Oral Answers to Questions

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Thursday 24th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend. It is noticeable that the hard-left Administration in Wales, backed up by separatists, is not acting in the interests of the people of Wales. It would be much better to accept the democratic result of the Brexit referendum. The people of the United Kingdom voted to leave; we have now left and the opportunities will flow. To waste taxpayers’ money on taking fruitless legal action is, to my mind, the sort of thing that only the hard-left socialist would do.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

13. What steps he is taking with the Metropolitan police as part of the One Public Estate programme.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mrs Heather Wheeler)]

The One Public Estate programme has provided support and £140,000 to explore estate collaboration across the emergency services and wider public sector partners in London. The programme is working with the Metropolitan police and the Greater London Authority to establish where project opportunities could be progressed.

[Munira Wilson]

With police stations throughout London up for sale, including in Teddington, the Mayor of London is determined to flog them off to the highest bidder, which generally means luxury housing developers. Does the Minister agree that if precious taxpayer-owned sites such as Teddington police station must be closed, they should routinely be part of the One Public Estate programme so that they can be repurposed for community use—for example, for Park Road surgery, an important GP facility in my constituency—and for affordable homes for key workers and young people?

[Mrs Wheeler]

I thank the hon. Lady for her interesting question. She led a Westminster Hall debate on the disposal of Teddington police station yesterday; as the Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough (Neil O’Brien), said then, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime is responsible for the disposal strategy, but it can take into account the wider social, environmental and economic benefits. He will write to the hon. Lady with further information on this matter.

Health and Social Care

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

That was brilliantly and succinctly put. Does the SNP want the money or not? Do the people of Scotland want investment in their healthcare and social care or not? There is more money coming for Scotland; let us hope that the SNP spends it wisely.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

A little over two years ago, the Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street and promised the nation an oven-ready deal on social care, yet the announcement of a tax on jobs only promises a plan later this year. Crucially, the detail in the statement says that only people starting care after October 2023 will be helped with these catastrophic costs. What does the Prime Minister say to the 1.5 million people missing out on care and to the millions of hard-working families facing crippling costs between now and September 2023 but paying for it from April next year?

[The Prime Minister]

What I say to the hon. Member is that, frankly, she should take that up with the former leaders of the Labour party, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and all the former Ministers responsible who did absolutely nothing to fix the problem when they were in office. It is this Government dealing with it now.

Covid-19 Update

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As my right hon. Friend knows, the hospitality sector in Sutton Coldfield, which I know from my own experience to be wonderful, will, like the rest of the hospitality sector across the country, be able to open up in full on Monday, including indoors. As we go forward, we hope, and I cannot see any evidence to contradict this, that we will be able to open up fully from 21 June—although people will still clearly need to exercise caution and common sense in the way they go about their lives, because the virus, I am afraid, is still going to be present in our lives for a long time to come.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

The public inquiry is very welcome and desperately needed so that the public can understand why the UK has suffered one of the highest death tolls in the world. It is critically important that this inquiry is properly independent and has the confidence of the public, including the bereaved families of the over 127,000 people who so tragically lost their lives. Consulting those families once the inquiry has started is too late. Will the Prime Minister today commit to urgently meeting representatives of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice to consult them on both the chair and the terms of reference for the inquiry?

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD) [V]]

Today’s Budget statement represents a massive missed opportunity. There were a number of measures to be welcomed, but the silence in so many areas was utterly deafening. There was absolutely nothing on social care, despite grand promises from the Prime Minister on the steps of Downing Street and the Heath Secretary promising proposals this year. There was nothing on further support for the NHS. With the backlog of non-covid care stacking up, lives are at risk, and our heroic NHS staff are on their knees. There was nothing on boosting mental health and wellbeing support for our children and young people, who have been hit so badly by this pandemic. Investing in our future means investing in our youth, not just in bricks and mortar.

There was nothing to help those exporters hit by Brexit red tape. Just last week, a chocolate maker in my constituency told me that he has been unable to export a single bar of chocolate to the EU since 1 January. He normally exports a quarter of a million pounds-worth per year. There was nothing on building more affordable and social homes—just measures to make homes yet more unaffordable. There was precious little on the environment and building a green economic recovery, and there was close to nothing for the 3 million hard-working entrepreneurs and small business owners excluded from Government support, on whose backs our economic recovery will be built.

I briefly want to focus on that last point: the small business owners who continue to be ignored by Government, despite having paid their taxes and often being so central to our local economies and our communities. With a year having elapsed since the emergency economic measures were introduced by the Chancellor, it is unforgivable that the vast majority of the 3 million excluded remain overlooked—in particular, directors of limited companies. These are not wealthy tax dodgers, as the Chancellor likes to make out. These are ordinary, hard-working folk at the heart of our high streets, including hairdressers and others—often women—who have built flexible, home-based businesses to fit around caring responsibilities.

My constituent Claire Leroux built her travel business from scratch as a single mum, eventually employing five people, with a turnover of £350,000. She has had to make her staff redundant, and her business hangs in the balance as she lives off her savings. Hairdressers, such as Elements in Teddington High Street, are struggling for survival. Owners are let down by the lack of personal financial support as directors and no VAT relief from the Chancellor for personal care businesses, as there has been for hospitality. The Treasury has had a compelling, workable proposal for a directors income support scheme put to it by experts, yet still nothing was offered today. I say to the Chancellor, it is not too late to help the 3 million excluded and put forward a revenue support scheme to support small businesses.

Covid-19: Road Map

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her brilliant question. I plant my flag firmly on everything she has just said and echo it sincerely. I add my thanks not just to the people of Stourbridge for their patience and resilience, but to the people of the entire country.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD) [V]]

Too often, children and young people have been an afterthought during this pandemic. Aside from lost learning, many children are feeling anxious and lonely due to not seeing their friends and missing out on play and other activities. We know that one in four has self-harmed in the past year, that eating disorder rates are soaring and that demand for acute beds is reaching crisis point, so will the Prime Minister please commit to providing a ring-fenced resilience fund for schools, as proposed by YoungMinds, to ensure that young people are given the mental health support they so desperately need?

Oral Answers to Questions

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

The Minister for Women and Equalities was asked—

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

What steps her Department has taken to help tackle the disproportionate effect of the covid-19 outbreak on people with a disability.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mims Davies) [V]]

The Government are committed to supporting disabled people affected by the covid-19 pandemic. We are ensuring that disabled people continue to have access to disability benefits, financial support, food, medicines and employment support, as well as updated guidance in accessible formats.

[Munira Wilson [V]]

I thank the Minister for her answer. We know that in the last lockdown over half of families with disabled children found that their essential care support was stopped, with a third of parents reporting no specific support for their child’s remote learning needs. That left many families in crisis with no respite. What steps are Ministers taking to ensure that both care and access to learning are made a priority for disabled children during this lockdown?

[Mims Davies]

The pandemic has been extremely challenging for families with children and young people with special educational needs. Supporting them is a priority for this Government and their wellbeing remains central to our response. We have our £37.3 million family fund to help more than 75,000 low-income families raising children. The hon. Lady will note that the Minister for Children and Families, my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Vicky Ford), is partaking in this session, and I am sure that she will be keen to update her further.

Covid-19

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for his support and for what he has just said. We want to roll out the vaccine across the whole country as fast as possible. It is, I hope, common ground in the House today that we are right as a country to first put jabs into the arms of those who are most at risk of mortality. That is the way to reduce the death toll and, indeed, to get our country back on its feet as fast as possible.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD) [V]]

We are in a race against time to save lives, save jobs and restore our freedoms. That is why we need a 24/7 vaccination programme that brings vaccination to every high street in the country. I therefore welcome the Prime Minister’s comments about the role of community pharmacy. Will he confirm that it is not just a few big chains that will be involved, but the thousands of independent community pharmacies, such as Goode’s chemist in Twickenham, which stand ready, waiting and able to vaccinate but have been knocked back. They would provide vital capacity and are able to reach people that mass vaccination hubs cannot.

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to draw attention to the potentially vital role of community pharmacies, of which there are about 12,000 in this country, as I am sure she knows. In my experience, they are great places: they are hygienic and the staff are knowledgeable and professional. I think we have already signed up hundreds to the campaign, and I assure her that there will be many more to follow.

Covid-19: NAO Report on Government Procurement

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 Westminster Hall

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Eagle.

The NAO report raises serious questions that the Government must address on both competency and cronyism. We have heard some of the numbers cited in the NAO report today from other Members, and they are staggering. Clearly, in the midst of a national—and indeed, an international—health emergency, where every country in the world was scrambling for supplies, standard procurement rules and processes needed to be relaxed; clearly, in such a competitive market, prices would skyrocket and some mistakes would be made.

However, the headless-chicken approach that the Government have pursued led to the procurement of millions of products that were not fit for purpose or that simply never materialised. For instance, £364 million was spent on full-body coveralls, with only 432,000 of those items delivered and used. That amounts to £840 per bodysuit, which is completely unacceptable.

We now know from the NAO report that companies placed on the VIP list were 10 times more likely to win contracts in the early months of the pandemic. There were no criteria for referrals to the fast-track lane, and the source of the referral was not always recorded, so I hope the Minister will outline clearly what criteria were used to assess offers from MPs, peers and Ministers, what processes were followed and what due diligence was undertaken on their credibility and suitability.

As we have heard already, many companies with no prior experience were awarded contracts, and others with good experience were turned down. The lack of transparency, the lack of risk management and the lack of a paper trail in relation to billions of pounds of public funds absolutely stinks.

Integrity, objectivity and accountability are among the seven Nolan principles of public life; these have been tested to destruction on numerous occasions, not least in the context of the whopping procurement decisions detailed in the NAO report. While NHS staff were wrapping themselves in bin bags and dying in the line of duty, and while schoolchildren were making DIY PPE, millions of pounds of public money was being siphoned off to inexperienced companies, many with links to the Conservative party.

Ministers must now commit to a thorough independent inquiry at the earliest possible opportunity, as the Liberal Democrats have been calling for. We should establish a cross-party committee to examine all contracts awarded for the remainder of the pandemic, not least in the roll-out of the vaccines.

Public Health

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Tuesday 1st December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to follow the impassioned and measured speech of the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton).

This Government have asked the British people to make immense personal and financial sacrifices over the past eight months, and they are now asking the vast majority to continue doing so for many weeks and probably months to come. As a Liberal, I strongly believe in and champion the importance of personal freedom, which is why I have struggled so much with the measures taken to date, but as a Liberal, John Stuart Mill’s principle of do no harm is critical, which is why I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues are very clear that, sadly, ongoing restrictions on our personal freedoms are needed to keep the virus under control.

We support the overarching principles of a localised approach, which crucially involves local leaders in decision making, but this Government are stubbornly refusing to do that. The execution of the approach, like so many aspects of the Government’s response to this pandemic, is deeply flawed. The British people have shown an enormous amount of good will and the vast majority have done the right thing, but that can be maintained only if the Government make sure that their decisions are transparent and evidence-based, fair and backed up with proper support. I want to focus in particular on transparency in evidence and, briefly, on support.

No evidence has been provided for the rationale behind the various contradictory and perverse changes in the new tier system. Why in tier 2 is it deemed safe for 1,000 people to attend an indoor event, yet two friends cannot meet for a drink in one of Twickenham’s pubs that have spent thousands on ensuring they are covid-secure? If we want to build trust and compliance among the public and provide motivation to stick to the rules to do the right thing, they need to understand what they are working towards, yet the Government have so far refused to publish details of how their five indicators are being applied or weighted. For a party that is supposed to believe in personal responsibility and encouraging people to do the right thing, the Conservatives seem very hesitant to equip people to be able to do so.

I have long argued, along with Government Members, for a full impact assessment that details not just the economic impact, but the non-covid health harms. The flimsy document published yesterday was, frankly, not worth the paper it was written on and it has left me none the wiser about the impact of the restrictions on my constituents. How does that help to build trust and buy-in to these measures?

On support, briefly, those of us making these difficult decisions do not need to worry about how we will pay for our children’s shoes, yet many of our constituents whose livelihoods are being destroyed do need to worry. They need far greater support—particularly the hospitality sector and the 3 million who have been overlooked to date. It is simply not good enough. That is why I cannot and will not vote for these measures.

Covid-19: Winter Plan

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can assure my hon. Friend that the Secretary of State for Transport is looking at all such schemes. I am sure he will have heard what my hon. Friend has said loud and clear. He will be making some announcements very shortly.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

Today’s covid winter plan confirms a further £7 billion for test and trace, taking the full bill this year to some £22 billion. Could the Prime Minister confirm how much of that additional funding will be going to the highly effective local authority contact tracing teams, how much will be squandered on management consultants and Serco’s failed national contact tracing system, and how much will go on further supporting those asked to self-isolate?

[The Prime Minister]

I cannot give the hon. Member a breakdown of the figures now, but what I can certainly tell her is that, actually, NHS Test and Trace has been working hand in glove with local authorities from the beginning. There are, to the best of my knowledge, about 198 local authority testing teams now actively going out there and doing what is necessary. They are doing a fantastic job.