Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Madeleine Moon

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will look at this case. It sounds as if it is a very sad case but, I am afraid, not an isolated case. As the Welsh National Audit Office found, overall, Welsh patients face shorter waits for treatment in England than they do in Wales. That is a fact. What we need is a change of direction in Wales from the Labour Administration: instead of cutting the NHS, they should be investing in the NHS; instead of leaving the bureaucracy in place, they should be taking it out of the NHS. In short, they should be taking a different track, so that we give people a better NHS.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

Yesterday, Mr Speaker graciously allowed the all-party parliamentary group on motor neurone disease to use his state apartments for the launch of its report, which demonstrates that people with motor neurone disease are having grave problems accessing the funding available for communication support in England. Some 30% of people with motor neurone disease will die within a year, and 95% will lose their voice. Will the Prime Minister meet the Motor Neurone Disease Association to sort out why these delays are happening in NHS England? Will he agree to fund communication support so that the association can provide it quickly and effectively while the NHS gets its act in order, so that no one dies without being able to communicate their last thoughts to their loved ones?

[The Prime Minister]

First, let me commend the hon. Lady and others across the House for the work they do on motor neurone disease. Anyone who has known someone who has suffered from that disease—as I have—realises that it is a most appalling, debilitating condition, which is very difficult for families to cope with. I will certainly look at the report the hon. Lady has produced and make sure that the proper meetings are held with the Department of Health, so we do everything we can to support these people and allow them, as she says, to communicate with their families up until the last moment.

EU Council, Security and Middle East

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Madeleine Moon

Monday 1st September 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point, but I have to say that I think the first piece of advice we should give to any British national thinking of travelling to Syria to help on a humanitarian basis is that there is an enormous amount of good humanitarian work being done that they can help to support and fund without leaving the United Kingdom. I think that should be the first port of call. Obviously, in terms of returnees, we need to make sure that what we do is targeted at those who are intent on causing trouble.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

Murder, rape and abduction have been used against women in Iraq by ISIS and across Syria. Britain hosted a conference on ending sexual violence against women. We have also signed UN resolution 1325. What women need is a place at the table when discussions take place about peace and the resolution of conflict. Will the Prime Minister commit to ensuring that Britain does its utmost to make sure that women have a place at the conference table, that women are represented and that women are part of the British delegation to the UN conference in Newport?

[The Prime Minister]

Leading the delegation from Britain will be the former Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), who has probably done more than anyone else to put this whole agenda on the table, not just by raising its profile but, as the hon. Lady says, making sure there are actual measures that can be taken, in terms of prosecuting those responsible and keeping proper records of what is now a war crime. She is right about the other points that she makes.

Ukraine (Flight MH17) and Gaza

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Madeleine Moon

Monday 21st July 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

That is absolutely what we are doing. In particular, we are pushing this Egyptian ceasefire plan, to which others are prepared to sign up. We need Hamas to sign up to it, too. When we get to the talks process, we need to press Hamas to accept the Quartet principles, which include Israel’s right to exist. It is difficult to negotiate with an organisation that does not accept that the country with which we are negotiating has any right to exist.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

Russia is reliant on the manufacturing base in eastern Ukraine. It relies on 30% of Ukraine’s manufacturing output for unique and irreplaceable military components for the arsenal of the Russian military. Does the Prime Minister accept that it is about time that we put an end to this false belief that Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine and in Crimea were anything to do with the support of Russian-speaking minorities and everything to do with supporting the Russian military base?

[The Prime Minister]

I hear what the hon. Lady says and I am sure that she is right. It is partly about that, but it is also about Russia’s vision of itself and its neighbours and about it feeling that connection with Ukraine. What we should be saying is that of course we will protect the rights of Russian-speaking minorities in eastern Ukraine, but the people of Ukraine have made a choice in terms of a free and democratic election and a free choice to have an association agreement with the European Union, and Russia should respect that.

Libya

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Madeleine Moon

Monday 5th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will look very carefully at what my hon. Friend says, because he has been pursuing this issue with dogged determination over the years, and quite right too. What I would say though is that we are dealing with an inquiry that is almost entirely concerned with the security and intelligence services. This is an extremely difficult area to inquire into, and it has to be done with great sensitivity. I do not want to do anything that puts our country at risk or jeopardises the work of our security and intelligence services. I see this as a package: there was the clearing of the Guantanamo Bay detainee cases, which was vital so that the security services could get on with their work; there was the new guidance, so that our officers in the field knew what they should and should not do; and there is this inquiry to try to clear up the problems of the past. Yes, it is about uncovering any mistreatment or malpractice, which is not to be justified in any way, but it is also about enabling our security services to get on with the job of keeping us safe.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has rightly praised the professionalism, skills and ethos of the 2,300 service personnel. If Libya is to take over responsibility for its own security so that those service personnel can return to base and to other duties, will he ensure that, in financial terms, the training that we provide will help to build a new Libyan army, air force and navy that are competitive with those of other countries, so that we can pull our own service personnel back? If we can provide that training, we can build a new relationship between our armed forces.

Phone Hacking

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Madeleine Moon

Wednesday 13th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have not had any contact with any US politicians about this issue.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

In the firestorm that has hit the country, thousands of families have been thrown back to the trauma of a loved one’s death. Will the Prime Minister ensure that he has conversations with the Press Complaints Commission so that it can start talking to the editors of national newspapers about not regurgitating stories that will increase that trauma to families? Can we also ensure that when police officers approach families, if they need to tell them that their phone calls have been hacked, they provide them with help and guidance as well as information about desist notices so that those families’ trauma can be reduced rather than their grief being added to?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady makes a very good and sensitive point. It is not just for the PCC but for newspapers themselves to understand the trauma that is being caused and the need to be more sensitive.

Strategic Defence and Security Review

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Madeleine Moon

Tuesday 19th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has stood up for Lyneham with vigour and tenacity for many years, and I commend him for that. This is a good opportunity to put on record the respect that everyone in this House and in the country has for the people of Wootton Bassett for what they have done. I am in the embarrassing position of having in my constituency the premier RAF base, Brize Norton, which, I am afraid, does not particularly suffer from the announcements made today. My hon. Friend has made a good suggestion for the future of Lyneham, and I am sure that he can pursue it with the Ministry of Defence.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

There are human costs attached to the 42,000 job losses across the Ministry of Defence and the military that have been announced today. Can we have an assurance that those people who are losing their jobs in the Ministry, the civil service, the military and the defence industry will be given help and support to relocate, and that their housing needs will be addressed, given the housing cuts that have been announced in the past few days? Can we have an assurance that the people who have served and offered their lives for this country are not going to be discarded?

[The Prime Minister]

I can absolutely give the hon. Lady that assurance. We want to ensure that as many of the job losses as possible are found through voluntary redundancy and retirement, rather than through making people redundant. I can also confirm what has been said before, which is that we will obviously not be making anyone redundant who is in Afghanistan or whose units are in Afghanistan. That will not be happening; that is extremely important.

In terms of the industrial base, of course there will be impacts—for instance, with the decision on Nimrod—but if we look across British industry as a whole, and at the decisions on shipbuilding, on the A400M and on the joint strike fighter among many others, we can see that there is a strong future for defence manufacturing in our country.

Let me just put on record how much we should value the MOD’s civilians and how hard they work, because I know that they sometimes feel undervalued. I was at the Permanent Joint Headquarters today and saw many civilians working alongside their military counterparts to co-ordinate our efforts in Afghanistan; they were doing a fantastic job. It is right that we reduce the number of civilians in the MOD—it has got too big—but we need to ensure that we do it in as sensitive a way as possible.