I, too, welcome the Canadian Speaker. I also welcome Mervyn Kersh to the Gallery today. He is a member of our greatest generation and a D-day veteran who entered Bergen-Belsen days after it was liberated. Mervyn is 100 years old. I am lucky to have met him twice, and I know that it took him many, many years before he felt that he could even begin to tell his story. We thank him for his service and the story he has told us in respect of it.
As we mark Armistice Day, we give our eternal thanks to Mervyn and all those who served, and we remember the extraordinary sacrifice of ordinary people who fought to defend our freedom. The House will also want to join me in remembering Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg. He showed the most extraordinary courage to share his testimony, and in his memory we must ensure that “never again” means never again.
I welcome the news that SSE has announced that it will spend £33 billion on clean energy projects in this country. That is a major vote of confidence in the UK economy, and it is happening because of our decision to embrace the opportunities of clean power. This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.
I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks about remembrance. I particularly remember being in west Africa in 1997, where I somehow managed to survive a bloody and violent attempted coup—if the Prime Minister wants any ideas on how to do that, he only has to ask. [Laughter.] Prime Minister’s questions last week was an absolute bin fire. If the Prime Minister is indeed intent on promoting the United Kingdom on the world stage, please can he promise the House that he will never ever be away on a Wednesday again?
It is always great to hear from Kwasi Kwarteng’s successor in his constituency. I am very proud to represent our country on the world stage, as I did last week at COP and before that in NATO. It is because of the reputation we have rebuilt over the last 16 months that other countries now want to do trade deals with us and place their orders with us.
Q2. I, too, associate myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister.The Prime Minister will be aware of the campaign being run by the trustees of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme to return the £2.3 billion investment reserve back to its members, 700 of whom are in Doncaster Central. The Labour Government delivered on their manifesto pledge for the mineworkers’ pension scheme last year, so will the Prime Minister also ensure that fairness and justice are delivered to the BCSSS members at the upcoming Budget, and will he meet me and other coalfield MPs to discuss this matter further?
I know how committed my hon. Friend is to righting historic wrongs for our mining communities, and I assure her that I am too. She will know that we have already transferred £1.5 billion that was wrongly kept from over 100,000 former mineworkers. Ministers have met the BCSSS trustees on several occasions, and the industry Minister—the Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Chris McDonald)—is meeting them later today. I will make sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster Central (Sally Jameson) is updated in relation to that.
I associate my party with the Prime Minister’s comments about Remembrance Week and about Manfred Goldberg and Mervyn Kersh, who is in the Gallery today.
This morning on the BBC, the Health Secretary said that there is a “toxic culture” in Downing Street that needs to change. He is right, isn’t he?
My focus each and every day is on rebuilding and renewing our country. Let me be absolutely clear: any attack on any member of my Cabinet is completely unacceptable. In relation to the Health Secretary, he promised before the election that in the first year of a Labour Government we would deliver 2 million extra appointments. We did not deliver 2 million or 3 million or 4 million. We delivered 5 million extra appointments. Today the Health Secretary is in Manchester, where he is announcing that because of the action he has taken to abolish NHS England, he is putting more people on the frontline. He is doing a great job, as is the whole of my Cabinet.
What we heard the Health Secretary say this morning was that he wants to cut waiting lists, but we all know that there is only one waiting list he really wants to cut.
The Prime Minister is not going to do anything about the toxic culture, but this is his responsibility. Just last night, his allies accused not just the Health Secretary but the Home Secretary and even the Energy Secretary of launching leadership bids. These attacks came from No. 10—nowhere else: his toxic No. 10. The person responsible for the culture in No. 10 is his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. Does the Prime Minister have full confidence in him?
Morgan McSweeney, my team and I are absolutely focused on delivering for the country. Let me be clear: of course I have never authorised attacks on Cabinet members. I appointed them to their posts because they are the best people to carry out their jobs.
The right hon. Lady asks about waiting lists—waiting lists are down under this Government. The number of GPs is up, and because we have scrapped NHS England we are investing on the frontline. That is what the Health Secretary is doing today: getting on with his job, and he is doing a very good job too.
I did not hear the Prime Minister give his full confidence in Morgan McSweeney. He says that these attacks are not authorised. The truth is that that means he has lost control of No. 10, because that is where they are coming from. But the real scandal is that, two weeks from a Budget, the Government have descended into civil war. Instead of fixing the mess they have made of the economy, they are all—[Interruption.] Mr Speaker, they are all chuntering. These are the “feral MPs” that No.10 has been talking about. Those are not my words; they are No. 10’s words—his words.
Unbelievably, the Prime Minister’s advisers have been reduced to briefing that MPs cannot get rid of him—I am not making this up—because it would destabilise international markets. Why does the Prime Minister think that there would be a market meltdown if the Health Secretary took over?
This is a united team and we are delivering together. Look at what we are delivering: the fastest growth in the G7; five interest rate cuts; trade deals with the EU, the US and India—all of which the Conservatives opposed. We have delivered. I can update the House—[Interruption.]
I can update the House. The Bank of England has upgraded growth today. We have secured £230 billion of private investment. Just this morning—I thought the right hon. Lady might welcome this—SSE has announced £33 billion of investment in clean power. That is what this team are delivering for the country: fixing the mess that the Conservatives left.
The Prime Minister is talking about growth and investment. While he desperately tries to cling on to his own job, perhaps he understands what it is like for all those people out there losing their jobs. How can he talk about growth? Yesterday, we learned that unemployment has risen to the same rate as it was in lockdown—180,000 jobs lost. Why does the Prime Minister think that unemployment has risen every single month since Labour took office?
Let me give the House the details: 329,000 more people are in work since the start of this year. Of course I accept that we need to do more in relation to unemployment. That is why we are transforming jobcentres, which the Conservatives opposed. That is why we are working with 60 major businesses to tackle ill health in the workplace and have invested £3.8 billion in tailored back-to-work support, which the Conservatives opposed. I also remind the Leader of the Opposition that average unemployment in the 14 years of her Government was 5.4%—higher than the rate today.