Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Sharon Hodgson

Wednesday 16th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It is great to hear my hon. Friend, because he speaks such good sense on this matter; I hope that he is heard up and down the land. It is absolutely vital that people who are offered the vaccine do take steps to get it immediately. They will be protecting themselves and they will be protecting everyone else.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab) [V]]

  Highly skilled engineers at Centrica’s British Gas in my constituency were told last week that they had to sign new contracts before Christmas, or else they would be fired and rehired in the new year on worse terms. Fire and rehire is an exploitative and illegitimate negotiation tactic, and causes real hurt and anger. Will the Prime Minister join me in calling on Centrica to withdraw its threat and return to the negotiation table with workers and their union, the GMB, and will he work with Labour and the trade unions to introduce legislation to ban fire and rehire as soon as possible?

[The Prime Minister]

It is very important that all businesses treat their employees with fairness and respect. In that sense, I utterly share the point of view of the hon. Lady, but it is also vital that we have a flexible economy that is able to generate jobs, particularly when we are going to go through a very difficult and bumpy time. We have had a proud record of keeping employment high and unemployment low in this country, and we want to continue with that approach.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Boris Johnson and Sharon Hodgson

Wednesday 12th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his campaign for the restoration of the Burscough curves. That sounds to me like a great idea. What he needs to do is put forward a costed business plan, and I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary will look at it very carefully.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

Q6. Does the Prime Minister agree with me and 10,800 of my constituents who signed petitions, that the building of a gasification plant in Washington would be terrible for the people of Sunderland, due to the public health concerns, and air quality, and would indeed be a blot on the landscape of Sunderland, and that now as a frequent visitor to Sunderland, I’m sure he shares my concerns on this matter? Will he therefore support me and my constituents, who oppose the building of this plant?

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly look into the matter that the hon. Lady raises. We will ensure, of course, that if there is a problem with the gasification plant that she describes, Sunderland will continue to prosper and to lead the UK economy.

Prime Minister's Update

Debate between Boris Johnson and Sharon Hodgson

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am afraid the straight answer is no. I must repeat the humility with which we approach the judgment of the Supreme Court and, indeed, the Supreme Court itself but, on the substance of the issue, we are only sharing an opinion that is also held by the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls—those are very high legal authorities.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

Since Parliament was unlawfully prorogued, British businesses such as Nissan in my constituency have been putting their products—in this case cars—on ships to be exported across the world without any clarity about what the customs arrangement will be when they arrive at their destination up to six weeks later.

The right hon. Gentleman has been Prime Minister for 64 days, as he proudly tells us. As other colleagues have asked numerous times tonight, what has he been doing? Is he able to give any clarity tonight on what will be in the deal he seeks with Europe so that businesses such as Nissan, which have cars on ships now, know what will happen to them when they arrive in port?

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously I congratulate Nissan on what it is doing and on its stunning manufacturing performance, and we are working very hard to protect supply chains, not just for Nissan but for all our motor manufacturing companies. The best thing for those companies—

Priorities for Government

Debate between Boris Johnson and Sharon Hodgson

Thursday 25th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We should approach these talks in the spirit of maximum optimism, although optimism seems to be a quality that is deprecated on the Opposition Benches. It is a well-founded optimism because common sense dictates that now is the moment for seriousness and compromise, and I think that is what we are going to find.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

This morning’s announcement of 12,500 job losses at Nissan worldwide is really worrying, although at this stage there is no indication that any of these job losses are going to be at the Sunderland plant in my constituency. But it does highlight the fragile nature of the automotive industry. This really should refocus our minds, therefore, on the existential threat that a no-deal Brexit would be to the automotive industry in the UK. Will the Prime Minister today rule out a no-deal Brexit and commit to an active, innovation-led industrial strategy that will protect our industrial towns and cities?

[The Prime Minister]

I will indeed commit to that approach, because I think that is the right way forward. If I may say so, Nissan in Sunderland is the most efficient plant in the world, and what a fantastic thing that is. Just in the past few weeks, as the hon. Lady will have noticed, BMW has announced a huge investment to build electric Minis at Cowley and Jaguar Land Rover has put £1 billion into electric vehicles in Birmingham. That, by the way, is how we will tackle the climate change issue—not with the hair shirt-ism of the Greens but with wonderful new technology made in this country.

Balfour Declaration

Debate between Boris Johnson and Sharon Hodgson

Monday 30th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

My hon. Friend has an excellent point and alludes to the third leg of the Balfour declaration. Balfour spoke of the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities and then of course of the rights of Jewish communities elsewhere around the world. As my hon. Friend rightly says, hundreds of thousands of them were expelled from their homes, too. They will also benefit from a lasting peace between the Arabs and Israelis. That is what we want to achieve and what we are pushing for.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

Does the Foreign Secretary agree that it is impossible to reject the Balfour declaration in its entirety, as some may seek to do, and support a two-state solution? Will he therefore join me in celebrating Balfour and commit to redoubling our efforts to achieve a two-state solution and peace in the region?

[Boris Johnson]

I certainly share the hon. Lady’s enthusiasm for and passionate belief in the vital importance of the state of Israel, which, as I told the House earlier, I believe to be one of the great achievements of humanity in the 20th century, given all the suffering the Jewish people had been through. It is a great immovable fact—I hope—of geopolitics. We also have to recognise, however, that in the course of creating that wonderful experiment, huge numbers of people suffered and lost their homes. Their wishes and feelings must also be respected. It is in that spirit that we mark Balfour today.

US Immigration Policy

Debate between Boris Johnson and Sharon Hodgson

Monday 30th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

We have been extremely candid with our American friends and partners, as indeed I have been candid with the House this afternoon about our reservations, which include the grounds that my hon. Friend mentions.

[Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab)]

In the hope that he will now answer it, let me repeat the question put by the shadow Foreign Secretary that the Foreign Secretary did not answer. In the light of our special relationship with the United States, why did it take the Government of the United Kingdom over 17 hours longer to get the same assurances that the Canadians got much quicker?

[Boris Johnson]

It is our duty to secure the best possible deal for citizens of the United Kingdom. What Canada does is a matter for Canada, and I have no knowledge of what deal the Canadians may or may not have secured. It is important for the House to understand that this is an Executive order that caught many Departments of the American Administration on the hop, as it were, and it has taken them some time to elaborate the policy that we now have.