Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

May I associate myself and my party with the Prime Minister’s comments about the horrifying terrorist bombing of 7/7 here in London? Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and our emergency services.

May I also join in sending condolences to the family of Lord Tebbit. He was a man of service—in the RAF, in politics and as a carer for his wife, Margaret. He will be greatly missed.

After years of Conservative neglect, the special educational needs system is in desperate need of repair, but with parents understandably worried, we already hear Labour MPs planning another rebellion, so may I make this offer to the Prime Minister? If he genuinely wants to fix the problem and not strip away the rights of children and parents in some cost-cutting exercise, we have 72 votes to help. Will the Prime Minister look at the five tests for SEND reform that we have published today and work with us to make it happen?

[The Prime Minister]

It is telling that when the right hon. Gentleman asks about the broken SEND system, the Tory Back Benchers laugh; that is how seriously they take their responsibility. It is an absolute shame. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, every week in this House, Members raise the issue with me—I think it has been raised with me more times than anything else. Everyone knows that the SEND system is broken; guess who broke it, along with everything else? The system does not work for parents and it lets down children, so we need to reform and change it. It is not about saving money; we have already invested an additional £1 billion in SEND. It is about creating a new system that truly supports every child. We are developing proposals, and we want to work with parents and teachers to get this right. I would expect the right hon. Gentleman to welcome that.

[Ed Davey]

I thank the Prime Minister for his reply. We want to work across the House to fix the mess that the Tories left, but we do not want another welfare-style mess this time; we have to fix the system properly for parents and children.

The Conservative Government badly undermined the security of our borders by ripping up the returns agreement that allowed us to send migrants back to Europe. I hope that the Prime Minister can secure a new returns agreement with France that acts as a real deterrent and stops the boats. The Conservatives also sent hundreds of millions of pounds to France and got nothing in return. Does the Prime Minister agree that any new funding to the French Government must be conditional on them agreeing a returns deal and doing their bit to stop the boats?

[The Prime Minister]

We are working closely with the French on this issue. We will only provide funding that delivers on our priorities. We are working together closely, and we share information to a much greater extent than was the case before. We have a new specialist intelligence unit at Dunkirk, and we are the first Government to persuade the French to review their laws and tactics on the north coast in order to take more effective action. I will be discussing this at meetings with President Macron today and tomorrow.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I start by welcoming reports that the Chancellor will give winter fuel payments to more pensioners this winter, although because we still await the details, we will reserve our full judgment.

I recognise the efforts of the Prime Minister to pull out all the stops to avoid President Trump’s damaging tariffs: a letter from the King, offering to water down online safety laws and even trying to send the Open to one of Trump’s golf courses. The Prime Minister thought he had secured 0% tariffs for British steel, but now Trump is threatening us with 50% unless we comply with his new, five-week deadline. This is classic Trump—changing the terms of a deal he has already agreed. Does the Prime Minister share my fear that nothing will stop Trump messing the UK around, short of bunging a few hundred million pounds into his TrumpCoin?

[The Prime Minister]

We have a deal and we are implementing it. Within a very short time, I am very confident that we will get those tariffs down in accordance with the deal. I will come back to the right hon. Gentleman and update the House in due course, and I think the House will be very pleased at the outcome—[Interruption.] From a sedentary position, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) says no. This is zero tariffs on steel. [Interruption.] Let us come back to this in a couple of weeks when we have implemented it, but the Conservatives obviously do not want it. Labour has backed steel; the Conservatives laugh at attempts to do so. That is a big part of the problem.

[Ed Davey]

I had hoped the Prime Minister would now be beginning to see the sort of man Trump is and start getting tough on him, so we will come back to this issue.

I welcome the Prime Minister’s remarks about Gaza, because I am sure that all of us are appalled by the latest scenes: starving people desperate for food, water and medicine, met with chaos and violence. The US-Israeli programme is clearly failing and nothing short of lifting the full blockade on aid will do. Given that the Netanyahu Government refuse to do that, will the Prime Minister take more decisive action today? Will he push at the United Nations Security Council for humanitarian corridors to get the desperately needed aid urgently into Gaza?

[The Prime Minister]

I give the right hon. Gentleman my assurance, because this is a very important issue, that we are working at pace with our allies on that very issue, to take whatever measures we can to get that humanitarian aid in. We have been doing that intensively over recent weeks and I give him my assurance that we will continue to do that, because that aid needs to get in at speed and at volume, and he is absolutely right about that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I also wish the House and the country a happy St George’s day, and join the Prime Minister in paying tribute to the late Pope Francis. As a Christian, I found his compassion absolutely inspiring. My prayers are with Catholics in the UK and across the world, who will feel his loss particularly deeply.

I have previously raised with the Prime Minister the issue of North Devon district hospital. The previous Government promised to rebuild it, as they did hospitals across the south-west, in places such as Torbay and Musgrove Park. Unfortunately, they broke that promise, leaving appalling conditions like sewage leaks and patients being treated in corridors. Will the Prime Minister reconsider his decision to delay further the construction of new hospitals, and ask his MPs to vote for our motion today for new hospitals?

[The Prime Minister]

The previous programme, introduced by the Conservative party, was undeliverable and unaffordable, as I think the right hon. Gentleman knows and accepts. We have put the new hospital programme on a sustainable footing with a timeline that can be met—we are not prepared to trade on false promises, as the Conservatives did—and obviously we have also put record investment into the NHS.

I gently urge the right hon. Gentleman to one day get a bit more serious about the funding of these measures. Every week, he comes to the Chamber to push me on two issues: he pushes me to spend a lot more money, but at the same time, in the next breath, he opposes the measures in the Budget to raise the necessary money.

[Ed Davey]

Unlike the Prime Minister, we had a funded programme at the election. I am disappointed with his reply—I hope he will actually visit some of these hospitals to see the urgent need for rebuilding.

At Merton Mead farm in Oxfordshire last week, I saw world-class British beef farmers at work. Farmers want the Prime Minister to be careful in a trade deal with President Trump. They were let down by the Conservatives’ appalling trade deals and worry that a bad US deal could allow American agribusiness to undercut them with inferior meat. Will the Prime Minister guarantee a vote in this House on any trade deal that he agrees with the United States?

Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I, for one, will be downloading the song by the hon. Member for Neath and Swansea East (Carolyn Harris), and I join the Prime Minister in his delight about it. I also join him in support for Mandy Damari, and our joint hope that we will see Emily and other hostages released as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister has rightly spoken about the need to restore and rebuild the public’s trust in British politics. We believe a crucial part of that is reforming our electoral system to make it fairer and more proportional, and so do a majority of the British public. This House voted yesterday in favour of a Bill for electoral reform put forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney). Will the Prime Minister make Government time available so we can consider that Bill about electoral reform and restore the public’s trust in our politics?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for referencing Emily. It is important that we all remember her and the awful torture that her mother is going through, as is the case for all the other hostages. It is hard to imagine what it must be like for anybody with friends or family who are still being held hostage after all this time.

Proportional representation is not our policy and we will not be making time for it. I will just gently say to the right hon. Gentleman that he did not do too badly under the system as it is.

[Ed Davey]

I am disappointed in that reply and hope that the Prime Minister will reflect on Labour’s policy.

Moving on to another pressing subject, more than 3 million people have been stuck on NHS waiting lists for more than 18 weeks. That is probably the worst, most appalling legacy of the last Conservative Government and it needs to be fixed. Does the Prime Minister accept that we will only get waiting lists down, and keep them down, if it is easier for everyone to see a GP when they need it? When he publishes his milestones tomorrow, will he include a guarantee with a timetable so that people will be able to see a GP within at least seven days, or 24 hours if it is urgent?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the record of the last Government on the NHS: record waiting lists and record low confidence in the NHS. In addition to the economy and immigration, they had better not be talking about that for the last five years either.

We will be driving that down. We have already begun that work to make sure that we get those waiting lists down, and yes, of course, that includes making sure there is better access to GPs and other measures that need to be taken. That is a central driving mission of this Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts

Wednesday 4th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We come to the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

[Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)]

I echo the Prime Minister’s words about the terrible tragedy at Grenfell. I welcome the inquiry and look forward to discussing the statement shortly.

For the past 18 years, Norman has been a full-time carer for his wife, Ros, who has multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Earlier this year, he was forced to go back to work to earn the extra money for the cost of caring for his wife. As their income is just a few hundred pounds above the limit for pension credit, they are set to lose their winter fuel allowance, unless the Prime Minister listens to the Liberal Democrats and others and changes that plan. If he does not, what advice does he have for Norman and Ros, and millions of struggling pensioners, as they face rising heating bills this winter?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Member for raising that important point. I know how much he has championed carers, both politically and personally. We have taken a difficult decision—I do not pretend it is not difficult; of course it is—because we have to stabilise the economy. The first thing that the Chancellor did was an audit. She found £22 billion-worth of unfunded spending commitments. We cannot walk past that; we cannot pretend that it does not exist—that is what the last Government did. We have to take tough decisions. We will put in all the support that we can, and will talk to the right hon. Gentleman about it, but we have to take the tough decisions on this. The Conservatives walked away from those decisions, and that is what got us into this mess in the first place. We cannot grow and fix our economy unless we stabilise it first.

[Ed Davey]

We recognise the appalling financial problems left to the Prime Minister by the last Conservative Government, but no one understands the difficult decisions required to balance the books as much as unpaid family carers such as Norman. Many millions of pensioners have struggled over recent years thanks to the last Government—the number who cannot afford to heat their homes has doubled since 2019—so will the Prime Minister support our campaign for more urgent action to invest in insulation and renewables, so that we can help pensioners and all families make it cheaper to heat their homes every winter?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, of course. I remind the right hon. Gentleman that 800,000 pensioners are not claiming pension credit, which of course then deals with the winter fuel payment. That is why we are taking so much care to ensure we get those pensioners on to pension credit. Again, aligning housing benefit with pension credit—something that the last Government left undone for years—will make a massive difference, and of course there is the triple lock, which over five years will mean that pensions are expected to rise by up to £1,000.