Oral Answers to Questions
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(1 year, 6 months ago)
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Georgia Gould
I thank my hon. Friend for that question. I can absolutely confirm that we will do everything we can to ensure the new national policy procurement statement drives social value around communities in the UK, in line with our trade obligations.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
I welcome yesterday’s publication of the child poverty taskforce framework. Is the Minister able to say more about the delivery of the strategy, other than that it will come out in spring?
Pat McFadden
This shows the importance of the issue to the Government. The last time we were in office we reduced child poverty; it is an issue dear to our hearts. That is why the strategy is coming forward and why Ministers are working hard on it. We have been clear since we took office that while we want economic growth throughout the country, we also want the benefits to be felt by people in every part of the country and in every income group.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Bridget Phillipson
Equality analysis was released in September, and the Government carried out our statutory duties in doing so, but I recognise the wider concerns that the hon. Member raises, especially around the additional costs faced by many disabled people. That is why the Minister for Energy Consumers, my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Miatta Fahnbulleh) recently met suppliers to address some of these issues. I encourage all those who need extra support to sign up to the priority services register.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
Disabled people are also concerned about the use of artificial intelligence in Departments under the previous Government, including within the Department for Work and Pensions. Given the recent United Nations report on AI governance, what discussions has the Minister had with other colleagues across different Departments on the equity principles that will be integrated in the Government’s use of AI?
Bridget Phillipson
Discussions are ongoing across government, including with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology. There are wider opportunities and challenges that technology presents us, and we want to ensure we get the balance right.
Anniversary of 7 October Attacks: Middle East
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
The right hon. Gentleman raises a really important point in relation to the nuclear ambitions that we absolutely have to be alive to. We must ensure that Iran cannot possibly get weapons. The sanctions, and the regime around them, must be geared towards that central issue.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
I extend my heartfelt sympathies to the families who lost loved ones in the terror attack a year ago, as well as to those who have loved ones that are held in captivity at the moment. I would also like to do the same for ordinary Palestinian civilians who have lost loved ones in the violence of the past year. It is quite clear that, given the heightened tension across the region, an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the west bank and Lebanon is not possible. The Prime Minister has talked about a road map; will he share with us what the steps are towards a peace process and the immediate ceasefire that is desperately needed in the region?
The Prime Minister
I accept that an immediate ceasefire is difficult; I do not accept that it is impossible. The US and Qatar are working hard on this, and they have our full support in the action they are taking. The reason why the US is leading on this is that it well understands the importance of a ceasefire to create the space for all the other relief that needs to be provided and, of course, for the hostages to be released.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Pat McFadden
I thank my hon. Friend for his question, and let me take this opportunity to thank the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) for the work he did on public sector productivity. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I suspect we are only in the foothills of the potential here. That is why we have created this strong digital centre of Government. We want to ensure good value for money and to use tech to improve the citizens’ experience. The real challenge here is to reform public services to match the constant innovation that people experience in other parts of their lives. We cannot have a world where that innovation is experienced in the private sphere, but is not applied and properly maximised in the public sphere, so that is what we want to do.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Pat McFadden)
It is important to restore confidence in Government and public life, and to ensure the best possible standards. This was an important manifesto commitment. We will establish a new independent ethics and integrity commission, with its own independent chair, to ensure the highest possible standards. Work has begun on that, and I will keep the House up to date as it develops.
Debbie Abrahams
I thank my right hon. Friend for his response and welcome all the team to their places. Will he expand a little bit more on exactly what the terms of reference might include? For example, will they also include participative and deliberative democracy methods that might also help to restore trust in politics, which, as he knows, is at an all-time low?
Pat McFadden
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I will certainly keep her up to date with this as it goes. In truth, this is always going to be about “show, not tell”. We will set up the best system that we can with the new commission. On that front, the Leader of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell) is taking immediate action to tighten the existing prohibition on MPs providing paid parliamentary advice. The House will be debating that later today. We are also setting up a modernisation committee. So, on several fronts we want to get the right systems in place, but in the end it is a matter of show, not tell.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(1 year, 11 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Mims Davies)
The Government deliver wide-ranging support for disabled people, including in work and education. We continually seek to enhance support—for example, via improvements to the health and disability benefits system, and in the accessibility of homes and transport, and through delivery of the national disability strategy and the disability action plan.
Debbie Abrahams
The United Nations has found that the Government have breached the rights of sick and disabled people, including their rights at work, and the UK’s own equality watchdog has said that the Department for Work and Pensions has discriminated against sick and disabled people. Given that only 2.7% of participants in the Government’s work and health programme have a successful job outcome, what meaningful proposals do the Government have to reduce the 29% disability employment gap?
Mims Davies
I thank the hon. Lady for her point, which takes me back to our time on the Work and Pensions Committee. I genuinely feel disappointed about that report, and the Government strongly rejected its findings in 2016, but we will continue to implement the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the Committee’s recommendations through many of our policies to improve disabled people’s lives, whether that is WorkWell, our disability employment advisers, or the work we are doing on fit note reform. We are absolutely determined to support disabled people in work. Indeed, in the first quarter of 2024 there were 10.3 million disabled people in employment, which is an increase of 400,000 on the year before.
Infected Blood Inquiry
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(2 years 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
John Glen
I very much recognise what the hon. Lady is saying with respect to the impact of time on suffering, and I want to bring this forward as quickly as I can. I am doing that work and sponsoring work to gain the advice we need to make informed decisions that will allow us to make the widest possible decision in a few weeks’ time.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
I too am speaking on behalf of a constituent, who lost a brother and sister-in-law and whose nephew was left to be brought up by the family. I want to raise the urgency of this. I appreciate the Minister’s sincerity about what he is trying to do, and the fact that he has been in post for only a few months, but it is over a year now since Sir Brian Langstaff brought forward his report and said that interim payments were absolutely essential. I am trying to understand exactly where the block is. If this was a priority for the Government, it would have been done in that year, so where is the block?
John Glen
There is not a block. Last year, there was a process of looking at how we could work out the costs and the way of translating and operationalising the recommendations. That work is well under way, and Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery and his team are helping with that. As I say, I hope that in a few weeks’ time we can get to a point where we will be able to make a substantive assertion of the Government’s position.
Iran-Israel Update
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(2 years ago)
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The Prime Minister
No, that is not right. We have a very robust and rigorous export licensing regime. The Foreign Secretary confirmed last week that the UK’s position on export licences is unchanged following the latest assessment, and is in line with the legal advice. We keep that position under review, and always act in accordance with that advice.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
The middle east has entered a very dangerous new phase that can be resolved only by diplomatic and political solutions. Can I push the Prime Minister on what he said earlier about the sanctions that he is considering taking, with international allies, against Iran, including the proscribing of the IRGC? Will he also confirm that the UK will not take part in any offensive action of Israel’s?
The Prime Minister
We acted in a defensive capacity, and we are discussing with G7 allies further diplomatic measures that can be taken in a co-ordinated fashion.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(2 years, 1 month ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Felicity Buchan)
We will not tolerate anti-Muslim hatred in any form, and we will seek to stamp it out wherever it occurs. We are appointing an independent adviser to tackle the scourge of anti-Muslim hatred, to join our independent adviser on antisemitism. We have a programme for tackling anti-Muslim hatred, which includes the consideration of definitions. It also includes £117 million of funding to protect Muslim places of worship and faith schools until 2028.
Debbie Abrahams
Despite what the Minister says, many believe that the Government’s two-year delay in coming up with a definition on Islamophobia—the Conservatives are the only political party in the UK to have taken so long—reflects their indifference to the fear, discrimination and hatred that thousands of Muslims experience. Why has it taken so long?
Felicity Buchan
We do not agree with the all-party group on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia; we believe the most appropriate term is “anti-Muslim hatred”. Let me explain why. In this country, there is freedom of religion, and also freedom to criticise a religion. What someone cannot do is discriminate against or show hatred to me because of my religion.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(2 years, 3 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
It is great to see, thanks to my hon. Friend, that Bracknell Forest is thriving, with people in work up and footfall in the town centre up and, as he knows, almost 100% of his schools are now good or outstanding. But he is right that we must do more to relieve the burden on working people, which is why we cut taxes for tens of millions of people in work earlier this year, worth £450 on average. We have to stick to the plan for lower taxes, a strong economy and a brighter future for the people of Bracknell Forest, and absolutely not risk going back to square one with the Labour party.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
The Prime Minister
I can assure the hon. Lady that we are committed to caring for society’s most vulnerable and that is why almost 20 million families will see their benefit payments increase this April. That will bring our total support over these few years to around £3,700 per UK household. The Department for Work and Pensions is looking very closely at how it can target its services precisely on the most vulnerable customers. I know the hon. Lady spoke to the DWP permanent secretary at length about that when he appeared before the Work and Pensions Committee earlier this month. I can assure her that he will be writing to the Committee on exactly that subject shortly.
Action Against Houthi Maritime Attacks
Debbie Abrahams Excerpts(2 years, 3 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
I first stress that it is an absolute priority to protect the UK against foreign interference, and we will use all available levers to do that. On the particular matter my hon. Friend raises about those reports, I know the Charity Commission has opened an ongoing compliance case into trusts linked to the Kanoon Islamic centre, so it is right that that investigation happens properly. More broadly, universities have a duty to prevent people being drawn into terrorism, and where there is evidence that universities are failing in that duty, I am happy to reassure him that the Government will not hesitate to intervene to ensure that the right steps are taken.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
I, too, share concerns about what the strategy is, what the contagion to the rest of the middle east will be, and the possibility that might be bolstering the Houthis’ position in Yemen. Can I ask the Prime Minister about a constituent’s partner, who I mentioned to the Leader of the House last Thursday? He has been awaiting evacuation from south Gaza for a number of months. He has now suffered a broken leg and is receiving no healthcare. I urge the Prime Minister to liaise with the Israeli and Egyptian authorities for his immediate evacuation—it cannot carry on.
The Prime Minister
I am very happy to do that, and I will follow up with the Leader of the House on the hon. Lady’s case.