buckingham Palace and to talk about my work to improve mental health in Birmingham. The time I spent there was an honour. I will never forget that the royal family showed me a true commitment to tackling real issues, such as mental health, and I know that that commitment will continue under the new King.

I also want to mention the Queen’s incredible ability to bring diverse communities together in celebration. This summer, I lost count of the number of amazing events I attended at local schools and community groups to celebrate the historic platinum jubilee with food, music, games and of course dancing in Her Majesty’s honour. This is a sad occasion, but the Queen has left such a positive legacy for us to celebrate. On behalf of the people of Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale, I offer my deepest condolences. God save the King.

Oral Answers to Questions

Paulette Hamilton Excerpts

Wednesday 7th September 2022 Commons Chamber

The Prime Minister was asked—

[Mrs Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

Q1.   If she will list her official engagements for Wednesday 7 September.

[The Prime Minister (Elizabeth Truss)]

I am honoured to take my place as Prime Minister in this House and to take on responsibility at a vital time for our country. I am determined to deliver for everybody across our United Kingdom. I will work constructively with all Members of this House to tackle the challenges we face.

This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Mrs Hamilton]

Can I warmly welcome the Prime Minister to her place? This is her first Prime Minister’s question, and it is also mine.

In a leaked audiotape, the Prime Minister is heard saying that British workers need to put in “more graft” and that they are lacking in “skill and application”. She also wants to take away their basic workers’ rights. In my Erdington constituency, the latest figures from the Commons Library show that children in over 7,000 households are living in child poverty and that 68% of those households have working parents. So does the Prime Minister believe that thousands of working parents on low income in my community should just put in more graft?

[The Prime Minister]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on her first Prime Minister’s question. What I am determined to do as Prime Minister is to make sure we have an economy with high wages and high-skilled jobs, and the way I will achieve that is through reducing taxes on people across our country and boosting economic growth. That is the way that we will make sure we get the investment and the jobs that people deserve.