Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Snowden Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a great champion on this issue and I will ensure that he gets a meeting with the Rail Minister to discuss the detail. The previous Government took the decision not to shortlist Burnley Manchester Road station for accessibility improvements. We are giving Lancashire combined county authority £641 million, with the freedom to invest in its priorities, including better accessibility. That is what a Labour Government represent: empowering local people to make the best decisions for their local area.

[Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)]

Q12.  Every week, the Prime Minister comes to the Chamber and reads out this pre-scripted nonsense that bears no resemblance to the questions that he is actually asked. The Leader of the Opposition asked him about Peter Mandelson, and he answered about the war in Iran; the Leader of the Opposition asked him about Mandelson again, and he answered with an attack on the shadow Justice Secretary; he was asked about Mandelson again, and he talked about protests in London. What is he scared of? What is he hiding? For a man who has spent years presenting himself as a forensic investigator, he has certainly had a blind spot to the details for this convicted paedophile with a friend in high Labour places. So I ask him again: when he found out that Lord Mandelson had an ongoing relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, did he speak to Lord Mandelson personally before appointing him as ambassador to the United States?

[The Prime Minister]

We have set out the process and it has been put before the House—[Interruption.] I know why Opposition Members do not want to talk about the war: because they supported going into the war, without thinking through the consequences. That is a huge error of judgment. I realise that they do not want to talk about it ever again—I am not surprised. Nor do they want to talk about the shadow Justice Secretary saying that Muslims are not welcome to pray in Trafalgar Square. The Leader of the Opposition should remove him from the Front Bench, or I suspect he will be sitting up on the Reform Bench next.