Security of Ministers’ Offices and Communications

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Monday 28th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Julia Lopez]

Those are very pertinent questions, and ones that I have asked in advance of today and to which we will all want answers. My right hon. Friend makes an important and useful suggestion when it comes to the protocol in relation to CCTV or any other device that might be found in a Minister’s office. I am sure that other Ministers across Government will want that assurance.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab) [V]]

The Secretary of State, engaged—at least as we thought—on matters essential to our national security, health and wellbeing is filmed, unbeknownst to him, and that film is leaked to a national newspaper when it could just as well have been a foreign power. I have to say that I find the Minister’s complacency incomprehensible. Can she at least confirm that the Government know where each Government CCTV camera is, who has access to them and whether outsourcing has led to a plethora of private security firms and other contractors having access to the footage?

[Julia Lopez]

I assure the hon. Lady that I am not complacent. This is a fast-moving situation. We found out about this device on Friday, and I have sought a number of assurances. Some of them cannot be answered at the moment because a live investigation is under way, but these questions are being asked and we do want to understand the situation so that we can assure the House. I am placed in the rather frustrating position of not being able to provide the clarity that people understandably demand on a day like this. I will have to ask the House’s forgiveness while the investigations are under way.

G7 and NATO Summits

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 16th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is completely right. This was a good waymark and we made some good steps forward on the road to COP26. There is still a long way to go, but there is a great deal of enthusiasm from other countries because they can see that it creates high-wage, high-skill jobs as well as solving climate change.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

The G7 did agree action on tax-dodging corporations, but it was watered down after the Prime Minister refused to back President Biden’s original proposal for a 21% minimum global corporation tax rate, which would have delivered £15 billion a year to Britain—enough to fund a proper covid catch-up in education and support for covid-excluded businesses that are now facing extended restrictions. Why did the Prime Minister put global corporation shareholders above British children and British businesses?

[The Prime Minister]

That is a great one from the Labour party, because they actually opposed the increase in corporation tax at the Budget. They should try to remember what they have been doing over the last few months. It was a great achievement, after a long time, to get the western world—the G7—to agree to find a way of taxing the multinational giants that make profits in one country and then hook them somewhere else. That was a fantastic thing, and we now have a minimum global corporation tax of 15%—I forgot to mention it in my opening remarks—which was another great step forward at the G7 summit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Thursday 25th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

Yes. I will talk to my right hon. Friend the President for COP26 and ensure that we have a joint roundtable for the companies that my hon. Friend has spoken up for in his constituency and elsewhere, to ensure that the international event taking place in Glasgow, thanks to the UK Government, also benefits people in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab) [V]]

Wylam Brewery in my constituency has a fantastic location—our old science museum—and wonderful beers, which I have personally researched. The EU accounted for half its business last year, but since the Government bungled the EU trade deal, Wylam beers have been stuck in ports or sent back. Official Government advice is to set up a European office, effectively moving jobs from Newcastle to the EU. This week’s Food and Drink Federation figures show that Wylam is not alone in seeing exports collapse, so will the Minister meet me and the brewery to get this sorted and Wylam beers once more enjoyed on the continent?

[Michael Gove]

I absolutely will. I can think of no better contribution to raising morale, not just in Newcastle but in the European Union, than ensuring that people in the EU can enjoy beer brewed in Newcastle rather than the stuff that they brew elsewhere.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

The Government have taken several important steps to ensure women are able to access the sanitary products they need. From 1 January 2021 the tampon tax has been abolished, with a zero rate of VAT applied to women’s sanitary products coming into effect. The Department for Education is leading a scheme to provide access to free period products in schools and colleges in England, NHS England announced in March 2019 that it will offer free period products to every hospital patient who needs them, including long-term patients, and the Home Office has changed the law to ensure that all people in custody are provided with free health and hygiene products, including period products.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab) [V]]

In lockdown, we have all become much more dependent on technology, yet that technology is not designed to treat us equally, with video-conferencing and photo-sharing apps that do not recognise black faces, recruitment algorithms that discriminate on ethnicity, and the Home Office’s own visa application algorithm withdrawn because of bias. In this week of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, what is the Minister doing to prevent structural racism from being further entrenched by new technologies?

[Kemi Badenoch]

The hon. Lady raises a very interesting question, and this is something the Government are aware of and are looking into. Yesterday, I spoke to Dr Tony Sewell, who is chairing the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities; I am aware that it has researched this extensively and I look forward to seeing what its report says on it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

I know that the report to which the hon. Lady refers, which was commissioned by the Secretary State for Health and Social Care, did indeed have some very serious findings. We absolutely will take action based on that report. We are also working on the Transforming Care agenda to ensure that people with learning disabilities and autism are not inappropriately in in-patient settings. There is, of course, also the reform of the Mental Health Act, which will mean that it should no longer be used for the detention of people with learning disabilities and autism beyond the 28-day period for assessment.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

What steps her Department has taken to help tackle the disproportionate effect of the covid-19 outbreak on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

[The Minister for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch)]

My first report on the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on ethnic minority groups in October concluded that there is no evidence suggesting that ethnicity itself is a risk factor. Rather, the evidence suggests that a range of socioeconomic and geographical factors, as well as pre-existing health conditions, largely explained the disparities. The report set out the range of measures that the Government had put in place as well as recommendations to target those risk factors, which we are carrying out across Government. We are also working with stakeholders, including the British Medical Association and the Community Advisory Group, specifically in relation to adult social care.

[Chi Onwurah]

The disparities impact report did not say that race was not a factor. What it actually said was that data were not being collected. Has the Minister ensured that ethnicity data, including test-taking, positive tests, vaccinations and deaths at a national and regional level, are being collected to enable the robust monitoring of the impacts of covid-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic communities? If she has, we will see whether her deep-rooted reluctance to acknowledge the role that structural racism plays is actually justified.

[Kemi Badenoch]

I am afraid that the hon. Lady seems to have completely misunderstood the report. I encourage her to re-read it. There is no evidence to suggest that structural or institutional racism is the cause of the higher infection rate for ethnic minority groups. In fact, data published by the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre shows that from September to December, the direct impacts of covid-19 have improved for ethnic minorities overall when it comes to the percentages of critically ill patients and deaths in England by ethnicity when compared with the first wave. We need to understand that this is a health crisis, and it is really sad that Opposition Members continue to politicise the issue and to look for racism, when medical experts have supported our report and shown what is driving these disparities.

EU Withdrawal Agreement

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The United Kingdom Internal Market Bill is a critical piece of legislation which safeguards the rights of producers and consumers across the UK. The clauses she mentions excited controversy, but I think they were necessary. In any case, that controversy can now pass because they are being withdrawn. I hope the Bill will pass as well.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

The Government’s “Get Ready for Brexit” campaign looks lovely, but it does not answer the question: get ready for what? Deal? No deal? What deal? Businesses have a pandemic to deal with. Will the right hon. Gentleman admit that the combination of Brexit shambles with the absence of proper support for small businesses facing covid-19 measures, and the total exclusion from support of so many businesses, means that the Government are totally letting down small businesses in the north-east and across the country?

[Michael Gove]

It will probably not surprise the hon. Lady to learn that I do not agree with her. When it comes to Brexit transition, we know that because we are leaving the single market and the customs union, and whether or not we secure a free trade agreement, much of what most businesses need to do is broadly the same, and of course the Government stand ready to help businesses to adjust.

The fate and the future of businesses in the north-east are very dear to me, having lived and worked in Newcastle in the past. It is striking how many of those who work for businesses in the north-east voted Conservative just 12 months ago, which is why Conservative MPs in Blyth Valley, in Bishop Auckland, in Redcar and across the north-east are standing up—[Interruption.] I will mention more constituencies that the Conservatives won if the hon. Lady likes: North West Durham, with Consett, is now a Conservative constituency; Sedgefield, with Spennymoor, is now a Conservative constituency—[Interruption.] Anyway, as the hon. Lady and the House know, the north-east is Tory, and that is because we stand up for workers.

Covid-19: Winter Plan

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Like many of us, I have spent happy hours in the Blackpool Tower ballroom, and I know it well. It would be a fine thing to see Blackpool open up again as fast as possible. I repeat the answer I gave a moment ago: we cannot say yet what the tiering will be, but mass testing does offer a route forward for Blackpool and all its attractions—illuminations included.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

Small Business Saturday is only a couple of days after the lifting of this lockdown, but the fantastic small businesses in Newcastle do not know how or whether they will be able to trade. Many small businesspeople are excluded from all support, for one reason or another, and their losses are mounting, so will the Prime Minister set out the per head economic support he will be providing to local authorities to help small businesses make it through to the promised land of covid-free vaccines?

[The Prime Minister]

The local authorities have been given about £4.6 billion so far to support them through the pandemic and to help them to support hard-hit businesses in their areas, and that is on top of the investment that we have made in the VAT cuts—the business rate cuts—right the way through to next year. Altogether, it is about a £200 billion package of support. The whole point of coming out into the tiers now, or next week, is to allow small businesses to get going again. It was awful to have the restrictions that we have had. We hope that we will be able to take them off and keep them off, but clearly that depends on everybody doing their bit.

Integrated Review

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Thursday 19th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Under the consolidated guidance, we have some of the strictest rules about exports of weapons to any country in the world. Everything is closely overseen and scrutinised by our lawyers, and, indeed, judicially reviewed. I am content that we are doing everything in accordance with the law and in accordance with humanitarian law.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

I very much welcome this increased commitment to invest in our armed forces, though to pay for it by reducing the commitment to global peace, which our overseas aid budget represents, would be a mistake. How is the Prime Minister going to ensure that jobs are created across the country through this investment? Innovative, high-tech businesses in Newcastle tell me that it is easier to secure a contract with the American Department of Defence than with the British Ministry of Defence, so what is he doing to improve procurement opportunities for small businesses?

[The Prime Minister]

I am interested that the hon. Member says that, because, as I recall, one cannot even sell rulers or paperclips to the US military under the Pentagon’s procurement policies; but I may be in error. The hon. Member makes an important point about the need to source as much as we can from the UK. That is obviously what we are going to do. It is a big opportunity to buy British, to stimulate jobs and technology, and to drive jobs across the UK, and I have no doubt that Newcastle and the north-east will be big beneficiaries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 18th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes. I am very pleased that Facebook, Twitter and Google have committed that no company should profit from or promote vaccine disinformation and that companies should respond to that kind of content very quickly. We are going to publish our response shortly to the online harms White Paper consultation and will be setting out our plans for legislation.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

Child poverty is evil—I know; I grew up with it. The North East Child Poverty Commission reports that our region suffered the country’s biggest increase in child poverty between 2015 and 2019, when half of children in Newcastle upon Tyne Central were growing up poor, and that was before covid. Yet 15,000 of the poorest households in my constituency stand to lose £1,000 a year because of planned cuts to universal credit in April. Instead of damaging last-minute U-turns, will the Prime Minister now commit to maintaining universal credit at least at the current rate?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is right in what she says about the impact of child poverty, and that is why this Government have worked so hard to combat child poverty. That is why we did indeed uprate universal credit, which is right for the exceptional circumstances we are in. That was £1,000 a household, and we will continue to support people throughout the country, but the most important thing we can do is to ensure that we get people into work and support families to get the jobs they need. It is the record of this country in creating jobs, and new jobs in particular, that has meant that 400,000 children have been lifted out of poverty in the past 10 years. That is progress. It is not enough, but it is progress.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chi Onwurah Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

You have asked for speed in my answers, Mr Speaker, and the answer to my right hon. Friend is basically yes. I reiterate that we are committed to that 2.4% and to increasing public investment in R and D by £22 billion by 2024-25.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

My constituent Rikky Wilson is one of the excluded. From nothing, he built a private coach business with 18 employees and £1 million in turnover, until covid. Coaches are not classed as either tourism or leisure, so he cannot get any grants, and the banks will not accept his assets for loan guarantees. Buses might be just a photo-op for the Prime Minister, but they matter in the north. They also matter in Northern Ireland, which has just announced a special fund, so will he do the same? Will he also write to me to explain how we can protect those threatened by personal debt guarantees?