Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
As a 16-year-old, Kate worked a summer at Harrods. In 2024, she told her story of being raped at work. Intimate medical examinations were carried out on women by senior Harrods staff and security. Hundreds of women’s attacks were silenced. How will the Justice for Fayed and Harrods Survivors be heard? I met some of those brave women this week. How will they get the whole truth, justice, and systemic change, if the Met police inquiry remains stalled, and if enablers—some of them women—are left at large? Incredibly, over 500 victims still need answers.
Catherine Atkinson
I have met victims and campaigners from the al-Fayed campaign, as has the Prime Minister. We must ensure that no matter who you are or where you are, there is always justice. I look forward to continuing to work with campaigners to ensure that they get justice.
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
Mims Davies Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery). Where to start? Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute on behalf of my constituents. I congratulate the hon. Member for Eltham and Chislehurst (Clive Efford) on securing and opening this debate and on all his sterling work.
Like you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I have constituents who stick in my mind and who I want to stand up for. My constituent Robert Ellinor has given me a huge understanding of the terrible injustice in this particular area, just as the Webster family has done in your own constituency. I thank Robert, who is from East Grinstead and who I have known for some time. He has done sterling activity and parliamentary engagement on this subject, which affects him, and with the all-party parliamentary group on haemophilia and contaminated blood.
I am keen to raise points on behalf of Josie, from Turners Hill, and her father, Andrew Quin. Much of what I will say today will be her words, on behalf of her father. It reflects much of what my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) has said, and it also reflects engagement that I have had with the Cabinet Office on behalf of Josie and her father.
Josie writes:
“I am writing to you as my family is one of the first 15 families to be asked to begin our compensation claim for the estate of an infected blood victim, this being my dad, Andrew Quin who passed away in May 2020.
We are now a few weeks into the claim process and frustratingly and sadly I feel my dad is being completely failed by the core route and I’m doubtful at this point that the proposed supplementary route is going to be any different, for the following reasons:
CORE ROUTE:
My father was infected with Hepatitis C and developed cirrhosis of the liver, we believe around 2017, which puts him in the severity level 3 of the core route.
However, in 2018 my father underwent a 12 week course of Harvoni Hep C treatment… after completion of the 12 week course, it not only failed but at the very same time, my father was also told he had developed Mantle Cell Lymphoma, which could have been a side effect of the Harvoni treatment or could have simply been caused by the Hep C.
My father was told he was too ill to undergo full chemo, due to his liver cirrhosis and other ailments caused by the Hep C, and so he did not have the required 2 rounds of chemo needed to qualify for severity level 4.
My father died on 16th May 2020 from Hep C liver cirrhosis and lymphoma.
What could possibly be more severe than the above?
To summarise, my father died because he was infected with Hep C, which caused liver cirrhosis and gave him lymphoma, ‘for which he was too ill to receive the required 2 rounds of chemo’ and consequently he died!
Yet my father does not qualify for the highest severity level 4?”
That is the highest severity level. Josie continues:
“Ironically, had my father’s health not been as severely impacted by the Hep C, he would have been well enough to have had the required 2 rounds of chemo, in order for him to qualify for severity level 4 of the compensation scheme, and may have even still been with us today!
I believe my father has been discriminated against for being ‘too ill to receive 2 rounds of chemo’, which I find utterly disgraceful!
SUPPLEMENTARY ROUTE:
The supplementary route, requires victims to have had at least 12 weeks’ treatment of Interferon, in order for them to be considered for the next severity level, this being a level 3 or a new level between 2 and 3. I strongly object to this as some victims, including my father, had such severe side effects, such as chronic depression and a mild heart attack, etc, that they were un-able to sustain 12 weeks of Interferon. Not that this would even benefit my father’s claim as he is already in severity level 3 due to him developing cirrhosis—i.e. the supplementary route is no help to my father either.
To summarise, once again, I believe victims who were too ill to sustain 12 weeks of interferon treatment are being discriminated against.
I do not believe anything could be more severe than the death of an infected blood victim—‘a death which was caused by their infection!’
At present neither the core route nor the supplementary route addresses this injustice.
I would sincerely appreciate your help and support in this matter—help to identify and rectify this injustice—in order to bring about the rightful justice the infected blood victims deserve.
As the family of an infected blood victim, we desperately want to put all the hurt and pain behind us, but we cannot do that if we are still discriminated against and unfairly treated.”
This week, Josie wrote to me again. She was very keen that I speak in this debate, and I am very grateful to her. She wrote:
“The letter you forwarded me from the Minister for the cabinet office stated that infected blood victims would not be discriminated against for not being well enough to receive treatment, however, IBCA will not recognise this despite my making them aware of what the Minister for the cabinet office stated in their letter.
IBCA have stated that in order for them to recognise this statement and not discriminate against victims who were not well enough to have treatment, this statement made by the Minister for the cabinet office would have to be made law.”
Josie urged me to raise this issue today in Parliament, on behalf of
“all the victims who were not well enough to receive treatment, because as it stands, victims who were not well enough to receive treatment and have died as a result of their infections will receive less compensation than those victims who were well enough to receive treatment and survived. I’m sure you will agree that this is an injustice and needs to be addressed”
today. Those are Josie’s words. She and families like hers must get justice and proper compensation, and must feel that the process works for them and reflects the impact on them and their loved ones. We know that all of this is so wrong; we must make it right. I hope that the Paymaster General can give Josie and many families like hers the comfort they deserve.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(2 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
As the Minister said, sexual assault survivors from the Isle of Wight and all across the United Kingdom must be heard. Virginia Giuffre took her life just one year ago. She had shared her abuse by convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, the friend of Peter Mandelson. On 16 April, Lisa Phillips—another courageous survivor—supported by Carly and Sam from the Sexual Predator Accountability Institute, came to Parliament seeking transparency from lawmakers. The clear question for the Government is: when will they go from giving platitudes to victims to tackling trafficking and cover-ups and delivering adequate support and justice for all women and girls?
Alex Davies-Jones
I welcome the shadow Minister’s question. She will know that this Government are putting victims back at the heart of our criminal justice system by investing the biggest ever settlement—over half a billion pounds—in victim support services for the next three years. I had the privilege of meeting the victims she mentioned. Of course, they remain at the forefront of my mind and the Government’s mind, which is why we are working with them and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to ensure a joined-up approach to take their concerns seriously without prejudicing any sub judice issues that may come about.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(3 months ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Let us have some reality: it is Labour’s cost of living crisis that is hitting families across Wales. It is vital that both Governments do all it takes to ease those pressures, yet the Welsh Labour Government still choose to spend over £100 million on more politicians and tens of millions on a default 20 mph speed limit. They have set up vanity embassies abroad and spent millions on tree planting in Uganda. Those are not the priorities of struggling families. Will the Secretary of State finally condemn the wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money and admit that these schemes do not address the cost of living crisis in Wales?
Jo Stevens
I am really surprised that the hon. Member has raised the expansion of the Senedd, because the accepted rationale of those who support the expansion is that it was necessary to improve scrutiny of the Welsh Government. What a terrible indictment that is of the inadequate performance of her party, whose job it has been, as the Opposition in the Senedd for the past 27 years, to carry out that scrutiny.
Jo Stevens
The hon. Lady might like to know that unemployment in Wales is lower than the UK average and has fallen since this time last year. Youth unemployment is also lower than the UK average, which shows that our plan to boost the Welsh economy is working. We are creating jobs and helping people into them right across Wales.
Mims Davies
The bedrock of our country’s defence rests on our crucial membership of NATO. The defence industry in Wales employs more than 15,000 people in well-paid and important roles. Yet the separatist Plaid, along with the Greens, opposes full membership of this deterrent, while Reform bizarrely claims all sorts of things like blaming NATO for provoking the war in Ukraine. Will the Secretary of State stand up for NATO, for more Welsh defence jobs and for the thousands in Welsh communities who rely on growing employment in this crucial sector?
Jo Stevens
That is exactly what we are doing. I refer the hon. Lady to the earlier answers to defence questions.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(4 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Despite incomplete responses from police forces and nothing from Police Scotland, “Healthcare Today” reported back in 2025 that Women’s Rights Network found via freedom of information requests that one in seven sexual crimes committed in hospitals—that is 266—were committed on hospital wards, and that two in five female medical students reported sexual harassment or assault at university. With just 4% charged for these offences, perpetrators are getting away with it, and are surely committing more attacks. Against the backdrop of Labour’s shameful choices on jury trials yesterday—all appalling—when will the Minister and this Government act to protect women on wards?
Jess Phillips
If the hon. Lady were to read the violence against women and girls strategy, she would see that there is a specific section on healthcare workers and workers across the community, specifically targeting the issue of sexual harassment within the NHS. I would also point out to her that the charging rate for sexual crimes fell to a historic low under her Government, and I am very pleased to tell the House that it is now increasing.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(6 months ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Following a freedom of information request, several questions at the Dispatch Box and my pre-Christmas letter to the Secretary of State, a serious explanation of railway funding in Wales is still lacking. Previously, she said in the Chamber:
“We are investing…to right the years of underfunding”—[Official Report, 16 July 2025; Vol. 771, c. 282.]
She told the Welsh Affairs Committee that there was
“widespread agreement… and many others have expressed similar sentiments.”
That is not evidence of underfunding; it is an opinion. Will she finally tell the House what method she is using to form her opinion, and will she outline how much Network Rail intends to invest in Welsh railways?
Jo Stevens
The hon. Member will know very well from my reply to her letter that her assertion is fundamentally wrong, because she is using a combination of operations, maintenance, renewals and enhancement funding to reach the total figure provided under Conservative Governments. The Labour Government have announced nearly £500 million of investment in Welsh rail, specifically and solely in enhancement funding. That money is being front-loaded in this spending review period to deliver new stations and more and faster trains as soon as possible. She should carry on trying desperately to defend her party’s appalling record in government, because all she is doing is reminding everybody about it.
Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Wales could be disproportionately affected by US tariffs, which could be a challenge for many Welsh businesses—the words of Labour First Minister Baroness Eluned Morgan in correspondence to the Prime Minister. There has been lots of talk about traitors, but over the past 27 years we, the Conservatives, are the ones who have seriously scrutinised, challenged and exposed the failings of Welsh Labour, which is clearly propped up by Plaid and the Lib Dems. Will the Secretary of State confirm that it is the two fabled Labour Governments who simply cannot work together who are making the cost of living and unemployment worse in Wales?
Jo Stevens
Wages are up, and inward investment is up. Inactivity is down on the year, and unemployment is down on the year. We have also had six cuts in interest rates, meaning that families taking out a new mortgage are £1,400 a year better off than they were under the Tories.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(7 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
The founders of the Cambridge University Society of Women—Maeve, Serena and Thea—are in the Gallery today. They are backing free speech in safe women-only spaces and discussing women’s concerns such as pornography, female genital mutilation and misogyny. Would the Minister agree that, if the Labour Government are to achieve their said mission of breaking down barriers to opportunity, it should never be controversial for a university society to champion women’s rights?
Bridget Phillipson
I have long campaigned for and supported women’s rights when it comes to the ability of women to meet together to discuss the issues that matter to them, and also to have safe spaces for women, including around domestic violence. I used to run a women’s refuge, and I know how important it is that women have safety and security, and are able to heal from trauma. However, I would say to the hon. Lady that we are having to address major challenges when it comes to violence against women and girls. The Conservatives’ record on this is shameful: we saw perpetrators let off, crimes not go punished and, in particular, rape all but decriminalised under her Government.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(7 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
On Monday, it was delightful to observe the Chancellor and First Minister enjoying themselves in one of Wales’s premier hospitality venues, but we had an invisible Secretary of State for Wales once again. That venue is the type of business that must thrive if this Government are to have any chance of achieving anything other than anaemic growth and growing unemployment lines. If she had been there, what would people in the hospitality sector have told her about the minimum wage rise pressures, huge business rates and energy costs, the tourism tax, national insurance hikes and how those are strangling the economy in Wales, along with the bloated red tape and wanton spending from the Labour-run Senedd?
Jo Stevens
Britain outperformed growth forecasts this year. Growth was upgraded from 1% to 1.5%, and we are on course to achieve the second-fastest growth rate among G7 countries. The Bank of England has cut interest rates five times since the election. The positive impact that our UK and Welsh Labour Governments are having is clear from how the Welsh economy is changing. In the last year in Wales, wages have increased faster than inflation, employment has risen, inactivity is down and inward investment is up.
Mims Davies
Clearly something more important than economic growth in Wales came up for Labour’s Wales Office. Can Ministers explain? The biggest rise in unemployment in the UK was in Wales, at 1.4%. Frankly, that is no surprise, given the Governments’ joint refusal to build the M4 relief road or the north Wales main line. That does not exactly match the Chancellor’s boasts about world-class infrastructure at the summit. Among the hobnobbing and backslapping, did any Ministers spare any thought for the desolate owners and workers of businesses in tatters in Monmouth and more widely? Did Ministers work on the ask for extra help to save those people’s livelihoods?
Jo Stevens
There was a smörgåsbord of questions there. I just say to the shadow Secretary of State that her party wrecked the economy, starved our public services and exacerbated the cost of living crisis. Our Labour Budget is reducing the cost of living, investing in public services and shrinking the national debt—the Conservatives increased it—while at the same time lifting thousands of children out of the poverty that the Tories created.
Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
The Office for National Statistics has revealed that a scandalous 1,000 jobs are being lost every single day across the country, meaning that Aston Martin is not immune to this Government’s economic recklessness and could soon be forced to make over 100 job losses because of the poor trade deal that Labour struck with the US. The deal includes absolutely no guarantee that small-volume car makers, like Aston Martin, will get fair access to the 10% tariff rate from 2026, meaning that they could face the imposition of an eye-watering tariff of 27.5% if they are squeezed out of the 100,000 car quota to the US. What will the Secretary of State do? Will she turn up to ensure that iconic Welsh car makers get fair access to US trade?
Jo Stevens
I have been in discussions with Aston Martin, as have Cabinet colleagues. We are doing everything we can to protect the car industry in this country. One of the biggest problems in the car industry arises from the Conservatives’ botched Brexit deal, for which the hon. Lady and her Government were responsible.
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(8 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
I note that it takes three women to take me on now, but I very much welcome the Ministers to their places. Charles Rees, a fifth-generation Pembrokeshire farmer, has bravely and moving shared his battle with cancer on the BBC’s “Countryfile”, and I know this House will send him and his family our best wishes. His illness is not his only worry; he is also seriously concerned that his son, who is running his farm, could now be facing an unaffordable inheritance tax bill of £1 million, solely due to this Government’s catastrophic family farm tax. Despite Ministers saying differently, Charles and many other farmers across the country are fearing for their livelihoods, their way of life, their futures, and for food security. Will the Government scrap the family farm tax?
Anna McMorrin
I reiterate that our reforms mean that the majority of those claiming the relief will not be affected. As confirmed by the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle), there will be no change and no U-turn on inheritance tax. This policy strikes a fair balance and is fixing our public finances, after the chaos that the Tories left, while protecting our rural communities.
Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Under the watch of the current Secretary of State, opportunities for young people are now unbelievably dire. Despite what she says, unemployment is rising and employment is falling, and that situation is not good enough for the next generation in Wales. Last week, my colleague, Darren Millar, who is the Conservative leader of the Senedd group, met the Welsh First Minister—does anyone know who that is?—offering to potentially support the Welsh Government’s budget, provided Labour Ministers agree to scrapping Welsh stamp duty. That would help young people on to the property ladder in Wales, where it is the hardest to achieve that, and boost the Welsh economy. Will the Secretary of State confirm that she agrees with scrapping Welsh stamp duty? If so, what measures is she taking to persuade Baroness Morgan of Ely to scrap the tax in Wales?
Jo Stevens
I am very glad that the hon. Lady knows the name of the Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd, because clearly her colleague the shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), does not. They must have ended their fight about who is the actual leader.
We are delivering for the people of Wales. We have ended Tory austerity, and we have the largest budget settlement in the history of devolution, with nearly £5 billion extra to spend on public services over the next three years. We are creating jobs, and we have increased the minimum wage and the national living wage for 160,000 Welsh workers. We are fixing the foundations and the chaos that the hon. Lady’s party left behind.
Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
After wantonly scrapping the Rwanda scheme, the Labour Government are now overseeing record-breaking figures of illegal immigrants. It is reported that the scandal is now engulfing north Wales, where more than 200 illegal immigrants have tried to gain entry to the country on ferries from Dublin to Holyhead. Meanwhile, there is talk about Penally military camp in south-west Wales, which was previously condemned by the Welsh Labour Government. It appears that their policy, along with Reform’s, is from boats to barracks, as is happening in Scotland and Sussex, yet Plaid says that there is no such thing as illegal immigration. Does the Minister agree that her Government and Plaid have no idea about and no interest in how to make our borders safe?
Oral Answers to Questions
Mims Davies Excerpts(10 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Once again, this Labour Government have failed women and girls through their inaction and blinkered mindset on safety in their communities and their slow action on the 2024 birth trauma inquiry report by Theo Clarke and the hon. Member for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield). That report recommended a national maternity strategy, which we committed to. Over a year on, a so-called rapid inquiry announced in June only has a chair with no experience in maternity services and an expectation to fix this national scandal by the end of the year. That is asking too much of one woman to support many women across the country. How will the Minister address ongoing and widespread concerns, which we have heard again in the Chamber, react to the existing evidence and stop the belief that many women are being failed by this Labour Government?
Stephen Kinnock
I really do find it a bit rich that the Conservatives stand there and try to lecture us after the 14 years of neglect and incompetence that were the trademark of their time in government. Baroness Amos is chairing the independent maternity and neonatal investigation, which will be a rapid investigation with two core roles: to conduct urgent reviews by the end of this year of up to 10 trusts where there are specific issues; and to conduct a systemic investigation into maternity and neonatal care in England, to create one set of national actions to drive the improvements needed to ensure high-quality care and ensure that women are listened to. That is responsible government; that is trying to fix the mess that the Conservatives made after 14 years. The Conservatives would do well to actually support us in that.
Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)
Writer and comedian Graham Linehan was apparently arrested by five police officers at Heathrow, then questioned about three tweets that he says were based on his gender-critical views, a belief protected by the Equality Act 2010. Despite this Government’s claim to protect free speech, Mr Linehan has been banned from using that platform as part of his bail conditions. Can the Minister confirm whether it is now a crime in Britain to tell potentially offensive jokes, and whether those who do so may face armed arrest?
Bridget Phillipson
The hon. Lady will know well that I cannot comment on live police investigations, as the police operate independently of Government, but the Home Secretary has been clear that her priority and the priority of this Government is that the police focus on tackling antisocial behaviour and making sure that people can walk our streets free from fear.