Iran-Israel Update

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I said, we will continue to urge de-escalation and for calm heads to prevail on all sides. As the Foreign Secretary said this morning, we urge Israel in particular to recognise that it has successfully repelled the Iranian attacks, and that Iran is ever more isolated on the world stage.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

Jacqui, the mother of murdered aid worker James Kirby, is my constituent. I am sure that she will agree with the Prime Minister’s description of her son as a hero. There is a real danger—I am already seeing this, as events move on—that his death will end up being chalked up as collateral damage in this conflict. Will the Prime Minister show that he understands the family’s need to see justice done, and will he keep up the pressure on Israel about the review? The family want to know why James was killed, and that someone will be held responsible.

[The Prime Minister]

My condolences to Jacqui and the families of all those who were tragically killed as they delivered aid. As I said, they were heroes and they absolutely deserve our admiration. Our thoughts will be with all their families. I refer the hon. Lady to my previous answer about what we have asked of the Israelis. What is crystal clear is that there needs to be a considerable improvement in the deconfliction mechanisms between Israel and aid agencies. I have already made that point to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we expect to see that followed through.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Thursday 29th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alex Davies-Jones (Pontypridd) (Lab)]

2. What progress he has made on considering the recommendations of the second interim report of the infected blood inquiry.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

3. What progress he has made on considering the recommendations of the second interim report of the infected blood inquiry.

[Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

4. What progress he has made on responding to the final recommendations on compensation by the infected blood inquiry.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Glen]

I am trying to ensure a comprehensive response as soon as possible. That is why we have appointed Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery to head up a team to advise on how to implement the recommendations of the report. I am doing that as quickly as I can. There are issues around eligibility, the severity of disease and its progression, and so on, which I need to be sure on so that I can address the challenges that exist. With respect to the 30,000 figure, I cannot give a number from the Dispatch Box, but I will ensure that the Government response, when it comes, will be as comprehensive as possible, to give some assurance to the hon. Lady’s constituent.

[Kerry McCarthy]

ITV is now set to produce a drama about the contaminated blood scandal, following the success of “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”. As we know, thousands of people have been affected by the scandal, including my constituents, Catherine, who lost her husband in 2005, and Margaret, who lost her husband Bill in 2021. Bill was a local councillor. I knew him very well. He was an absolutely lovely man. He was also a trustee of the Haemophilia Society. Some people, including Bill, have been fighting this battle for 40 years. Why has it taken us this long to get to this point? Will it really take a TV drama to make the Government finally act?

Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Wednesday 24th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont]

The hon. Lady and the SNP really do have a brass neck speaking about business costs, given their own policy of setting up a hard border at Berwick, next to my constituency. That would risk thousands of jobs and force thousands of companies out of business—it would be a most damaging and reckless economic step. We will work through any short-term issues, but the answer is not the long-term decline proposed by the SNP.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

6. What recent steps his Department has taken to help support the Scottish economy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (John Lamont)]

Supporting economic growth in Scotland remains a core priority of the Scotland Office. We are focused on long-term economic growth, generating more jobs and boosting business investment. That is exemplified by investment of up to £372 million in the Scottish freeport and investment zones programmes, on top of our £1.5 billion-worth of investment into growth deals across the whole of Scotland.

[Kerry McCarthy]

The former right hon. Member for Kingswood and Government net zero tsar, Chris Skidmore, said that what businesses and investors need from the Government is certainty, clarity, consistency and continuity. Never has that been more true than in Scotland, where there is huge potential for businesses and communities to flourish as a result of the green transition. However, they are not getting the certainty, clarity, consistency and continuity that they need from this Government, are they?

[John Lamont]

I do not accept that analysis. For example, the UK has a world-leading ambition to deploy up to 50 GW of offshore wind by the year 2030, with up to 5 GW coming from offshore floating wind. Offshore wind provides secure, domestically generated electricity and will play a key role in decarbonising the UK power system by 2035, achieving net zero by 2050. I do not share the hon. Lady’s analysis of this Government’s focus in that area.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Wednesday 6th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. We are running way over time. I appreciate it would be a great disappointment to Members whose names are on the Order Paper if they were not called, so I am trying my best to call them all, but may I please make a plea for brevity?

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

Q11. When the Prime Minister is taking a dip in his pool or is on the beach at his place in California, he does not have to worry about swimming in sewage. The rest of us do not have it so good, so why will he not back Labour’s plans for criminal liability for water company bosses who fail to clean up their act?

[The Prime Minister]

We have already brought in regulations that ensure there can be unlimited fines for water companies, and there have been dozens of criminal prosecutions. I would also say, however, that when we had a debate in the House on exactly a plan that would do all this, who did not show up to vote? It was the Labour party.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. The UK’s long-standing position on the middle east peace process is very clear: we support a negotiated settlement, leading to a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in Gaza and the west bank. I spoke about this on Monday. Both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace and security. The longer-term governance of Gaza and security needs to be looked at in the round. It is something that I have discussed repeatedly with President Abbas. We agree with the United States that Gaza should ultimately be under the control of the Palestinian Authority. We will continue to support President Abbas and his people to get to that outcome.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

Q7. A new generation of drugs, Orkambi, Symkevi and Kaftrio, is transforming the lives of patients with cystic fibrosis. People who would otherwise be waiting for double lung transplants are now living happy, healthy lives. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is now saying that we cannot afford those drugs. Will the Prime Minister and his new Health Secretary get around the table with NICE and the drugs company to ensure that the children who are being born with cystic fibrosis today are given those life-saving drugs in the same way as the children who are currently living with cystic fibrosis?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising an important issue, and I will of course ask the Health Secretary to look into it. As she will understand, NICE operates independently of Government, but if there is a conversation that can be had, I will ensure that it takes place.

Tata Steel: Port Talbot

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Monday 18th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ms Ghani]

The reality is that one of the furnaces in particular was coming to its end of life and the other was mature, so a decision had to be taken on whether the company would want to continue, considering the loss it was making every day in producing steel, or to transition to making cleaner steel. That was a commercial decision. It was important for us to ensure that steelmaking in Port Talbot would not disappear but continue, and this is the option that the company went for. It is the option that it has a supply chain for, and it was best that we supported it through this process and ensured that there were fewer job losses.

The reality is that any transition is going to impact jobs, which is why it is so important to ensure that support is available to enable people to skill up and transition. That is why the transition board has been set up with £100 million to help people on that journey. It is not fundamentally about achieving net zero; it is fundamentally about the age of the furnaces on the site, about the loss-making in the steel sector in the UK, particularly at this site, and about what decisions the company would take next. It was important for us to support the UK steel sector and provide it with £500 million—it has an overall envelope of £1.25 billion—to ensure that steelmaking continues in Port Talbot.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

I would have hoped to hear a rather more robust defence from the Minister of the need to reach net zero and of the massive job opportunities that will come from pursuing a green agenda, as we have seen from what is happening with the Inflation Reduction Act in the States.

I visited Port Talbot last month during the recess, and I echo what the constituency MP, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock), said about the importance of the site and of continuing to support jobs there. Concerns were raised with me about the availability of scrap and how difficult it is to recycle and retrieve scrap metal. There does not seem to be any strategy from the Government for dealing with that. Can the Minister tell us what she intends to do, working with her colleagues in other Departments, to achieve that?

[Ms Ghani]

As I mentioned, just shy of 9 million tonnes of scrap could potentially be used at the site. Tata has put together a substantial package, which shows that it has thought through its supply chains. A huge amount of work will continue to take place to ensure that more information is put in the public domain. No doubt there will be more public tenders, too. The scrap does exist and we recognise that electric arc furnaces produce a particular kind of steel, which is why it is important to have a virgin steel sector here in the UK as well.

I have spoken about the environmental impact and how it helps us to reduce our emissions, but it is not only about that. This site was reaching the end of its life, and these negotiations have been taking place forever. It is important that we made sure that we had the certainty and support to move on to the next conversation on how we best exploit the new site to produce cleaner, greener steel and how we make sure the contracts are in place.

NATO Summit

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Thursday 13th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

I say, as a Bristol MP, that we are incredibly proud of Ernie Bevin. He was orphaned at eight, started work on the Bristol docks at the age of 11 and went on to become British Foreign Secretary and found NATO, which is quite some achievement.

Obviously, this move is very welcome in terms of the containment of Russian activity and strengthening Ukraine’s position, but the Prime Minister did mention the activities of Russia’s Wagner Group in Africa, where there are widespread reports of atrocities being carried out and the fact that they are using trade in natural resources, being paid in mining concessions, to avoid sanctions. What action is the UK taking to try to combat that?

[The Prime Minister]

We are working closely with partners, particularly France and others, to share intelligence and do what we can to combat the destabilising impacts of Wagner in different parts of the world. We have also sanctioned the Wagner Group in its entirety and, indeed, its leaders, which is contributing to some of the economic squeeze on them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Thursday 22nd June 2023 Commons Chamber

[John Penrose (Weston-super-Mare) (Con)]

2. What criteria his Department uses to assess people who are nominated for honours.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

7. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department’s processes for scrutinising nominations for honours.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

Nominations are, as my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) will know, taken on merit. The criteria that we use are regularly reported to Government, with our most recent report on the operation of the honours system published last month. We are confident that the process for honours selection, including adequate probity and propriety checks, is proportionate and robust and that all due process is followed.

[Alex Burghart]

My hon. Friend is too modest to mention that he came up with this idea some time ago, and it is one that we have considered, but it is not one that we will be taking forward at this moment in time. We go to great lengths to ensure that the process remains transparent, and he can read the most recent report, which was published last month. It is essential that we ensure that the committees that make the considerations around the honours system can do so and can report to this place and to the public. While I am aware that he would like us to go further, we do not believe it necessary to uproot the entire system. We want to ensure that the honours system represents people from the length and breadth of the country.

[Kerry McCarthy]

The Prime Minister insists that he was only following convention when he waved through Boris Johnson’s honours list. It should be obvious to anyone that this former dishonourable Member—a man who will not even be allowed back on to the estate without an escort—should not be doling out honours. Would a stronger, more principled Prime Minister not have recognised that any convention that allows such a man to install his discredited cronies as peers might need changing, rather than blindly following?

[Alex Burghart]

The hon. Lady knows that there is a long-standing convention from 1895 that outgoing Prime Ministers have a resignation honours list. To put it in plain language for her, just because that gentleman has been found against in this House, it does not mean that the people who were put forward in his resignation honours list are without merit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Wednesday 7th June 2023 Commons Chamber

The Minister for Women and Equalities was asked—

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

1. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the treatment of people with neurodivergent conditions in the criminal justice system.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mike Freer)]

The Lord Chancellor is settling into his new role and has not yet had a chance to speak to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, but I can reassure the hon. Lady that, at director level, cross-departmental working groups have been working hard. As she will know from the Ministry of Justice action plan, which was updated in January this year, significant progress has been made on neurodiversity.

[Kerry McCarthy]

I thank the Minister for his response, and for telephoning me yesterday. As I said during that conversation, it is estimated that one in four prisoners have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and screening prisoners for that condition at an early stage—within a week of their entering prison, say—would not only help to prevent prison suicides, but aid rehabilitation and eventual resettlement. Will the Minister undertake to talk to his colleagues, particularly those on the Back Benches who have been working on this, about the need for such cases to be identified as early as possible?

[Mike Freer]

I can reassure the hon. Lady: I understand that prisoners are indeed screened in their first week, as are those on probation. However, there is more work to be done, and I am more than happy to arrange meetings with the hon. Lady and with any other colleague who wishes to pursue in more depth the work that we are doing in respect of both prisons and probation.

UK Car Industry

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ms Ghani]

If Madam Deputy Speaker allows, I will be more than happy to go over the allowed one minute in my response, but I do not want to lose favour with her. The constant requests for the strategy are peculiar because I can tell Members exactly what we are doing. The Chancellor identified five key growth sectors for the UK, which of course include advanced manufacturing, and the Government have announced £500 million per year for a package of support for 20,000 research and development-intensive businesses. We have 12 new investment zones and we are saving £1 billion yearly by cutting red tape that is burdensome for big employers.

But the point is this: there are a number of challenges around supply chains. We are looking at that issue with the Automotive Council, and also through the integrated review and the critical minerals refresh. There was a challenge internationally when it came to energy costs; we had the EBRS and now we have the supercharger. I am the co-chair of the Automotive Council. I am sure that, if the hon. Member for Warwick and Leamington (Matt Western) wanted to attend, he could write to the co-chair and ensure there could be time for him to be there as well. That work is done collaboratively with all the automotive CEOs, CFOs and leading managers across the UK. I do not determine who comes to that meeting and represents the automotive sector; that is for them to decide.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

In the UK, we have the largest queue to connect to the grid of any country in Europe, which is affecting the car manufacturing industry, including when it sets up new plants. One manufacturer that wanted to put solar arrays on its plant was quoted 2031 for grid connection and a £9 million cost; another one was quoted 2037. That is clearly hindering our chances of securing a prosperous car industry in this country and attracting more investment. What conversations is the Minister having with her colleagues to ensure that grid connectivity is resolved?

[Ms Ghani]

I thank the hon. Member for that question, because it shows that we have to work across Whitehall. Access to the national grid is a major issue for any of the large manufacturers and of course, as their plans grow, they need to have greater access over a faster timetable than one would have previously thought National Grid would make available. Conversations are taking place, in particular with colleagues who were previously in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who are now in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and are leading that relationship with National Grid. The issue comes up regularly in the meetings that we have with the manufacturing sector, and my priority is to support the advanced manufacturing sector, so the hon. Member can be assured that I am campaigning incredibly hard to make sure that all our advanced manufacturing sites—present or planned—get access to energy at a timetable that suits the business, not just National Grid.