Tributes to Her Late Majesty The Queen
Alex Chalk Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
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Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
I pay tribute to the extraordinarily warm and moving tribute paid by the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner).
Queen Elizabeth II famously referred to her late husband as her “strength and stay”, but although she would never have claimed it for herself, it was she who was the strength and stay of an entire nation and, indeed, the Commonwealth. The constancy and humble commitment to duty were the hallmarks of her life. She embodied the values that are the best of our country. In a world of increasing noise and self-promotion, she provided that counterpoint of quiet poise and dignity.
We in Cheltenham are proud of a lifetime’s connection with Queen Elizabeth II. It was as a young princess that she came to our town. She gave her name to Princess Elizabeth Way, which remains a major Cheltenham thoroughfare, and planted an oak tree in 1951 to mark its completion. Later that same year, she was at the races—the Cheltenham gold cup—with her mother. History does not relate which Cheltenham event she enjoyed more, opening the road or going to the races. We may have our suspicions, but she was far too professional ever to let on.
Prince Philip was back in 1957 to open an extension to what is now the University of Gloucestershire, and in 2004 the Queen was in Cheltenham to open GCHQ, or “the doughnut” as we refer to it. Indeed, she was a strong supporter of the intelligence agencies and unveiled the plaque at GCHQ’s first London home in 2019.
She had a quick mind, as many have observed, and was very much up to speed on current events. In Cheltenham in 2004, when she observed the magnificent hanging baskets that then decorated the front of the municipal offices, she recalled a recent media story about a hanging basket landing on someone’s head. She noted that Cheltenham’s display was so magnificent that it could wipe out the entire council.
Like many people, I sat down with my children, aged 10 and eight, yesterday and tried to convey the scale of what had happened. Children cannot and probably should not bear, as we do, the aching pain of this loss but, as we mourn, let us explain to them what Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II meant to this nation. Just as Her Majesty the Queen dedicated herself to the service of our country in 1952, let us dedicate ourselves to immortalising her values, her duty, her integrity, her selflessness, her country and her kindness.
The Queen was a woman of faith, and I hope she approached the end with peace. Yesterday, as her death was announced, I thought of her family and those close by as, in the words of a young RAF pilot in 1941, she
“slipped the surly bonds of Earth…and touched the face of God.”
God save the King.
UK Energy Costs
Alex Chalk Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
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Keir Starmer
I will make my argument and then I will give way.
It is about a failure to prepare, a failure to increase our energy independence and a failure to rapidly decrease our reliance on fossil fuels. The Conservatives banned onshore wind in 2015, and that cost us clean energy capacity equivalent to all our Russian gas imports in recent years—a policy disaster. The Prime Minister has been consistently opposed to solar power, the cheapest form of energy we have, and she has been consistently wrong. It is not just what the Prime Minister said in the heat of her leadership campaign this summer. When she was Environment Secretary, the Government slashed solar subsidies and the market crashed.
Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
The Leader of the Opposition is being completely misleading, if I may say so. It is under this Government that the United Kingdom has the second highest offshore wind generation capacity of anywhere in the world. How is that created? It is through investment by companies, and this Government will allow for that to happen.
Keir Starmer
I take it from that intervention that the hon. and learned Gentleman does not quarrel with me that the ban on onshore wind since 2015 has been a policy disaster, along with the opposition to solar power.
Oral Answers to Questions
Alex Chalk Excerpts(3 years, 5 months ago)
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Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk)
Investing in the women’s custodial estate will improve conditions for female prisoners through modern, gender-specific and trauma-informed design. It will further ensure capacity is in place to give effect to sentences imposed by the independent courts.
Janet Daby [V]
When mothers are imprisoned for minor offences, the separation and loss for the child are detrimental to their wellbeing. The charity Women in Prison tells us that the most effective way to tackle the causes of crime and to prevent women from reoffending is to invest in women’s centres. Given that the Government’s own female offender strategy pledges to reduce the number of women in prison, why are they proposing to invest £150 million on new female prison places, and what representation has the Minister made to recommit to reducing the number of women in prison?
Alex Chalk
It is important that we continue to invest in women’s centres in the community, and that is exactly what we are doing. For the very reason that the hon. Lady makes about keeping relationships with the family, part of the money that she refers to will go to providing accommodation so that individuals can make family visits to those women sentenced to custody, to keep those relationships going. Prisons need to be a place of security, but they must also be a place of humanity, rehabilitation and hope, and that is what we are investing in.
Nicola Richards (West Bromwich East) (Con)
Oral Answers to Questions
Alex Chalk Excerpts(4 years, 9 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman raises an excellent point. As he knows, we are hiring not only another 50,000 nurses but 6,000 more GPs to deal with the very problem that he raises.
Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
UK Special Forces: Iraq and Afghanistan
Alex Chalk Excerpts(4 years, 10 months ago)
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Stewart Malcolm McDonald
My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. Ultimately, the rules and the laws exist to protect serving personnel, as well as to protect those who are in the theatre of conflict to which they are deployed. The rules and laws are there to uphold the very honour to which we pay tribute in this Parliament.
Stewart Malcolm McDonald
If the hon. Gentleman does not mind, I will finish with this point.
As I mentioned earlier, the Government tell us that they always want to uphold the international rules-based system. I suspect that we have different views on what that can mean, but this is not it. Clearly, the Minister cannot make any promises to me this evening, but the Government must set up an independent inquiry into the allegations that have been made by fellow members of the armed forces, and I beseech him to do that. We need to know what took place, what the Royal Military Police were doing, why statements were amended and why faulty intelligence leads were followed, resulting in the deaths of civilians and their families being lied to. Their families deserve better, and our armed forces deserve so, so much better.
Although there is a broader political debate on oversight—and it sounds like I have some allies across the House in ensuring that that is on the agenda—I ask the Minister tonight, especially given the intentions of the Government in relation to Northern Ireland, to approach this matter appropriately, to come to the Dispatch Box and to make it clear that there will be an unforgiving and relentless pursuit of the truth and of justice. If he does that, I will back him all the way.
Debate on the Address
Alex Chalk Excerpts(4 years, 10 months ago)
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Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
I rise in support of the Gracious Speech. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Neil Gray). I did not agree with a great deal of what he had to say, but he certainly delivered his remarks with his characteristic force and eloquence.
I thank the people of Cheltenham for returning me for the third time. It was a hard-fought campaign, and I pay tribute to those who stood against me, because I think anybody who puts themself up for election, particularly in the social media age, takes a brave step.
The result nationally is fantastic. We are able now to break the paralysis and to move forward. It is right also to recognise that with the great power that comes from this majority comes responsibility. I was delighted to hear the Prime Minister speak the language of one nation, but of course one nation can be merely motherhood and apple pie. It is incumbent on us to define what we mean by it, so I will say a few words about what it certainly means to me and what I think and hope it means to others.
One nation conservatism is about patriotism, not narrow nationalism. It is about a nation based on one United Kingdom that recognises that nationalism is never the answer to any social problem. One nation conservatism is about being engaged and involved in the world—playing a part on the world stage and not retreating into isolationism. It is a belief in social mobility and the moral imperative to drive it. It is a belief in the role of the state to deliver excellent public services and sensible regulation. It is a belief in universal human rights and the rule of law as the bulwark of our individual freedoms. Critically, it is a belief in the environment—that conservatism must elide into conservationism. There is a moral duty upon us to bequeath a cleaner and greener environment to the next generation.
Stewart Malcolm McDonald
The hon. Gentleman says that my party is never the answer, so can he tell me why it is that when his party and my party are on a ballot paper, his lot get horsed and we keep beating them?
Alex Chalk
I worry that the hon. Gentleman never seems ready to listen to what the Scottish people have said. In 2014, Scottish people said they wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom, but he refuses to listen to them. Respect the people of Scotland. Listen to them. Honour the referendum result,
On Brexit, the language of this one nation Prime Minister is that this is not the time when we become fortress Britain; it is the time when we become global Britain. We will be more open, more welcoming, more internationalist, more tolerant. That is the direction that we need to go in.
The second element of the Queen’s Speech—such an important, striking element—relates to the NHS. In the election campaign, so much nonsense was talked about privatisation of the NHS. The problem was that sometimes, mischievously, the word “privatisation” was used to mean two different things. It is important to emphasise that the principle of healthcare being provided free at the point of need, regardless of ability to pay, is sacrosanct. It is simply not up for discussion and it never was going to be up for discussion. It is an article of faith for this nation, part of what marks us out in the community of nations. I am so proud that I was able to stand in Cheltenham on the record of what the Government had achieved for Cheltenham and for Cheltenham General Hospital. We had had more money put into our A&E services and saved our A&E. We had delivered the new £2 million Apollo surgical theatre for the hospital, £1 million for Gloucestershire air ambulance, linear accelerators and so on and so forth.
What is exciting about the Queen’s Speech is the pledge to invest yet more in our hospitals and the NHS in general. I want to see in Cheltenham a Gloucestershire cancer institute, and I will support the oncologists who do such a fantastic job and provide health services not just in Cheltenham and not just in Gloucestershire, but as far afield as Wales, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and still further afield. The Queen’s Speech rightly focuses on recruiting more staff, and on ending the injustice of the parents of a small child who has to be cared for overnight, or people with disabilities, or out-patients who require repeated treatments having to pay car parking charges. The Queen’s Speech also addresses the issue of doctors’ pensions and the fact that too many clinicians, particularly senior clinicians, are feeling priced out of going back to work because of the law of unintended consequences and the way it applied to pensions. That issue will be resolved.
I am excited about what will happen to our schools. One thing that did not really surface enough in the election campaign is how standards in our schools have risen, and risen relentlessly. The situation we inherited in 2010 was that our schools were on a downward trajectory, and we were slipping down the league tables in respect of the international comparisons. That is no more: we are now heading up the league tables and are ahead of France, Germany and the United States in reading and mathematics. That is something to be celebrated and we should be paying tribute to our teachers, the parents who support them and the school governors who are doing it time and again. In Cheltenham in particular, the results being achieved in our secondary schools—in Balcarras, in Bournside, in Pate’s, in All Saints’ and in all the other schools—are absolutely fantastic.
The Government have indicated that we will provide more funding. It is a fact that schools have delivered services despite the fact that the cost base and cost pressures have been going up, not least in respect of teachers’ pensions and so on. Whereas in 2015 the schools in my constituency received about £4,200 per head as a minimum, that will go up next year to a minimum of £5,000 per head. In fact, the average in Cheltenham will be closer to £5,300 per head. That is going to empower and turbo-charge our schools to continue the fantastic work that they are doing.
One point ably made by my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) was about our environment. As I said when I introduced my private Member’s Bill on net zero carbon, we need a new radicalism, but although we need to proceed with our heart, we also need to proceed with our head. I was delighted to hear of the new independent office for environmental protection, which will provide legal targets, including on air quality. There are important measures on planting more trees—the great Northumberland forest—and on new national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, but also a clear and hard-headed commitment to phase out coal completely by 2025 and to ensure that newly built houses no longer have fossil-fuel heaters. As we build more homes in Cheltenham as part of the cyber-park project, on any view they should no longer have gas boilers—I think they should be carbon neutral. That is what we need to focus on and the Queen’s Speech does so.
In summary, I could talk for a long time, but this Queen’s Speech can deliver a future for our country that is healthier, with children who are better educated, a country that is cleaner and an environment that is better protected. I am delighted to support the Gracious Speech. The future for our country can be very bright indeed.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill
Alex Chalk ExcerptsTuesday 22nd October 2019
(5 years ago)
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Sammy Wilson
That is right, but the one thing that they have always demanded is that we have unfettered access to the market, which is our main market. We sell five times more to GB than we do to the Irish Republic, yet as a result of this Bill and our being trapped in the customs union, we now find that we will be subject to checks.
Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
But should the right hon. Gentleman not also weigh in the balance the fact that a widget maker in Northern Ireland would not only have access over the border into the Republic, but would also be able to take advantage of any trade deals that the United Kingdom as a whole was able to secure with third countries? Is that not an advantage that he should weigh in the balance?
Sammy Wilson
I am glad of that intervention, because it brings me to the very next point that I wish to make, on the issue of sovereignty. Although the Prime Minister has claimed that what the hon. Gentleman says is the case, the withdrawal agreement makes it quite clear that it is not. According to article 5, paragraph 1, that access will be available only depending on whether the agreement or trade deal conflicts with EU protocols. It must not conflict with the protocols in the agreement. It says:
“provided that those agreements do not prejudice the application of this Protocol.”
Those are the only conditions under which we can take part in the free trade arrangements that the Government may set up with other countries.
On the issue of sovereignty, we are part of the EU regulations, we are part of the EU customs code, we have checks down the Irish border, and we are subject to any future trade deals on which the United Kingdom agrees, subject to whether they conflict with EU protocol. The Prime Minister said, “Oh, but it will all dissolve if there is a free trade arrangement that allows it to be dissolved.” But again, it has been made quite clear that it is only if the EU agrees to release us from the protocols that we can take the benefits of that free trade arrangement.
Debate on the Address
Alex Chalk Excerpts(5 years ago)
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The Prime Minister
May I respectfully suggest to the right hon. Gentleman that that might be a good reason—if it were true, which it is not—for his party to support a deal. I must say that I find it most peculiar that the leader of the Liberal Democrats has been off to see Mr Barnier in Brussels to beg him not to give this country a deal. That is a really quite extraordinary state of affairs. We believe in boosting the productivity of every part of this country—
Alex Chalk
Schools in Cheltenham, and teachers in particular, are doing a fantastic job of driving up standards while coping with a dramatic increase in demand for special educational needs provision. Does the Prime Minister agree that this Queen’s Speech meets that demand with huge additional investment to allow schools to ensure that their pupils go as far as their talents will take them?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend is entirely right. That is why there is a massive increase not just in primary school funding, not just in secondary school funding, but in SEND funding across the country, giving local people the power to set up special educational needs schools where they desire. We will fund them, and we will support them.
Brexit Negotiations
Alex Chalk Excerpts(5 years ago)
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Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
I warmly welcome these creative and constructive proposals and my right hon. Friend’s repeated offer to meet Opposition Members to discuss them further. We will all have to compromise across the House, and would not all right hon. and hon. Members do well to remember the aphorism that those who insist on absolute victory risk absolute defeat?
The Prime Minister
There again speaks the voice of Cheltenham, and quite rightly so. I do believe that, perhaps, in this conversation this morning people have not paid enough attention to the move that the UK has already made. This is a very considerable advance that we are making in offering alignment in these areas. It is something on which Members do need to reflect. If done by consent, it offers a very positive way forward, and I think the country will understand what we are trying to do.
Prime Minister's Update
Alex Chalk Excerpts(5 years, 1 month ago)
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The Prime Minister
The right hon. Gentleman could easily test that proposition if he had the gumption to go for a general election or a vote of no confidence, which he is failing to do.
Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)
If the Prime Minister secures a deal, I will vote for it. Does he agree that the British people are fed up with hearing—for three years—what this House is against, and that it is high time that they heard what this House is for?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend has spoken for Cheltenham and he is completely right. The people of this country want to see us coming together, agreeing on a way forward, getting Brexit done and then getting on with a dynamic one nation Conservative agenda, and that is what we are going to do.