Oral Answers to Questions

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

The Prime Minister was asked—

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 23 October.

[The Prime Minister (Boris Johnson)]

The whole House will be shocked by the appalling news that 39 bodies have been discovered in a lorry container in Essex. This is an unimaginable and truly heartbreaking tragedy, and I know that the thoughts and prayers of all Members are with those who lost their lives and their loved ones. I am receiving regular updates. The Home Office will work closely with Essex police to establish exactly what happened, and my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary will make an oral statement immediately after this Question Time.

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.

[Dr Huq]

I completely associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks about the tragedy in Essex—I do not normally do that, but on this occasion I am completely with him.

It is good to see the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Question Time. Until today, I think he had only ever done one—in 100 days. We all know that he has a long list of shortcomings, so could he—[Interruption.] Will he do something about one that he does have some control over and get rid of Dominic Cummings?

[The Prime Minister]

I will try to reply with the generosity of spirit that the hon. Lady would expect from me and just say that I receive excellent advice from a wide range of advisers and officials. It is the role of advisers to advise and the role of the Government to decide, and I take full responsibility for everything the Government do.

Debate on the Address

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Monday 14th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Judith Cummins (Bradford South) (Lab)]

I would like to focus on the significant and growing problem of regional inequality in this country. It is often referred to as the north-south divide, but it goes way beyond simplistic narratives about particular regions of our country. It is fundamentally about fairness. I simply do not believe that the policies announced in the Queen’s Speech will address the fundamental unfairness that means that if you live in certain parts of the country, you get a much rougher deal than those living elsewhere.

First, however, I would like to mention another issue. The Queen’s Speech included a new sentencing Bill, but it is extremely disappointing that the Government have still not honoured their previous commitment to bring in tougher sentences for causing death by dangerous driving. In fact, that is more than disappointing; it is a disgrace. The families of those killed by dangerous drivers have waited for over two years for changes to be made. They believed that their tragic circumstances could at least lead to a change in the law so that other families would not suffer as they had. The Government have yet to see those families find justice; they have let those families down. The Government must now come good on their promise and implement the tougher sentences without delay.

The Queen’s Speech does not do anywhere near enough on investment in the regions and communities of our country that have seen decades of underinvestment. Updated data on transport from IPPR North shows that, in both historical and future funding, the north of England is not getting its fair share. Over the past 10 years, annual per capita spending on transport in London has been £739, compared with £305 in the north, and that unfairness is set to continue. IPPR North estimates that current planned spending is nearly three times higher in London than in the north, and over seven times higher than in Yorkshire and the Humber. This Government have let the north down. Passengers on cramped Pacer trains between Bradford and Leeds know this, as do people waiting far too long for a bus that often does not turn up. So, whatever the Government say, however they present their figures, and whatever their narrative, we in the north know that we are still not getting our fair share.

Two major infrastructure projects are of vital importance to the north. On HS2, it is disappointing—to say the least —that one of the possible outcomes of the Government’s review would be to scrap the eastern branch to Leeds and Sheffield. Phase 2b will bring enormous economic benefits to West Yorkshire. It will also provide much of the infrastructure needed for Northern Powerhouse Rail. HS2 and NPR must not be an either/or choice. We urgently need both to be delivered.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

As a London MP, I feel slightly embarrassed that we are getting all the riches, as my hon. Friend puts it—she makes a powerful point. HS2 goes through my seat in East Acton. Is she not as alarmed as I am that it seems to be going over budget and to haemorrhage CEOs as often as a lot of people change their knickers? Does she not agree that these big projects should be better managed?

[Judith Cummins]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention—I think! I will continue with my speech.

I urge the Government to go ahead with HS2 east at the same time as HS2 west. On Northern Powerhouse Rail, I must stress once again the vital importance of a city centre stop in Bradford. It would be an historic mistake to build an out-of-town station, which would risk denying the full benefits of NPR to the people of Bradford. I also say to the Government: make the funding available to bring this transformational project about, sooner rather than later. The people of the north have waited for too long for proper east-west rail connections, and they should not be made to wait for another generation.

Turning to the outstanding work taking place locally in Bradford to improve access to skilled jobs and training, I pay tribute once again to the Bradford manufacturing week, whose launch I had the pleasure of attending last week in my constituency. This year’s event is twice the size of last year’s, with more than 40 secondary schools taking part and more than 6,000 manufacturing experiences delivered to local young people right across Bradford. Bradford and the north more generally have a great opportunity to lead a Bradford manufacturing renaissance, but we need the Government to listen to areas such as ours and to give us a skills system that is fully funded and that responds to local priorities. That is the way to provide prosperity to places such as my constituency of Bradford South.

It has become something of a cliché to talk about a divided nation, and it is certainly true that Brexit reveals some of the deep fault lines in our society. I firmly believe that we need national effort to reduce inequalities and to give everyone, whatever their background and wherever they live, the tools and opportunities they need to succeed. The Government must ensure that every part of our country gets its fair share of funding. For too long, the north of England has been held back by a failure of Government policy. Northerners will not stand by and let that happen any more. Invest in our infrastructure, properly fund our public services, and give us the tools to create a successful economy. That is what the north demands.

Brexit Negotiations

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Thursday 3rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Of course. I can tell my hon. Friend that Somerset lamb, cattle and beef—[Interruption.] I should say Devon, as he represents Tiverton. [Interruption.] He does farm in Somerset, so I should say that Somerset and Devon’s beef and lamb will have the opportunity to find export markets that they are prevented from finding by our current arrangements, such as those in the United States and indeed elsewhere. We have a glorious future ahead of us if we just take the first few steps.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister seems to be looking for ways for his proposals to pass, and I agree with my near west London neighbour that all our constituents want to move on from this intractable stalemate. I would allow the final version of his deal through, as would many Opposition Members and many Members on his Benches, some of whom he has kicked out of his own party, possibly even his own brother, if it came subject to a confirmatory referendum, disentangled from all the election gimmickry. That would allow people to have the final say. If this is as fantastic as the Prime Minister says it is, he has nothing to fear.

[The Prime Minister]

I warmly welcome the first half of the hon. Lady’s question.

Priorities for Government

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a powerful case. When we come out of the EU as a United Kingdom—whole, entire and perfect—the SNP will find that its guns are spiked and that the wind has been taken out of its sails, and that its sole manifesto commitment is a bizarre pledge to restore the control of Scotland’s fish to Brussels. That is what it stands for. That is its programme and I am waiting for the U-turn.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

As London Mayor, the Prime Minister courted popularity with pledging an amnesty for illegal immigrants and his vocal opposition to Heathrow expansion. Now that he is an position to do something about those two issues, is he a man of his word?

[The Prime Minister]

As the hon. Lady will know very well, I have answered the question on Heathrow. I remain deeply concerned about the abilities of the promoters of the third runway to meet their obligations on air quality and noise pollution. I will follow the court cases with a lively interest.

As for the amnesty on illegal immigrants, it is absolutely true that I have raised it several times since I was in Government, and I must say, it did not receive an overwhelming endorsement from the previous Prime Minister when I raised it once in Cabinet. I think that our arrangements, in theoretically being committed to the expulsion of perhaps half a million people who do not have the correct papers, and who may have been living and working here for many, many years without being involved in any criminal activity at all—I think that legal position is anomalous. We saw the difficulties that that kind of problem occasioned in the Windrush fiasco. We know the difficulties that can be caused and I do think—I will answer the hon. Lady directly—that we need to look at our arrangements for people who have lived and worked here for a long time, unable to enter the economy and to participate properly or pay taxes, without documents. We should look at it. The truth is that the law already basically allows them an effective amnesty—that is basically where things have settled down —but we should look at the economic advantages and disadvantages of going ahead with the policy that she described, and on which I think she and I share a view.

Leaving the European Union

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd May 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman references the different opinions in the House. That is precisely why I think it is important that we crystallise those opinions to a position that can command a majority across the House. People voted in 2016 to leave the EU, to end free movement, to ensure our courts were supreme and to ensure we did not send vast annual sums to the EU. They wanted us to be that independent nation. I believe that an independent trade policy is part of that independence, which is why I have proposed and supported the position I have on customs, but it will be for the House to determine the customs union objectives—we are talking about the objectives—for future negotiations.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

With the inevitable end nigh for the Prime Minister and our still being in the EU under an extension to an extension, and with burning injustices still unextinguished everywhere, will the Prime Minister tell us, under her premiership, factoring in the two new Ministries she has created, the civil servants from all over redeployed to this exercise and her costly and sometimes incompetent no-deal planning experiments—she now tells us no deal would be a bad thing—how much Brexit has cost the public purse?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady knows full well that the Treasury’s figures for the two Departments preparing for Brexit, in whatever form it takes, have been made public. She alludes to other work the Government have undertaken. I am very pleased that this Government introduced, for example, the race disparity audit and that we are taking action to ensure that those in certain communities who find it harder to get into the workplace are given the support they need, and introducing changes to domestic abuse legislation. There are many areas where this Government are acting to deal with exactly the injustices I have referred to previously.

Proportional Representation: House of Commons

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd April 2019 Westminster Hall

[Mr Paul Sweeney (Glasgow North East) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. As I represent a Scottish constituency, I work alongside Members of the Scottish Parliament who were elected under both constituency-based and regional-based systems, as well as local councillors who were voted in under the STV system, as the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) mentioned. We come from a culture where there is reasonably fair cohabitation of proportional representation and majoritarian systems.

I am fairly open-minded about the idea of different electoral systems. The key thing is for us to agree that there needs to be a thorough constitutional convention. It is high time that every aspect of the entire structure of Westminster’s governance was reviewed. I am sure we have a litany of ideas about reform of the structure—not just the electoral system, but the second Chamber and the way Westminster interfaces—and that is certainly what the Labour party advocates.

There are certainly problems with the way the Scottish Parliament’s structure works. Combining regional lists and constituencies creates an imbalance between the different types of MSPs, which often leads to problems. When we talk about PR, we have to take cognisance of the fact that there are different methods of PR. The system can also lead to distortions. Even in the last Westminster election in 2017, Labour gained 27% of the vote in Scotland but only 11% of seats. That is a clear imbalance. The Scottish National party achieved, I think, 36% of the vote and won 59% of the seats. Those clear imbalances could be corrected within regions under a more proportional system.

I supported the alternative vote compromise, introduced as a condition of the coalition Government agreement. That would have maintained the benefits of the constituency link, which have been mentioned, while allowing at least a majority to be established in support of electing a Member of Parliament. That seemed a reasonably sensible staging post towards a further review, but it was a great disappointment that that was rejected in a referendum.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

I do not know whether my hon. Friend did A-level politics as I did, but we were always taught that the current system delivers stable and clear results. However, two out of the last three general elections have shown that it does not. The current Government are the least satisfactory of all, with £1 billion given to the Democratic Unionist party; pulled votes; meaningful votes that were anything but; and indicative votes that were far from that. Does he not agree that all that points to first past the post being past it? The old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” does not hold. It is broken and it should be fixed.

[Mr Sweeney]

I am sympathetic to that point. Indeed, who voted for first past the post? Was a referendum ever held on that? Why is it assumed that the burden of proof must lie with those who oppose the existing system? We need a thorough root-and-branch review of the entire structure of our politics as part of a constitutional convention and national conversation. Hopefully we can achieve some consensus among the parties about what needs to change. That could be delivered through a manifesto and a general election.

European Council

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Thursday 11th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has made a very interesting and important suggestion, and I will certainly look very carefully at it. It is important that Members of this House have as much information as possible when they are making decisions on these matters, and certainly the voice of business will be an important part of that.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

I must thank the Prime Minister for having me round exactly a week ago—it feels like six months ago—for a much more agreeable cross-party dialogue than the confrontational exchanges that we have in here. I congratulate her on her achievement of the wee hours yesterday night, or this morning—whenever it was. In recognition of the spirit of reaching consensus that she talked about—we discussed last week how all our constituents just want this stalemate moved on from—I am now prepared to allow her deal to pass, subject to the small rider that it has attached to the end of it a ratificatory referendum to check that the will of the people in 2016 is the will of the people now. I feel that would imbue it with democratic renewal. That is my compromise—it is a big climbdown from what I have said all the way up to now—and I just wonder if she would tell us what is hers.

[The Prime Minister]

I was happy to have a discussion with the hon. Lady last week. I think that in her question she referenced the need that constituents feel to be able to move on from this situation. I just say to her gently that I do not think that holding a second referendum would enable people to move on—it would create further division.

European Council

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Monday 25th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Although I have indicated that we would whip against the amendment from my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), if it were to pass it would lead to some votes taking place on Wednesday. The commitment that the Government have made is that there would be opportunities over this week and next week. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster indicated that we would facilitate the opportunity for the House to make those decisions in the two weeks following last week’s European Council.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

As someone who is not a member of the DUP or the ERG or from a leave-voting seat, I thank the Prime Minister for the “Dear colleague” letter she sent me, which includes the offer of a meeting. When she came to Ealing Central and Acton in 2017, my majority was 200 and she had hopes of taking the constituency back. Today, in that same seat, more people have signed a petition to rescind article 50—never mind supporting a people’s vote—than voted Conservative in that same election. If she is serious, will she meet me to thrash out a way forward so that London is not lost forever? If not, it will seem that she just listens to the same old voices all the time.

[The Prime Minister]

As I indicated in answer to an earlier question, I have been meeting Members from across the House and am very happy to do so to discuss such matters.

Leaving the European Union

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. Whether it is called a people’s vote or a confirmatory vote, it is a second referendum. It is putting the decision back to the British people. We said that we would honour the decision, the Labour party stood on a manifesto of respecting that decision, and we should both do just that.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister says that she wants to unite the nation and this House, and she has again presented us today with her deal, no deal or no Brexit. Her deal faced the biggest ever defeat in this place, and no amount of backstop tinkering is going to change things for us on the Opposition Benches. Given that no deal has already been rejected twice by this House, what contingency planning she has done for no Brexit in the same way as for no deal, the assessment of which she is publishing today? If she will not rescind article 50, will she not accept that, ostensibly, the only sensible thing to do with 800 hours to go is to put her negotiated settlement back to the people, so that we can get a fresh assessment of the will of the people—the most accurate one—and then that can prevail?

[The Prime Minister]

I refer the hon. Lady to the answer that I gave to that question earlier.

Leaving the EU

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Tuesday 12th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I think the proper response to the sneeze from the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Laura Smith) at the end of the last question is, “Bless you.”

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

We are now 45 days away from the projected departure date, and we still have no clarity and no closure on a deal that the Prime Minister negotiated when there were 135 days to go. May I ask for her opinion on this statement from the innocent days when there were only 110 days to go, on the eve of the last pulled vote in December?

“If Parliament does not agree a Brexit deal soon then we must recognise that the original mandate to leave, taken over two years ago, will begin to date and will, eventually, no longer represent a reflection of current intent.”

Those are not my words, but the words of the right hon. and gallant Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood). If members of her own Government get it, why won’t she? Can she not see why the general public see that her only strategy is to run down the clock?

[The Prime Minister]

The Government’s position is very clear. We believe it is better for this country to leave with a deal. That is the position that the House of Commons has taken, but the House of Commons has also said that it does not agree the deal that was negotiated. It wants to see changes to the backstop and that is what we are working for.