Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(1 month ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Justice Secretary did not quite answer my question on where the 67,000 criminal cases in the backlog are, and how they are being prioritised and communicated. I do not want another historical child sexual exploitation victim to be told by a Crown court that her case has been cancelled twice because it is not a priority.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
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The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)
On Friday, at the convention of the north, I was delighted to confirm enhanced devolution deals for the Liverpool city region, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire and additional investment in Blackpool, Sheffield and Blackburn. That includes £1.5 million for Tony’s Empress Ballroom, which—as you know, Mr Speaker—is an iconic northern soul dance hall. I look forward to visiting it with you and the shadow Secretary of State soon.
Debbie Abrahams
A constituent recently came to my surgery with her seven-year-old son to show some appalling photographs of the private rented accommodation in which they live. The little boy asked me whether he is going to die because of the thick mould in his bedroom. Given the housing ombudsman’s recent remarks, particularly emphasising the link between housing conditions and health, what urgent action will the Secretary of State take to address the appalling situation in the private rented sector?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(3 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Please, do not do that. I called the next Member, so I expect you to sit down. It is topical questions, not free statements.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(3 months, 1 week ago)
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Mr Speaker
If the Minister has to say it for a fourth time, I hope that we will not get the attention we are receiving today.
Debbie Abrahams
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi). In spite of the Minister’s protestations, the evidence is to the contrary —[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. We do not need the Parliamentary Private Secretary chipping in. Is that understood?
Debbie Abrahams
The fact that Ministers’ mates can get these lucrative contracts, as last month’s evidence showed, while tens of thousands of our constituents struggle to put food on the table is an absolute disgrace. Of the £12.6 billion-worth of personal protective equipment contracts let in 2020, will the Minister confirm—I have evidence on this, so I advise him to choose his language carefully—that up to a third were fraudulent, or the result of profiteering or conflicts of interest?
Points of Order
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle
Mr Speaker
I thank the hon. Member for giving me notice of her point of order. As I said last week, the responsibility lies with the Minister to make any necessary correction to the record. It is on the Government to look at themselves. If the ministerial code is not being adhered to, I really think that the rules need to be looked at again so that Ministers—do not forget that elections change Ministers as well—ensure that this House hears the facts. I will leave it at that.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is a related point of order. I wrote to the Prime Minister on 17 January to ask him to support my Elected Representatives (Codes of Conduct) Bill, which aims to restore confidence and trust in politics and politicians by, among other things, allowing the independent adviser on ministerial standards to commission their own inquiries. Unfortunately, I have still had no response from the Prime Minister. I followed this up with a letter on 9 June, which included a series of questions about the process by which he decided not to ask his independent adviser to undertake an inquiry into the Home Secretary in relation to her allegedly pressurising officials to assist her with a speeding offence.
I appreciate that we are about a week from recess, so I wonder whether you can advise me, Mr Speaker, on how I can get a timely response from the Prime Minister?
Mr Speaker
First, let me thank the hon. Member for giving me notice of her point of order. As she will know, this is not a matter for the Chair, but there are clear expectations that correspondence from hon. Members will be dealt with within a reasonable timeframe. I stress that Members deserve early replies on behalf of their constituents. It is the constituents who put MPs in this House. I do not mind which part of the Chamber they come from, but I expect Ministers, who all seem to want the job, to take the job seriously and ensure that hon. Members get the replies in due time.
I am sure that those on the Treasury Bench are making a key note of this to ensure that that reply will be here before the House rises. I am sure, as I know the hon. Member, that she will remind me before the House is up if that reply has not arrived. None the less, I stress that it is time that this Government respect Members from all parts of this House. It is becoming apparent that they are disrespectful and it is not acceptable.
Points of Order
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would be grateful for your advice on how to get a satisfactory response from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions concerning new data from her Department, published last week, which shows that 140 deaths of vulnerable claimants have been investigated since 2019—and these are only the deaths that we know about. It is a scandal that the bereaved families are not made aware of or involved in these investigations, and that we are denied data on the true scale of the deaths. Can you suggest why the Secretary of State is refusing to hold a public inquiry, and what I can do to hold her to account and get one?
Mr Speaker
The hon. Lady has been here long enough to know that I am not responsible for the actions of the Secretary of State. I know, too, that she has put her comments on record, and I hope that those on the Government Front Bench have taken them on board. I am sure that she will also pursue the other avenues that are available to her.
Downing Street Parties: Police Investigation
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(2 years, 3 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
I am expecting this to run to about 1.15 pm. We can help each other by speeding through.
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
What assessment has been undertaken of the damage that partygate has on our economy and inward investment, and on the trust of the British people in this Government?
Ministerial Code/Register of Ministers’ Interests
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(2 years, 11 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
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab) [V]
I have a high regard for the Minister, but I am afraid I struggle with her explanation on this issue. On 22 February, inadvertently or not, the Prime Minister made a misleading statement to the House regarding PPE contracts. He stated that they were all published. They were not. That is based on a High Court ruling and is irrefutable. His lack of apology and correction of the record is clearly a breach of the ministerial code. That this happens with seeming impunity—
Mr Speaker
Order. A criticism is only on the substantive motion. This cannot be used. It has already been tried earlier. The rules of the House must be obeyed. I know it is not what Members want to hear, but I am in charge of ensuring that the rules are kept to. Unfortunately, we cannot continue with that question.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(3 years, 2 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab) [V]
Mr Speaker
I remind Members that they have to be short in topicals; we cannot go into full statements.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(3 years, 4 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab) [V]
Mr Speaker
It was a major achievement, and it shows the family of rugby league.
Points of Order
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(3 years, 7 months ago)
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Mr Speaker
Very much on the same lines, I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving me notice of the point of order. It is very important that it is placed on the record. I hope Members will reflect on what has been said, and I am sure that when they read it, they may quite rightly wish to speak with the hon. Member in question. I say to hon. Members in all parts of the House that we ought to be a little more careful before we point the finger at each other. If we think before we act, in the end, with a little more care and caution, we will not have to hear these points of order. However, I say to the hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) that it is not a point of order for me, but it is certainly on the record, and I am sure that other Members will reflect on it.
Mr Speaker
I have not been given notice of this point of order, but I call the hon. Lady.
Debbie Abrahams
You should have had notice of it, Mr Speaker, so my apologies if it has not reached you. I, too, seek your guidance. I am frequently getting tardy and irrelevant responses from Ministers in relation to constituency casework. I am afraid that the worst culprits are the Department of Health and Social Care, the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. In one case, I had to send two reminders to the Department of Health and Social Care concerning a constituent who had secondary—that is, terminal—breast cancer. This morning I received a standard reply from Treasury about a constituent’s business that was three months late and had no relevance. This is incredibly disrespectful to my constituents. I appreciate that everybody is busy, but it is not good enough, so I wonder if I could ask your good self, Mr Speaker, how I might remind Ministers that they have an obligation and a duty to respond to constituents’ inquiries.
Mr Speaker
I do take this on board, and we are all concerned. Ministers have a duty of care to reply to Members. We are acting on behalf of the people who elect us. I have taken this up on numerous occasions with the Leader of the House, and he has also taken it up with Ministers and their offices. I think he might be behind the Chair, but I am sure that he will be listening very carefully, taking notes and already sending out the message: Ministers should answer the questions put to them fully and in time, otherwise it is not good enough, as I am sure we would all agree. I do not care what side of the House it is, Ministers have a duty of care to every Member of this House. They should be put first, so I will take the point on board.
For the safe exit of hon. Members participating in this item of business and the safe arrival of those participating in the next, I am suspending the sitting for the three minutes.
Health Inequalities
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(4 years, 1 month ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On 24 February, during my speech in the Adjournment debate on the deaths of social security claimants since 2014, I incorrectly stated that Daniella Obeng had taken her own life. I would like to correct the record. In fact, Daniella died from bronchopneumonia. She also had a brain tumour that resulted in multiple epileptic fits.
Daniella’s family told me that she was a talented singer with a caring, supportive boyfriend and a wonderful 13-year-old son. After her social security support was stopped in 2016, she struggled to work because of her health conditions. Daniella managed to get a singing contract in Qatar for six months, but after just six days was found dead in her bedroom. The guitarist who was supporting her said that she was having fits during her performances and went to bed to recover. Unfortunately, she never woke up.
I offer my sincere condolences to Daniella’s family. She sounds an absolutely amazing woman.
Universal Credit and Welfare Changes
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(5 years, 10 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr Deputy Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle)
It is exceptional to take a point of order now—normally it would come after statements—but as it relates to this, I will.
Debbie Abrahams
I am grateful to you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
The Secretary of State, in response to my question, incorrectly said that the Government had not been found to have acted unlawfully in relation to universal credit as it applies to severely disabled people. I have looked up that judgment. I was at court 28 when the judgment was handed down this time last week, and it is absolutely the case that, for severely disabled people transitioning on to universal credit, the Government were found to have acted unlawfully and in a discriminatory way. I would appreciate it if the record were corrected.
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Ms Esther McVey)
I would. If the hon. Lady read and were, supposedly, at the judgment—[Interruption.] I am giving her a get-out clause. On many of the points, the Government won. They were questioned on how moving area had impacted on people with the severe disability premium. It was not about the fundamental change that I have made to help half a million disabled people by giving transitional protection to people with the severe disability premium, which is different.
Debbie Abrahams
Further to that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. There were two judgments. The one that I just referenced, about severely disabled people transitioning on to universal credit, was upheld, and the Secretary of State needs to recognise that.
Mr Deputy Speaker
I will leave it at that, because it has certainly been put on the record and heard. I want to move on to the ministerial statement.
Budget Resolutions
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay HoyleTuesday 14th March 2017
(7 years, 1 month ago)
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Debbie Abrahams
Further to that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Minister’s statement is in direct contradiction to the letter that she has received, and I seek further—[Interruption.]
Mr Deputy Speaker
Order. We cannot have the debate now, but if the hon. Lady is unsatisfied with that response, she knows how to use the usual channels and that would be the best way forward.
NHS and Social Care Commission
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(8 years, 3 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams
I hope the hon. Lady will not mind if I do not. I have spoken for some time, and I am being pressed by you, Mr Deputy Speaker—[Interruption.]
Tax Credits (Working Families)
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(8 years, 9 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. In the light of that, I shall not take any interventions.
I congratulate all the Members who made their maiden speeches this afternoon. They have been fantastic and it is a privilege to follow them.
As lovely a place as Oldham is—the place where I live and which I represent—it has a very low-wage economy. One in three of the people who work in Oldham earn less than the living wage. That is significantly above the north-west average and the UK average. Associated with that there are high rates of deprivation and child poverty— 27% overall, and in some wards it is nearer one in two. We have talked about food bank use: we used not to have a food bank in Oldham, but we have one now. I undertook a fairness commission report to look at the core issues underpinning that and to set out how we could address them. It was not unique; other boroughs and cities have done a similar analysis. One of the key truths, unfortunately, is that the UK is one of the most unequal countries in the world. In its recent report, the International Monetary Fund, which the Minister did not seem to know anything about, says:
“Widening income inequality is the defining challenge of our time”.
Forty years ago, 5% of income in the UK went to the highest 1% of earners. Today it is 15%. We should spare a thought for our cousins across the water, where the figure is even higher.
This is the IMF’s second report. In the light of the work of Joseph Stiglitz and others, it found that inequalities are a drag on growth and can make growth volatile. This supports work by the OECD, which rejected the trickle-down economics so popular with Thatcherites. That idea supposed that increasing wealth at the top would trickle down to the rest of the food chain, and that policies aimed at reducing inequality would remove incentives and slow growth. Now the evidence is clear: inequalities have slowed growth, not increased it. According to this analysis, raising the income share of the poorest 20% of the population increases growth by as much as 0.38% over five years. By contrast, increasing the income share of the richest 20% by 1% decreases it.
We have a weak, stagnant economy, and the measures proposed will only make it worse. As colleagues have mentioned, over the past five years Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis has shown that the bottom 20%—the people on the lowest income—have been disproportionately affected by both tax and benefit changes. This is compounded by the cuts to public services, skewing resources away from areas of high need, and by the impact of the disastrous housing policy on housing costs. The Government justify this by saying—we can hear the mood music—“We are far too generous with benefits.” A comparative analysis of benefits spending as a proportion of GDP shows that we are 17th among EU countries. We spent 15% of our GDP on social security. That does not support the claim that we are incredibly generous.
One of the other myths that the Government are spreading is that everyone will be fine if they are in work. Again, the evidence does not support that. We have one of the highest under-employment rates in the EU, and about 80% of the increase in employment comes from self-employment. The average income drawn by people who are self-employed is less than £10,000 a year. In Oldham 20,000 working families with nearly 30,000 children are claiming tax credits. That is two in three families and three in four children. For them, tax credits mean the difference between just about keeping their heads above water or not. The Oldham fairness commission that I run has produced strong evidence of the impact of parental income on cognitive development, behaviour and health outcomes, which will have a negative effect on those children’s life chances—
Universal Credit
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(9 years, 9 months ago)
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Anne Marie Morris
The hon. Lady is a fine contributor to our Select Committee and adds a lot of intellectual rigour and brings a lot from her previous background. My challenge is: would it not be lovely if we could control the media? She is absolutely right, I am sure, that some inappropriate things have been said by the wrong people, but when it comes to who said what and whether what is reported in the press is true, I find it a very hard leap of faith to make to accept her other point. I do not believe that any member of the Government would wantonly wish to put out any message in the way that she describes—
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. The hon. Lady has already had 14 minutes. Let somebody else in—we need short interventions.
Debbie Abrahams
Language such as that about “shirkers” and “scroungers” has been used in the House by Ministers, and I reiterate that I find this deeply offensive.
If we consider welfare reforms in the round, we can see that there have been huge errors in how they have been delivered. If we consider them in the context of other reforms to the welfare state, we can see that we are experiencing a decimation of the welfare system that was set up after the second world war, with people who are sick and disabled through no fault of their own increasingly being denied access to a basic standard of living. In addition, the changes to access to health care and to justice are also affecting benefit claimants and because of the changes there has been a 20% reduction in the number of benefit claimants whose appeals are successful. We need to look at the situation in the round. I find it disappointing that a debate such as this is not seen in the context of everything else that is going on.
On the implementation of universal credit, I do not understand how the Secretary of State can still be in a job. Mistakes and errors have cost hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. That has been accompanied by cover-up and claims that the system has been reset.
I endorse all the positive comments that have been made about the Chair of the Select Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Dame Anne Begg). She is a fantastic Chair, always allowing people to engage and giving them the opportunity to speak, but she has been shown such disrespect. If anybody has not seen how the Secretary of State behaved in that Select Committee meeting in February, I invite them to watch it. It was a disgrace.
Cost of Living
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle
Debbie Abrahams
I am sorry but I cannot.
A week or so ago I took up Oxfam’s Live Below the Line challenge, living on £1 of food a day. From my experience, that makes it incredibly tough not only to get the necessary nutrition, but to get food that will sustain someone for the day—I certainly will not be eating baked beans for a while.
With the benefit changes introduced last month the situation is expected to get much worse. In addition to the bedroom tax, the abolition of crisis loans for living expenses and other so-called reforms of social security are driven by the Government’s ideologically led cuts. Ministers are fond of making unsubstantiated and misleading claims about the effects of their so-called welfare reforms or the level of health spending, but they are far more reticent about data that reveal the cumulative effect of their changes to tax, tax credits and benefits, and which mean—as I mentioned earlier—that the 40% lowest-income households are worse off. The average household is estimated to lose £891 per year, with millionaires gaining an average of £100,000. There is nothing fair about that.
The Queen’s Speech mentions the need to ensure that every child has the best start in life, but how can increasing absolute child poverty by 55% between 2010 and 2020, and relative child poverty by 34%, be said in any way to give children the best start in life? More than 1.1 million children are set to be living in poverty by 2020, which is completely unfair—
Youth Unemployment and Bank Bonuses
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(12 years, 3 months ago)
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Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman, and I do not want to impugn him or any of his colleagues who are genuinely concerned about, for example, the plight of young people in my constituency. I meet college students who are devastated because of the impact of withdrawing education maintenance allowance and trebling tuition fees, and the fact that 10 people are chasing every job. However, all the evidence shows that some of the measures, such as enterprise zones, that the Government have introduced have no effect. Would the hon. Gentleman like to comment on that?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)
Order. Can we have short interventions?
NHS Reorganisation
Debate between Debbie Abrahams and Lindsay Hoyle(13 years, 1 month ago)
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Debbie Abrahams
No, I am sorry, I want to make some progress—[Hon. Members: “Give way!”]
Debbie Abrahams
Not only are the founding principles of the NHS in danger of being wiped out, but its culture—the reason that most of its employees work for the NHS—will go as well. The whole ethos of the NHS will change. It will now be driven by competition and consumer interests—[Interruption.]
Debbie Abrahams
My first question to the Secretary of State was about the proposal that the NHS commissioning board will be able to award bonuses to the GP consortia that it deems to be adopting innovative measures. The Bill states:
“The Board may make payments as prizes to promote innovation in the provision of health services.”
That means bonuses within the NHS based on innovation, which is anathema to the NHS and not what we want for it. This is indicative of the Bill as a whole. Central to the reforms are increasing competition across the NHS and opening it up to providers from the private and voluntary sectors. The Government claim that increasing competition drives down costs and improves quality, but there is evidence from across the world—in the US and Europe—that that is not the case. It does not improve quality at all in health care systems.
Although I am glad to see that the Government have reversed their position on price competition, as of yesterday they were still wedded to establishing Monitor as a powerful economic regulator with the duty to promote competition. As has been pointed out, our health services will be subject to EU competition law for the first time. By forcing these GP consortia to put any services out to competitive tender—even if they are working well and patients and the public are happy with them—the Bill encourages “any willing provider” to—