Foreign Interference: Intelligence and Security
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(4 years, 4 months ago)
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Priti Patel
I thank my hon. Friend not just for her question but for her commitment and the work that she has been leading on. I thank all parliamentarians who have been so vocal on many of the abuses that have been well rehearsed and debated in this House.
On the support for parliamentarians who have been sanctioned, which is a really important point, that is where the House needs to be strong, and we are coming together with the parliamentary authorities to ensure that measures are put in place. She asked where is the might in Government. When it comes to defending democracy—as she will know, because she will have had discussions with my colleagues at the Cabinet Office as well—we lead on this, and, with other Departments, absolutely work in an aligned way on the specific details. A great deal is taking place that covers all aspects of threats. I touched on institutions, education and business, and the National Security and Investment Act, but there are also spaces such as cyber, and direct threats to individuals too.
My hon. Friend asked about sanctions on key individuals, and she is not the only Member to touch on this. I have heard the calls from all Members who have spoken on this issue and I will be raising it with my counterparts in the Foreign Office.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
Our relationship with China has rightly evolved from the “golden decade” heralded by former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne. Today Members across the House have raised issues of political interference, university research technology transfer, the diaspora presence here, human rights, and investment in this country. The Secretary of State seems to imply that the work on the National Security and Investment Act will address all these issues, but it will not. Will she commit to the audit of UK-China relations that Labour has been calling for?
Priti Patel
A whole raft of work is taking place, not just on China but in relation to the integrated review, and I am sure the hon. Lady has seen that. There will be new legislation coming forward. A great deal of work, much of it unspoken, takes place with our security and intelligence agencies that influences the work on China of Government, Government Departments, and the agencies within Government. It is right that we do absolutely everything we can. New threats evolve, technology advances and tradecraft advances as well. That is why we put very significant investment and resource into not just law enforcement but our intelligence agencies, who inform Government Departments and Ministers in terms of the approaches that we should be using.
English Channel Small Boats Incident
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
It is truly heartbreaking to think of the lives, the hopes and the talents extinguished by the sea in that journey to our shores—a journey that the Home Secretary has characterised as unnecessary. Let me gently say to her that the men, women and children who got into that boat clearly did not think it was unnecessary, and we see more boats arriving today. Will she acknowledge that her policies are not working, that vulnerable people are paying the price, and that what we need are the safe, secure and fair routes into this country that she has failed to put in place?
Priti Patel
That is exactly what the Nationality and Borders Bill does.
Channel Crossings in Small Boats
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(4 years, 5 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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Priti Patel
That is a great question, and Frontex in particular has an important role to play. I have travelled across certain EU countries and seen Frontex in operation, but not in France, and not with our near neighbours and on our near borders. The Commission is under pressure right now as it has been asked by many member states to provide broader protection. That is out of our remit and a matter for the Commission, but it is vital that it steps up. The lack of border protection is having an ongoing, knock-on impact on people smugglers and on porous borders, and on people coming to the United Kingdom.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
The Home Secretary knows that the UK receives fewer asylum seekers—these are not people applying via the resettlement scheme—per head of population than the European average, yet after 11 years in power, she cannot process their applications in a timely manner, subjecting them to further physical and mental distress, or even control our borders, meaning that thousands are making that perilous crossing. Will she stop blaming the French, the European Union, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the weather, the migrants themselves, and take some responsibility? Fix the broken system, because the Nationality and Borders Bill certainly will not do that.
Priti Patel
On the hon. Lady’s ultimate point, the Nationality and Borders Bill is an important piece of legislation to fix the broken asylum system. This is not just about the Conservative party being in power; when the Labour party was in power it did nothing to fix the asylum system. We are tackling this issue. I appreciate that Labour Members will not support the Bill, but at the same time they are supporting a broken system, and end-to-end reform of it is required. Yes, I want to fix the system—[Interruption.] The hon. Lady can shake her head and talk above me, but that is what we are trying to do through the Bill.
EU Settlement Scheme
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(4 years, 10 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
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Kevin Foster
Absolutely. I fully endorse the comments my hon. Friend has just made about people being welcome when they come back to the UK. People who have settled status can be absent from the UK for up to five years and still return, and pick up their entitlements on return, including the right to work.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab) [V]
“Data not dates” is the Government’s mantra for lockdown easing, so should it not be the same for settled status? The data clearly shows that tens of thousands of EU citizens, to whom the Government promised the right to stay, will become undocumented overnight, criminalised for working, renting accommodation or opening a bank account. They may be young or elderly, have insufficient language or digital skills, or have been unable to return to the UK because of the pandemic. In Newcastle, we value our European residents, so will the Minister not extend the deadline? Or does he want another Windrush?
Kevin Foster
The EU settlement scheme has already granted millions of people secure status in this country and is granting it to thousands more people every day. That is the key focus for us: getting people to apply before the deadline. However, as we have said numerous times, we will accept late applications where there are reasonable grounds for that, including from the most vulnerable.
Napier Barracks Asylum Accommodation
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(4 years, 11 months ago)
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Chris Philp
My hon. Friend is making an extremely powerful point. The experience of his mother and his family illustrates the service that this country does in providing asylum to those who genuinely need it. It puts today’s debate rather in context.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab) [V]
Happy birthday, Mr Speaker.
The High Court judgment showed that Napier was unsafe in terms of fire safety, covid security and mental wellbeing, whether for armed forces personnel or asylum seekers, but it is representative of a generalised callousness with regard to support for refugees which leaves many in Newcastle living in inadequate accommodation with inadequate support to keep themselves and their accommodation clean and covid secure. How is the Minister going to change that? Will he say whether Nationwide Accommodation Services, which ran Napier day to day, has other contracts with the Home Office?
Chris Philp
If the hon. Lady would like to raise that case in writing, I would be happy to look into it to find out the details and circumstances. We are accommodating 60,000 people across the country. The cost of running the asylum system now amounts to £1 billion a year, which is a staggering sum and makes the case for reform, for all the reasons that Conservative Members have been laying out.
Immigration Rules: Supported Accommodation
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(5 years, 5 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Chris Philp
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We saw in our debate a couple of weeks ago some Opposition Members, astonishingly, standing up for the rights of people who have been convicted of extremely serious criminal offences, instead of standing up for the rights of victims or the rights of our constituents to be protected against the harm that those dangerous individuals represent. He is also right when he points out that unmeritorious claims crowd out, or push further back in the queue, the claims of those who have every right to protection. That is why we are determined to legislate next year to ensure that those whose claims are genuine are treated quickly and fairly, but that where people do not have a good claim and are abusing the system, the system is firm and rejects those claims.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab) [V]
As a city of sanctuary, Newcastle seeks to support those fleeing war and persecution, but all too often the Home Office places them in accommodation that is unsuitable, inadequate or plain disgusting, and where they may be targeted by far-right groups, as happened recently in Newcastle, and then leaves them for months or years without proper consideration of their case, at great cost to the mental wellbeing of those who are already vulnerable. Am I right to think that the Minister’s solution to this is now to arbitrarily reduce the cases considered, rather than actually fixing the process?
Windrush Lessons Learned Review
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(5 years, 9 months ago)
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Priti Patel
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and he has heard me speak about the need to speed up work on the compensation claims. We are doing everything that we can. I am here to support anybody who brings a claim forward. My Department will look at how we can process claims far faster.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
Put bluntly, the report shows that racism was allowed to infect the Home Office and its immigration policies, and visas are still tainted by it. The Secretary of State refused to believe me when I said that “no recourse to public funds” had left a Newcastle mum unable to feed her baby, but will she accept that I have constituents almost exclusively of black and Asian heritage who are left for years in visa limbo, and will she commit to improving access to the resources of her Department in order to give just and speedy decisions?
Priti Patel
I am more than happy to assure the hon. Lady on her last point. Specifically, on the case that she set out, I said at the time that I would be more than happy to look at it. If she would like to share the details with me, I would be very happy to do so.
Public Order
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(5 years, 11 months ago)
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Priti Patel
One of the important facts about stop and search, which I have experienced myself when meeting the parents of young black men who have been murdered on the streets of London, is its significance in taking weaponry off our streets. That is important for all Members of this House to recognise. When I have seen those parents, sat with them and heard their stories, they have called for more stop and search in order to stop more young black lives being killed, and to prevent more criminal and violent activities on the streets of our cities.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
There is no place for racism or discrimination in our society, but it is there; it is everywhere, and it is crushing the hopes and lives of millions in this country. I condemn the violence and vandalism, but the vast majority of the protests were peaceful. I want to hear from the Home Secretary what she is actually going to do to eradicate the racism that she condemns so that we do not need to have more protests in five, 10 and 15 years.
Priti Patel
The important point is that this is not down to one individual. We all have a responsibility—[Interruption.] Yes, and we all have a responsibility—across Government, across this House and across society—to understand the inequalities and the extent of the injustices. From a Government perspective, that means coming together and finding the right policy solutions, which this Government are committed to doing.
Oral Answers to Questions
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(5 years, 11 months ago)
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Priti Patel
My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. We strongly support the right to protest peacefully, but that does not extend to the violent behaviour that we have witnessed across the country throughout the weekend. Any assault on our brave police is completely unacceptable. Any perpetrator should be in absolutely no doubt that they will be arrested and prosecuted. Assaults on emergency workers must be handled with the appropriate severity by the entire criminal justice system in a consistent way, and this Government will go even further, as we have committed to consult shortly on doubling the minimum sentence for those who assault emergency workers, in order to ensure that the sentence truly fits the crime.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
Priti Patel
The hon. Lady is completely wrong in her categorisation. First, public health measures are available right now, in addition to the fact that this is a public health emergency, so it is wrong to assert that in the way she has done. Also, I have outlined the funds. Working across Government, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, vital funds and resources have been provided to local authorities to provide support to people who need that extra support. That is something the Government are committed to.
Oral Answers to Questions
Chi Onwurah Excerpts(6 years, 1 month ago)
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Priti Patel
We are going to announce changes we will make very soon. I will write to my hon. Friend and all colleagues about how we will enable extensions.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
Coronavirus is driving many aspects of our daily lives online. Hopefully that will help bring us together, but it will also undoubtedly attract criminal elements to new crimes, particularly with all the vulnerable people going online. What additional capacity is the Home Secretary ensuring in the police forces to patrol the online streets and keep us safe at this time?