Oral Answers to Questions
Gerald Jones Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
May I tell my hon. Friend what a joy it is to hear him campaigning for Chirk, Corwen and Llangollen after I tramped around those beautiful places entirely fruitlessly many, many years ago in search of the Conservative vote? Thank you for what you have done. Thank you for continuing to champion those wonderful and beautiful spots.
Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
The Prime Minister
I take that point very seriously. I will study the implications of what the hon. Gentleman says. If the he is referring to a Conservative Member who has recently had the Whip taken away, he can take it that that Member has already had condign punishment.
His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Gerald Jones Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab) [V]
On behalf of the people in my constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, I offer my condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family on their sad loss. Having lost my own father a few weeks ago, I can say that we all know and appreciate that messages of support and condolence are a great comfort when we lose a much-loved family member. I hope that the messages that we have heard today and throughout the weekend will be of some comfort to the Queen and the rest of Prince Philip’s family.
At times like this, it is inevitable that many of the examples and stories that people have to tell are duplicated. However, I have been struck in recent days by just how many stories and experiences that I was hearing were, in fact, quite unique, and many I was hearing for the first time. That highlighted the fact that, although Prince Philip lived in the media spotlight, there were attributes that we did not know about the man himself.
It is the case that, with someone like Prince Philip who has been at the heart of our national life for so long, it often feels as if we know him personally, which, of course, we do not. What we do know and what is evident is that Prince Philip cared about this country and about the people he spent his life serving. The decades of duty and service and his absolute devotion to Her Majesty the Queen are, quite possibly, things that we will not see the like of again.
Communities here in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney and across Wales have a long tradition of supporting royal events, be they weddings, jubilees or royal visits. In fact, there are communities in my constituency which, for the past few weeks, have been thinking about how they can mark Her Majesty’s platinum jubilee next year. We are all hoping that after all that our communities and the whole country have been through in recent months, and after this weekend’s loss for the Queen, the jubilee will provide an opportunity for a much happier occasion for the whole country.
As someone who spent many years in the third sector, working with many youth and community groups, I absolutely appreciate the contribution that Prince Philip made to the support and development of millions of young people through the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, which has now reached more than 130 countries around the world. Some of the young people I have met who have taken part in the DofE have spoken of the huge opportunities that it has given them and the self-confidence and the life skills that their time on the scheme have inspired. To have established this initiative 65 years ago and to offer continuous commitment to the obvious benefit of so many young people is an amazing achievement and legacy.
Finally, as the representative of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, I would like to mention His Royal Highness’s association with the community of Aberfan. Prince Philip was the first member of the royal family to visit the community, the day after the disaster in October 1966, spending time meeting parents and relatives in their own homes and quietly moving around the village offering comfort. Just a few days later, he returned with Her Majesty the Queen, again spending time speaking with the bereaved and offering comfort and support. The Queen and Prince Philip have returned to Aberfan a number of times over the years, as has the Prince of Wales. The Queen and Prince Philip’s most recent visit was in 2012 when they officially opened the new primary school in the village. I know many people in Aberfan and in the wider Merthyr Tydfil area who never forgot the kindness of Prince Philip at the most tragic and difficult period of their lives. After a lifetime of dedicated public service, we give thanks for a life well lived. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
Oral Answers to Questions
Gerald Jones Excerpts(3 years, 5 months ago)
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David T. C. Davies
My hon. Friend makes a very useful point. Any policy that allows members of the public to buy vodka but not baby food is patently devoid of common sense. By needlessly testing the public’s patience and sowing confusion, the Welsh Government have undermined this Government’s efforts to tackle the virus across the United Kingdom.
Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
Following the Welsh Labour Government’s decision to introduce a firebreak lockdown in Wales, coronavirus cases have begun to fall across the board. At the time, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives described the 17-day lockdown as “unnecessary” and “disproportionate”, yet just days later, the Minister and his Welsh Conservative colleagues voted for a lockdown in England that is at least a fortnight longer and may last longer still. Will the Minister finally join me in welcoming the Welsh Government’s decision? Is it not time for him and his Welsh Conservative colleagues to put party politics to one side and support responsible actions to combat the pandemic that are in the interests of the people of Wales?
David T. C. Davies
I can assure the hon. Gentleman that it is the UK Government who have been trying to put party politics to one side. That is why we have invited Ministers from the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government to come to the many meetings that we have been holding in order to develop ways to tackle this virus. The fact of the matter remains, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already pointed out, that cases are higher in Wales and testing is lower than that it is in England, so I urge the hon. Gentleman to do whatever he can to encourage the Welsh Government to work more collaboratively with the UK Government to tackle this virus.
Covid-19
Gerald Jones Excerpts(3 years, 7 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend really puts his finger on the heart of the dilemma. The tragedy of the coronavirus epidemic is that people who are not badly affected themselves can none the less pass it on unwittingly to older or more vulnerable people, so their harmless cough can be someone else’s death knell, unfortunately. That is why we have to apply the restrictions that we do, but he is right also to look ahead to a time when I do believe that we will be able much more easily to identify whether or not we are infectious and to allow us, therefore, to go about our daily lives more easily—young and old.
Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
By 6 pm this evening, both local authorities covering my constituency will be under Welsh Government local lockdown restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Among the restrictions will be one on holiday travel, meaning that constituents will not be able to go on planned holidays. Some holiday companies are refusing refunds on the grounds that local restrictions are not covered by UK law, pointing instead to Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice on travel. What can the Prime Minister do to support constituents in this case and what is his message to those holiday companies?
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman asks an excellent question. It is not an anomaly that I had hitherto been aware of, but if he would care to write to me with the details of his constituents’ concerns, I will certainly take it up.
United Kingdom Internal Market Bill
Gerald Jones Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
The right hon. Gentleman talks about levelling up and areas where the UK Government have competence, but can I ask him for his comments on the shared prosperity fund? We have waited since 2018 for a consultation on it, and for much of that time he was Secretary of State and in a position to do something about it. Two years on, we are still waiting for clarity on how that money will be spent to benefit Wales.
Alun Cairns
The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point: we need to bring forward much more detailed proposals about how the shared prosperity fund will work. I hope—this is a call to the Minister—that these clauses will change the nature of the discussion, because they will enable the UK Government to play a more prominent part in how the shared prosperity fund develops. That is not the Government’s position yet, as I understand it, but certainly I hope it will be, and I will be calling for that.
The devolved Administrations receive their funding through the Barnett formula, but that delivers a capacity limitation to the interventions that they can make. Although the Welsh Government receive £120 for every £100 spent in England, which is a very fair settlement as a result of the relative poverty that many of us highlight regularly, that broadly equates to about 5% or 6% of spending in devolved areas according to the population. As a consequence of that relatively small sum of money, large infrastructure projects are much more difficult to deliver. They demand such capital sums that they are difficult to justify in any one community. The nature of devolution has caused resources to be spread far more thinly, and they do not have the impact that they could have in any one area.
Gerald Jones
May I state at the outset that I am extremely proud to be Welsh—that is no secret—but I am also almost equally proud to be British? I have never prescribed to the nationalists’ view that we have to choose one over the other. I want to live in a strong Wales, with a vibrant, dynamic and forward-thinking Welsh Government, but I also want Wales to be a strong, active and equal part of the United Kingdom—[Interruption.] Do you mind? I want it to have a healthy respect for devolution. That is why I am so concerned about the damage that this Government will do to the future of the Union by pushing ahead with this Bill, not to mention the damage that they have already done and will continue to do to Britain’s reputation and standing in the world.
As we know, the Prime Minister negotiated and signed an agreement with the EU and, just a few months later, is saying that it contains serious problems that could break up our country. Instead of working with the EU to try to find a way forward, this Government are introducing legislation that knowingly and openly breaks international law and will frustrate the process of getting a deal.
The UK’s long-standing reputation has been built on our values and the fact that we have long stood up for the rule of law, and this Prime Minister and Government want to risk all that and throw it away by disregarding an international treaty that the Prime Minister personally negotiated and signed up to. This is not just wrong but completely incompetent, and his behaviour will do us no favours around the world and will not help us to negotiate new trade deals with other countries. We have only to listen to the comments from the US Democrats in the past few days to know that.
It is clear that there needs to be a strong internal market within the UK to enable businesses across all our four nations of the UK to trade freely, which will be vital for the economy and shared prosperity.
Daniel Kawczynski
Of course, all of us in this House respect the devolution process and Welsh decision-making in Cardiff, but does the hon. Gentleman accept for a moment that, as Cardiff and London increasingly diverge, for border communities such as mine with businesses on both sides of the border there are additional problems and risk as a result of that increasing divergence between our two capitals?
Gerald Jones
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments, but it is certainly clear to me from comments I have heard from the Government side of the Chamber that lots of people do not understand devolution. Devolution is about giving powers to those devolved nations to make the decisions for themselves, and that is where some Government Members struggle.
In Wales, the Welsh Government have, as we have heard, stated that the Bill is an attack on democracy and an affront to the people of Wales, not to mention Scotland and Northern Ireland, who have voted in favour of devolution on numerous occasions. As we have heard, one of the Conservatives’ long-standing Senedd Members has resigned as shadow Counsel General over the Bill, commenting that:
“The publication today of the Internal Market Bill has done nothing to lessen my anxieties about the dangers facing our 313-year-old Union. Indeed they have been gravely aggravated by the decisions made in the last few days by the Prime Minister.”
That is from a well-respected Member in the Welsh Senedd, and of course we have heard very clear concerns from three former Conservative Prime Ministers and two former Labour ones—in fact from all living Prime Ministers.
One of the foundations of the devolution delivered by the Labour Government for Wales and Scotland in 1997 and developed over the past 20 years has been the right of devolved nations to set their own priorities on key spending areas. The explanatory notes to the Bill state:
“Part 6 grants power to a UK Minister of the Crown to provide funding across…economic development, infrastructure, culture, sporting activities, and international educational and training activities and exchanges.”
Of course, I welcome any additional funding or assistance that would benefit Wales and my constituents. However, it is not for the UK Government to play Father Christmas and pull those pet projects out of the air. Any additional funding should be delivered by devolved Governments in line with what has been developed over the past 20 years, in a strategic way involving local authorities and local stakeholders. If the Government have their way, spending decisions previously made in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast will now be made in London, and that flies in the face of devolution.
The Government argue that this Bill strengthens the Union on the grounds that it will give the UK Government new powers to spend across all four nations, but I believe that it will have exactly the opposite effect. A Government official reportedly told Politico that the spending powers would be used sparingly but demonstrated that the
“devolve and forget approach of the Blair/Brown years”
was over. But this Bill provides a risk that the UK Government will now be able to undermine the spending decisions and policy priorities of devolved Administrations.
It is no accident that we have yet to receive clarity on the UK shared prosperity fund, after almost two years of waiting. The Government stated that the consultation should have been held in 2018 and that Wales would not lose a penny compared with what we have received until now from the UK structural funds. That funding was based on genuine need, not on patronage or favour. It is essential that any funding Wales now receives is allocated in a similar way, involving the Welsh Government and local authorities in Wales in determining and delivering on local priorities.
On Second Reading, I supported the reasoned amendment tabled by my hon. and right hon. Friends declining to give the Bill a Second Reading and I voted against the Bill. I will continue to oppose this Bill until the Prime Minister and the Government reconsider and come up with a way to ensure that the devolved settlement is preserved and the Union is intact.
The Government must negotiate in good faith with the EU and devolved nations, instead of creating division and discord that puts getting a deal at risk. So my message to the Prime Minister is this: please get back around the table and negotiate properly and stop posturing. We do not have time for distractions like this when a deal is on the line. We need leadership from the Prime Minister, not theatrics.
Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
The United Kingdom of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales is the most successful union of nations the world has known. The Bill will ensure that we continue to thrive as a United Kingdom and that unfettered trade across our four nations continues.
I oppose the Opposition amendments to clauses 46 and 47, although I hear the reasoned speech from my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson). It is essential that the UK Government have powers to provide financial assistance for economic development throughout the UK, as has been vital during coronavirus and our recovery from the pandemic. The existing clauses will help the Government to deliver on our commitments to replace EU funding programmes, including by delivering a shared prosperity fund to replace the bureaucratic EU structural funds.
The clauses are consistent with the Government’s levelling-up agenda throughout the whole UK. They better position England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to take advantage of opportunities for future growth and develop our place in the world as a united and independent nation. Our nations—all of them—require investment in and support for our communities, businesses, infrastructure, sport, education and training, among many other policy areas. The Bill will create new opportunities for the Government to do that.
Draft Armed Forces Act (Continuation) Order 2020
Gerald Jones Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir David. Her Majesty’s armed forces represent this country across the world, fighting to liberate civilians from the scourge of trans-national terrorist organisations, providing vital training to other nations, serving on peacekeeping missions, and stepping in to provide humanitarian relief in the wake of hurricanes and other disasters. More importantly, they stand ready to defend our country day and night. I know that we are all, across the Committee, immensely proud of and grateful to our armed forces personnel, and the Opposition will support the draft order. I am sure that that comes as no great surprise.
I wish to press the Minister for greater detail on several matters concerning our armed forces. First, I wish to touch on some operational issues. We know about the Government’s deploying 250 troops to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, following the end of the South Sudan mission. More than 40 French personnel have lost their lives since troops were deployed to Mali in 2013 on a separate French-led mission. Some 200 soldiers from the UN mission have also died over the same period; indeed, the UN mission in Mali is often referred to as the most dangerous peacekeeping mission in the world. It is important that Parliament can scrutinise the Government on those obligations. I will not ask the Minister to update the Committee this evening, but will he at least commit to a debate in the House on this issue in the near future, so that Parliament has an opportunity to scrutinise properly the Government’s decision?
With regard to the ongoing integrated review, I wish to touch on armed forces’ numbers, and the alarming downward trend in each of the services. In 2010, there were 102,000 regulars in the Army, 40,000 in the RAF, and 35,500 in the Royal Navy. Now they are all substantially smaller. The Army and the RAF have been cut by 25% each, and the Navy is down nearly 20%. The trajectory is quite worrying—every single service has fallen over the last 10 years. It is no surprise that the Government have removed the 82,000 regular Army personnel commitment from their manifesto.
Indeed, there have been reports of further cuts to the Army in the integrated review. Perhaps the Minister could outline whether the integrated review will seek to cut the Army further. He may suggest that it is too early, given that the review is expected to be published in the autumn, but the issue is of such fundamental importance, and I know he understands that. We really must know whether such cuts are planned.
I will touch briefly on retention. The steady decline in satisfaction with service life is a significant worry. The proportion of all personnel reporting satisfaction with service life in general was 60% in 2010. In 2019, it had fallen to 46%. As well as its being wrong in principle for the majority of personnel to feel unsatisfied with service life, we simply cannot afford to have servicemen and women choosing to leave the forces because of their view of service life. Will the Minister set out what plans he has to deal with that?
The Opposition have previously expressed our concern about the future accommodation model, and the possibility that it may be used to push more personnel and their families into the private rented sector, with all the associated uncertainty and added cost. Research from the Army Families Federation has highlighted a number of flaws in the information provided on the future accommodation model. Some 48% of respondents said that they have received no information about it at all, with only 2% saying that they had received a great deal. Most of the information has come from the AFF, as opposed to the Ministry of Defence or the chain of command. Uncertainty around the future accommodation model was a feature of the AFF’s comments on previous covenant reports. Will the Minister commit to doing much more to make personnel and families aware of the changes, particularly as the future accommodation model is now in the pilot stage?
We have not been updated on progress in relation to the defence estate for more than a year. It is particularly urgent given that troops will return from Afghanistan within 14 months, following the recent deal. Our troops and local communities need to be kept updated. Again, will the Minister update the Committee on progress with regard to the defence estate? As I said, we will support the draft order, but we would be grateful for some comments on the points that I have raised.
Wales: Regional Development Funding
Gerald Jones Excerpts(5 years ago)
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Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Graham. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) on the case that he made.
As we have heard, Wales has been a net beneficiary of European regional development funding. In recent years we have seen towns and villages across the south Wales valleys transformed and regenerated, much of which has been due to European structural development funds. Wales has received millions of pounds more than it has contributed in recognition of the deprivation that exists.
Over the past 15 years, the upper Rhymney valley in my constituency has benefited from about £16 million in EU structural funds for regeneration projects, while in the Merthyr Tydfil part of my constituency the figure is £35.8 million. Merthyr Tydfil’s town centre has benefited from significant regeneration, from a brand new college development to the creation of the hugely popular public space that is Penderyn square, which is a real focal point for a renaissance of Welsh culture and heritage, including the annual Merthyr Rising festival, which takes place over the spring bank holiday weekend later this month.
We have also seen regional projects, such as the dualling of the A465 heads of the valleys road, which links the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney parts of my constituency and is a hugely important road link from west Wales across the heads of the valleys to the M5 and the midlands. That has all been made possible with the support of regional development funding from the EU.
In my previous life as a councillor for the New Tredegar ward in the upper Rhymney valley, I was heavily involved in the New Tredegar regeneration partnership. At that time, in 2001, the then Labour Government secured objective 1 funding for the south Wales valleys and west Wales, which resulted in billions of pounds of funding for crucial regeneration across the region.
The New Tredegar regeneration strategy helped to secure about £28 million for the community from a range of sources, including local regeneration funding from the Welsh Labour Government, which have helped to support and regenerate the Welsh valleys communities. The catalyst for the investment, however, was about £6 million of European funding. New Tredegar has new small business units, a new road, a community school, a museum, a community resource centre and a community café, all of which have helped to breathe new life into a community that was deeply scarred following the collapse of the coal industry under Thatcher. Regional development funding was essential to begin the process of regenerating valley communities.
Mrs Thatcher came to power exactly 40 years ago this weekend, which heralded one of the most difficult economic periods in modern history for many of the communities in Wales and created significant deprivation. The Thatcher Government ripped the heart out of our communities, threw countless people’s jobs on the scrapheap and decimated villages and towns across south Wales without any plan to replace the jobs that were lost. The economic decline of that period can still be felt today, despite the investment in the valleys by the last Labour Government.
It was not just the jobs in the coal industry that were lost; there were many support industries. At the bottom of my street when I was growing up was Evans Coaches, a small family-run coach company that had taken miners to work since the 1930s. The company did other jobs, but that was its main business. Some 15 drivers worked there, as well as support staff, all of whom were local. The company went out of business after Thatcher closed the pits. It is one of many heart-breaking examples.
I have outlined the history of the communities I represent and highlighted why the economic deprivation exists. We benefited from the regional development fund simply because we needed it. It is essential that we have clarity on a future regional development fund, known as the shared prosperity fund. A few weeks ago, during Wales questions, I asked the Secretary of State about it, but I received little response. I hope that the Minister can provide some answers about how it will work. We were promised that we would not lose a penny when we left the EU. We need answers, because the uncertainty cannot go on.
Oral Answers to Questions
Gerald Jones Excerpts(5 years, 1 month ago)
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Alun Cairns
My hon. Friend makes an important point and that is the sort of innovation that the consultation will consider. He is tempting me to draw conclusions before we actually consult, but we have not been doing nothing on this policy area. Pre-consultation discussions have already been taking place in Wales and the Welsh Government jointly presented at the last St Asaph meeting in north Wales.
Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
Alun Cairns
The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but of course he is tempting me to announce elements of the comprehensive spending review well before my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will do so later this year. However, communities have said that the £4 billion has not changed communities in the way they wanted it to, so this is an opportunity to introduce a much more innovative, proactive approach that responds to the private and voluntary sectors and local authorities in a much more local way.
Oral Answers to Questions
Gerald Jones Excerpts(5 years, 6 months ago)
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Ms Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)
Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mims Davies)
Our welfare reforms are incentivising work and supporting working families. The employment rate in Wales is at a record high, and the unemployment rate is at a record low. We will continue to take a test and learn approach, acting on feedback and improving the system as it rolls out.
Mims Davies
I thank the hon. Lady for her question, but I dispute its premise. This is a personal, focused benefit, which offers us an opportunity to help people with health conditions, provide tailored support from work coaches, assist with housing costs, and give advances. We are listening and responding during the roll-out. This is a huge change in a complicated system, and we are testing and learning, but above all we are helping people.
Gerald Jones
Universal credit is a shambles. In my constituency, a homeless gentleman was told that phone claims for universal credit were not allowed, and that claims must be online only, although he has no access to IT or a computer. Vulnerability was not considered, and, ironically, the man was even offered a home visit. Will the Minister urge DWP colleagues to reconsider the online system and reintroduce phone claims?
Mims Davies
There is an opportunity to make phone claims. I would be happy to hear about that constituency case, although it is very concerning. This benefit is about ensuring that people are better off in work, and are able to respond in particular circumstances. In the Cwmbran jobcentre, positives are being fed back in terms of adjustments and simplification on the ground. If that is not happening in this gentleman’s case, will the hon. Gentleman please let me know?
Oral Answers to Questions
Gerald Jones Excerpts(5 years, 12 months ago)
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Mr Lidington
I strongly support Ban the Box and other such initiatives. The Cabinet Office will work hard with other Government Departments to ensure that we maximise opportunities for ex-offenders to be given that second chance.
Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) (Lab)
Chloe Smith
The data so far from the successful five pilots does not seem to provide evidence to support the Opposition’s scaremongering. Most people’s experience of the pilots was very positive. We will evaluate the next steps before returning to the House with the way forward.