Graham P Jones debates involving the Cabinet Office during the 2017-2019 Parliament

Tue 29th Oct 2019
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill
Commons Chamber

2nd reading: House of Commons & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Mon 11th Jun 2018
Mon 10th Jul 2017

Early Parliamentary General Election Bill

Graham P Jones Excerpts
2nd reading: House of Commons
Tuesday 29th October 2019

(4 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Bob Seely Portrait Mr Seely
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Lowering the age limit is a significant point of principle and one should not do it in a rush. In the case of many Bills that we introduce in haste, we repent at leisure.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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Is it not the case that the Labour party voted for Brexit—the one that was in our manifesto, rather than the Government’s version of Brexit? Labour has called for a customs union, but the Government have not offered that. Why should we support the Government’s deal, when it is not the promise we made to our own electorate?

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Bob Seely Portrait Mr Seely
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I think the Prime Minister voted for two out of four, which is more than most Opposition Members. I have voted for four out of four and I will keep voting for any sensible Brexit withdrawal deal that comes our way.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones
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The hon. Gentleman says he will vote for any Brexit that comes forward. It has been seven or eight days now and the withdrawal agreement Bill has not been brought forward. I do not know why—it is rumoured that the Government are on strike and will not bring it back. In the Bill is an amendment for a customs union. He says he will vote for any sensible option to get it through. Why does he not encourage the Prime Minister to bring the Bill back, vote for a customs union and get Brexit done?

Bob Seely Portrait Mr Seely
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For me, a customs union is not a realistic Brexit and it is not the kind of Brexit that was voted for. That is not the sort of Brexit that many Labour voters want to see either. The Labour party actually did quite well in my patch at the last election. It got 16,000 or 17,000 votes. Half of those votes were from people who wanted Brexit and I think they will be very disappointed by the behaviour of the hon. Gentleman’s leadership in not voting for Brexit. I do not think it is in the interests of his party either. We all want to move on, because there is so much else to do.

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Anne Main Portrait Mrs Main
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My right hon. Friend tempts me, and since there are no time limits, I may well wax lyrical on that point. However, it is important for us to get to the nub of the matter, which is that we have moved this away from being a choice for the people. I knocked on doors, and people said, “I am for leave” or “I am for remain”—

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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Will the hon. Lady give way?

Anne Main Portrait Mrs Main
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May I finish this point first? Otherwise I could be speaking for hours, and I am sure the House would rather I did not detain it for that long.

People came up to that market stall and said that they were for leave or for remain. I did not ask them, “Do you vote Liberal Democrat, do you vote Green, do you vote Labour?” Indeed, members of the Labour party have suggested that they agree with my views, while members of the Conservative party, such as my right hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey), probably disagreed with my views at the time. All of us, at the time—well, I believe that the Liberal Democrats said that they would respect the vote—gave the impression that it was a once-in-a-lifetime choice, and a once-in-a-lifetime decision on which we would not renege and which we would not revoke: it would be delivered. It then came to a Parliament whose members were subsequently elected on the basis of their own political tribes.

Anne Main Portrait Mrs Main
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On political tribes, I shall give way.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones
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Will the hon. Lady please explain to me why the Government have not got Brexit through when they have had a majority for three years?

Anne Main Portrait Mrs Main
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Perhaps the arithmetic in the hon. Gentleman’s particular tribe is not as good as it might be. The Conservatives have not had a working majority for three years; there have been difficulties. However, the hon. Gentleman has fallen into the trap of seeing Brexit as a “political tribe” decision.

Early Parliamentary General Election

Graham P Jones Excerpts
Wednesday 4th September 2019

(4 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Bernard Jenkin Portrait Sir Bernard Jenkin
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I agree with much of what my hon. Friend says, but I return to the question: how is it going to be resolved? Supposing the Opposition are successful, the Bill goes through and the Prime Minister is obliged to go and seek an extension and to accept an extension to, say, 31 January, or whatever date the European Union decides to offer—

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Bernard Jenkin Portrait Sir Bernard Jenkin
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I am not going to give way.

What will happen after that? A definition of madness is to repeat the same thing again and again expecting a different outcome. The longer this goes on, the more that Members of Parliament will fear holding a general election because, out there, faith in the established political parties—

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Bernard Jenkin Portrait Sir Bernard Jenkin
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I am not going to give way.

The voters’ faith in the established political parties is not being improved by what is going on; it is being further undermined. The last thing I want is for the whole of British politics to be realigned around the question of Brexit, but that is what will happen the longer we carry on putting off this decision.

Like so many of my voters and so many colleagues in this House, I long to move on to the questions beyond Brexit, but that requires us to respect the decision that has been taken. It requires respect for the fact that there is a Government in office with a responsibility to conduct the negotiations as they see fit, or it requires those who do not have confidence in the Government to table a motion of no confidence to resolve that question.

That brings me back to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, from which the motion we are debating this evening arises. It has turned out to be a recipe for this paralysis, which would never have arisen but for the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

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John Baron Portrait Mr Baron
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That is not a fair point, for the simple reason that in that general election both the Labour manifesto and the Conservative manifesto promised to deliver Brexit. All we have seen since is utter delay and confusion, caused largely by remain MPs who will not honour the referendum result.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones
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The hon. Gentleman keeps saying that this is a remain Parliament with remain MPs—he keeps throwing that around—but the House of Commons Library confirmed that in excess of 575 MPs have voted for Brexit and voted for leave. How can he say that they are remain MPs when they vote to leave the European Union?

John Baron Portrait Mr Baron
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For the simple reason that the House has consistently voted not to honour the triggering of article 50. We keep kicking it into the long grass. When the hon. Gentleman and I voted to trigger article 50, the Bill was simple and short: it said that we would leave by 29 March, with or without a deal.

John Baron Portrait Mr Baron
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No, the hon. Gentleman has had his chance. It said that we would leave with or without a deal. Too many Members have continued to kick the can down the road—not once, not twice, but now three times, courtesy of the Bill passed earlier. It is absolutely ridiculous, and people are utterly fed up with it. A lot of remain MPs must look at themselves in the mirror and own up to the fact that all they want to do is stop Brexit. The people out there have had enough.

Exiting the European Union

Graham P Jones Excerpts
Monday 10th December 2018

(5 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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I have given an answer in relation to the people’s vote on a number of occasions. Some 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union. She cites her constituent; there are many other constituents who, having voted to remain, would now vote to leave the European Union, because they believe it is important for Government and Parliament to deliver on the referendum.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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Prime Minister, was this the easiest deal in history?

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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I think if the hon. Gentleman looks back on the various statements I have made about tough negotiations and difficult choices being made, he will know the answer to that question.

EU Exit Negotiations

Graham P Jones Excerpts
Monday 15th October 2018

(5 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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If the European Parliament, the EU 27 or this Parliament vote against any deal that the Prime Minister brings forward, what next?

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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As I said earlier, this House has set out clearly what the process would be were it to be the case that, on a meaningful vote, the position that the Government set forward was not agreed by this House.

G7

Graham P Jones Excerpts
Monday 11th June 2018

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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My right hon. Friend the International Trade Secretary has been in discussion with the United States, but also with the Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, in the European Union, and I am of course talking to other European leaders. We want to ensure that the action taken is proportionate and within the WTO rules when those countermeasures are put in place.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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The Prime Minister has referred to the empowerment of women and of girls in particular. Did she have an opportunity at the G7 to raise two specific issues: the hundreds of thousands of child prostitutes in India and the use of rape as a method of violence in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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The specific examples given by the hon. Gentleman were not raised, but the overall issue of the prevention of sexual violence in conflict was referred to in the meeting between the G7 leaders and the Gender Equality Advisory Council, which was set up by Prime Minister Trudeau. I was also able, within that, to talk about the issues of human trafficking and modern slavery, particularly modern slavery for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Graham P Jones Excerpts
Wednesday 20th December 2017

(6 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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We value the important role that the City of London plays, not just as a financial centre for Europe but as a financial centre for the world, and we want to retain and maintain that. Mr Barnier has made a number of comments recently about the opening negotiating position of the European Union. Both the Bank of England and the Treasury have today set out reassurance about ensuring that banks will be able to continue to operate and the City of London will continue to retain its global position. That will, however, be part of the negotiations on phase 2 of Brexit, and we are very clear about how important it is.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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Q13. Mr and Mrs Walker from Great Harwood in my constituency have a son with learning difficulties. In August, Mr Walker was knocked down by a driver who was over the limit, had taken drugs, had no lights and was speeding. Mr Walker is 69, and he is now quadriplegic. He is not entitled to the personal independence payment, he cannot access Motability, and he and Mrs Walker are now paying £400 per calendar month for a hire car. I wrote to the Department for Work and Pensions about this case on 21 November and have not heard a reply. It is shocking that this country and this Government cannot look after the elderly and the disabled. Will the Prime Minister look into this case urgently?

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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First, may I give our best wishes to Mr Walker and his family and say how sorry we are to hear of what has befallen him? The hon. Gentleman references a letter to the DWP and I will ensure that case is investigated and he receives a response.

G20

Graham P Jones Excerpts
Monday 10th July 2017

(6 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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My hon. Friend is very right: 80% of the votes at the general election were for parties that said they wanted to deliver on the Brexit decision taken by the British people in the referendum last year. That is what the Government are going to get on and do, and I hope others across the House will support us in doing it.

Graham P Jones Portrait Graham Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)
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The Prime Minister said in her statement that, “women and children are being enslaved, forced into hard labour, raped, beaten and passed from abuser to abuser for profit.” Does she agree that that is no more true than when it comes to the depravity of child prostitution in India? Did she raise that issue with Prime Minister Modi?

Theresa May Portrait The Prime Minister
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I have raised this issue—the question of modern slavery—previously with Prime Minister Modi, as the United Kingdom wants people around the world to address it. We are very clear that we want to see this issue being dealt with. That is one of the reasons why we have put into legislation the requirement for companies here in the UK, which will be manufacturing and will be sourcing products from around the world, to look at their supply chains and report on what they find in them and whether or not modern slavery is taking place within them.