Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Wales Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts
Wednesday 26th February 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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These are not promises: these are what we have already done. It is thanks to Conservative action on climate change that we have reduced CO2 output by 43% on 1990 levels since 2010, and the economy has grown by 73%. Some 99% of all the solar panels installed in this country have happened under this Conservative Government. In 1990, this country was 70% dependent on coal: today, it is 3%—and Labour would reopen the coalmines.

Jack Lopresti Portrait Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)
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John Downey, the IRA terrorist responsible for the Hyde Park bombing in 1982, which killed 11 soldiers, received a letter of comfort from the Government and his trial collapsed. Corporal Dennis Hutchings received a letter in 1974 saying that he would not be prosecuted in connection with a shooting incident that took place in Northern Ireland. He was then investigated again in 2011 and told there were no further grounds for taking any action. Does the Prime Minister accept that if Dennis Hutchings goes to trial on 9 March, all the assurances, promises and manifesto commitments will amount to nothing more than meaningless empty platitudes?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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It is to rectify matters such as the one to which my hon. Friend draws the House’s attention that this Government are finally bringing in a law to prevent the vexatious prosecution of our hard-working, hard-serving veterans when no new evidence has been produced.