Oral Answers to Questions

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd May 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do not recognise the choice that my hon. Friend sets out. First, as I said earlier, I have not changed my view on a second referendum. I have been clear that I believe this House should be delivering on the result of the first referendum, and I believe that the choice before this House is whether it wants to deliver on the result of the first referendum and on the manifestos on which the majority of the Members of this House stood, which were clear that we want to do it with a deal. We can do that, and we can do it by giving a Second Reading to the withdrawal agreement Bill, by seeing the Bill through the House to Royal Assent, by ratifying the treaty and by leaving the European Union.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

Q15. Universal credit was today condemned again by the United Nations special rapporteur, who likened DWP policy to creating modern versions of “the 19th-century workhouse”. A leaked memo has revealed that the DWP is doubling down, promoting universal credit with an aggressive public relations campaign, including a BBC documentary and adverts seen in today’s Metro, which DWP officials state“won’t look…like DWP or UC—you won’t see our branding, and this is deliberate.”Prime Minister, how is it right that the DWP is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on misleading adverts that promote a cruel policy, which is driving my constituents into debt, despair and destitution?

[The Prime Minister]

What the DWP is doing is spending not just its resources but its effort—I thank all the staff in the DWP for this—out there, helping people into the workplace and ensuring that when they are in the workplace they are able to keep more of the money they earn.

Oral Answers to Questions

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 15th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, I think that the best way to ensure that people have a good, stable income for their families is to ensure that they are in work. This is the fourth question he has asked me, and in none of his questions so far has he welcomed the fact that employment is at record levels, and unemployment is down at a record low. The way he talks, you would think that inequality started in 2010.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

It did!

[The Prime Minister]

One of the Labour Back Benchers shouts from a sedentary position, “It did!” Who was it who said that the last Labour Government

“ensured that the gap between the richest and the poorest in our society”

became “very much bigger?” Those are not my words; they are the words of the right hon. Gentleman, attacking his own Labour Government.

Electoral Registration: EU Citizens

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Thursday 25th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis]

My understanding from the Electoral Commission is that it has. I hear the right hon. Lady saying that it has not; I will look into that straight after this urgent question and make sure that somebody in the Cabinet Office, or myself, comes back to her directly during the course of today.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

My constituency is home to thousands of EU citizens. They deserve the right to vote here and every effort should be made to ensure that they can do so. Given the Government’s Brexit shambles, will the Minister now commit to doing one of several things: extending the deadline, but also ensuring that photocopied or scanned documentation will be accepted when people register?

[Brandon Lewis]

As I have said at the Dispatch Box a few times, I agree that everybody who is entitled to vote should be encouraged to exercise their vote, which is a treasured and valued thing. I have put a copy of the UC1 form in the Library today, as I have outlined, so Members can see it. It is a very short and simple form to fill in, people have plenty of time to do just that, and I am sure that the Electoral Commission will look at the options that the hon. Lady has outlined.

Voter ID Pilots

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 10th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

rose—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

The hon. Lady probably wonders why she is left to the end. I will explain very simply: she came into the Chamber after—quite a long time after—the Minister had started speaking. Strictly, I could say that the hon. Lady should not have an opportunity to put her question, but I do not believe we need to be utterly strict. I am sure she has an important question to ask, so of course she has an opportunity to ask it.

[Marsha De Cordova]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Participating in voting should be a right for everybody, and I want to ensure that disabled people do not face any barriers to voting, whether in the upcoming local elections or the potential European elections. I understand that tactile voting devices must be ordered by the deadline, which is today. Will the Minister confirm whether that deadline could be extended to ensure that all disabled people can participate in voting?

[Chloe Smith]

That is a really good question. To be able to honour the spirit of it properly in answering it, I will confirm to the hon. Lady in writing the precise situation about the ordering deadlines for those devices, should that apply to any potential upcoming elections. I think the House will be well aware of the situation regarding the European parliamentary elections, and I do not think the question is generally about those, but I will be happy to take up that question in more detail.

More broadly, the hon. Lady is right: disabled voters should be as welcome in our system as anyone else. That is a crucial, fundamental tenet of our democracy. I was pleased to meet her to talk through some of these issues, just as I have been keen to meet charities and civil society groups working on behalf of people with disabilities as part of our work to make elections more accessible. The tactile voting devices are but one part of that landscape, but these are vital issues that I want to get right, and I reassure the House that they have been well considered in these pilots.

Oral Answers to Questions

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Ruth George (High Peak) (Lab)]

11. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of the roll-out of universal credit on low-income families in Wales.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of the roll-out of universal credit on low-income families in Wales.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Justin Tomlinson)]

Universal credit is available in every jobcentre in Wales. Our welfare reforms are incentivising work and supporting working families. In the past 12 months alone, the employment rate in Wales has increased by 3.4 percentage points, the largest increase in any area of the UK.

--- Later in debate ---

[Justin Tomlinson]

It is not right that those of working age should be accessing pensioner benefits, but this Government have delivered the triple-lock pension support, which has given pensioners an extra £1,600 a year.

[Marsha De Cordova]

Will the Minister set out what discussions he is having with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on making it easier for private-rented sector tenants in Wales to have the housing element of universal credit paid directly to their private landlord?

[Justin Tomlinson]

I can confirm that I have regular discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on this subject, about which she is incredibly passionate. We are making it easier, particularly for those on legacy benefits who already have direct payments.

Oral Answers to Questions

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Wednesday 30th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am delighted to hear of the increase in performance at Cotmanhay Junior School. The education of children is improving, regardless of where they live or their background, so that they can get the education that they need to fulfil their potential. I am happy to join my hon. Friend in congratulating the pupils and staff of that particular school, and of the other schools she referenced across her Erewash constituency that have seen improvements, which are important for the future of those children.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

Q14. Yesterday evening, MPs from across the House voted against a no deal. The TUC has warned that no deal would be devastating for jobs and it is an outcome which the CBI has this morning said business will be speeding up preparations for. The people hit hardest by a no deal will be the ordinary people in Battersea and across the country, so will the Prime Minister finally listen to this House, trade unions, businesses and our constituents, and categorically rule out no deal?

[The Prime Minister]

The House rejected no deal last night, but I hope that the hon. Lady, when the time comes, will play her part in avoiding no deal and will vote for a deal.

Leaving the EU

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Scotland’s best economic interests—I suggest the hon. Gentleman looks at the figures—are met by remaining a member of the UK.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

Given today’s joint letter to the Prime Minister from Presidents Juncker and Tusk saying that the EU is

“not in a position to agree to anything that changes or is inconsistent with the Withdrawal Agreement”,

is it not the case that the Prime Minister has achieved nothing since pulling the meaningful vote on 10 December? In her own words, “nothing has changed”.

[The Prime Minister]

As I said earlier in response to a number of hon. Members, the concern that was expressed was about ensuring—[Interruption.] I am trying to answer the hon. Lady’s question. The concern people had within the House, overwhelmingly, was one of ensuring that the backstop would be temporary if it ever came into place. That is in the withdrawal agreement already, but the further assurances that we have received further confirm that. As I have said, the December Council conclusions do have legal force.

Exiting the European Union: Meaningful Vote

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

I have had the honour and pleasure of serving Battersea for little more than 18 months, but it is clear to me, as it is to Members across the House, that the behaviour of this Government is unprecedented—unprecedented in their chaotic approach to managing Brexit, unprecedented in their contempt and disregard for Members of this House and the people we represent, unprecedented in their Ministers saying one thing and then going on to do another. At each stage of their handling of Brexit, the Government have attempted to avoid scrutiny and duck responsibility. They have tried to deny us a meaningful vote on the deal, they have tried to withhold legal advice, and they have tried to keep the economic impact assessments out of the public domain, and now the Prime Minister has pulled the meaningful vote just days after promising she would not do that, and just hours after her Government Ministers said she would not do it. It is a shameful record for any Government, but especially for this dysfunctional Government confronted with the magnitude of the political issue of Brexit.

I am angry not just because the Government are undermining parliamentary procedure, but because I know that my constituents are both angry and alarmed at what they see happening. I have received thousands of pieces of correspondence from constituents calling on me to reject the Prime Minister’s deal, and I have written back to each and every one of them saying I will vote against it; what do I tell them now? We are told that the vote will come before 21 January 2019, but that will only heighten fears of a no-deal scenario. My constituents need reassurance, but with this Government and this Prime Minister that is not something I can give.

My constituents need a Government who will not only sort out this Brexit mess but solve the other crises facing our country: the housing crisis, the crisis in social security, the crisis in our NHS.

[Dr Allin-Khan]

In pulling this vote, the Government continue to betray our children, our hospital patients and our much valued NHS workforce. The Prime Minister is running scared, unable to face a debate either in this House or on the television. Does my hon. Friend agree—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am sorry to be unkind to the hon. Lady, but a large number of colleagues want to speak, so interventions should be brief.

[Marsha De Cordova]

My hon. Friend makes a good point.

Yesterday the Prime Minister again said that she wants to tackle social injustices, so may I recommend that she begins by reading and then accepting the conclusions of the UN report on extreme poverty? Eight years of her Government’s austerity policies have devastated our communities and devastated disabled people.

This Government have no answers to the challenges we face on Brexit or anything else. Their only achievement is to unite people in opposition to them. It is downright shameful that they have pulled the meaningful vote. Parliament must be given a meaningful vote on the deal. The Government must provide that guarantee. I know that many Members on the Conservative Benches share that view, so when the Prime Minister returns with no significant changes—as Jean-Claude Juncker said this morning, there is “no room whatsoever” for the Prime Minister to renegotiate her deal, and I understand that Angela Merkel has said almost the same thing—if this House finally gets the right to reject the deal, given the chance I urge Conservative Members to support a no- confidence motion.

Leaving the EU

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The withdrawal agreement is legally binding. The political declaration is not a legal text, because the European Union cannot sign a legal text in relation to trade matters with a country that is a member of the European Union. It can only do that when we are outside the European Union.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

It is increasingly clear that the Prime Minister’s deal does not have the support of the House. It is a bad deal: it is bad for my constituents and it is bad for the country. So I ask the Prime Minister, and she has not answered this question yet, what is her plan B when this deal inevitably falls?

[The Prime Minister]

I refer the hon. Lady to the answer I gave earlier.

Progress on EU Negotiations

Marsha De Cordova Excerpts

Thursday 22nd November 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The British people gave us their view on our membership of the EU in June 2016, and we are delivering on it.

[Marsha De Cordova (Battersea) (Lab)]

For all the Prime Minister’s bluster, this political declaration underlines that 18 months of shambolic negotiations have produced embarrassingly little. Parliament looks set to be asked to vote and agree to a blind Brexit and to a deal that, despite what she claims, does not protect jobs, rights or the economy. When will she wake up to the reality that any deal she brings to the House cannot command the support of the House and will leave the country poorer?

[The Prime Minister]

This is the right deal for the UK. It delivers on the vote while protecting jobs, livelihoods, security and our Union.