Contributions
4,303 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDBudget Resolutions and Economic SituationAfter 11 months in this job, it is nice, finally, to be standing opposite the person actually making decisions in this Government. The trouble is that it is those decisions that…03 Mar 2021HANSARDBudget Resolutions and Economic SituationThe Prime Minister says, “Rubbish.” That is no doubt because the kickstart scheme is helping only one in 100 eligible young people—rubbish is the right word, Prime Minister. In…03 Mar 2021HANSARDEngagementsI join the Prime Minister in his comments about the Salisbury atrocity. Does the Prime Minister agree with President Biden that the sale of arms which could be used in the war in…03 Mar 2021HANSARDEngagementsThis week the Government halved our international aid to Yemen. If this is what the Prime Minister thinks global Britain should look like, he should think again, and if he does…03 Mar 2021HANSARDEngagementsThe trouble is that, while President Biden has suspended arms sales that could be used in Yemen, the UK has not. In fact, we sold £1.4 billion-worth of arms to Saudi Arabia in…03 Mar 2021HANSARDEngagementsThe Prime Minister says the system is very robust in relation to arms sales. It cannot be that robust: the Government lost a court case just two years ago in relation to arms…03 Mar 2021HANSARDEngagementsTo make matters worse, the Government decided this week to halve international aid to Yemen—to halve it. The United Nations has said that Yemen faces the worst famine the world…03 Mar 2021HANSARDEngagementsThe fact is that £15 billion has been taken out of council budgets over the last 10 years. The Prime Minister should stop blaming others for the damage he has done. He quotes the…24 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsHere is the difference. If you need £500 to isolate, you are out of luck. If you have got the Health Secretary’s WhatsApp, you get a £1 million contract. Turning to next week’s…24 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsThree out of 10 people who should be self-isolating are not doing so. That matters to millions of people, and it matters if we are going to get the virus under control. The chair…24 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsThe Prime Minister wants to talk about tax rises, and he should, because it matters. Councils up and down the country are being forced to decide now whether to put council tax up.…24 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsI think the Prime Minister dodged that question, no doubt because all those comments came from his own MPs—some of the 60 or so members of the Covid Recovery Group. Perhaps the…24 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsThe principles behind the Prime Minister’s recovery plan—of caution and it must be irreversible—are plainly right, but one of the biggest threats to that is misinformation about…24 Feb 2021HANSARDCovid-19: Road MapI thank the Prime Minister for advance sight of his statement and for the telephone call between us earlier today. This is the third time that the Prime Minister has announced a…22 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsI am not going to take lectures from a man who not only wrote two versions of every column he ever wrote as a journalist, but proposed Donald Trump for a Nobel peace prize and…10 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsI think that answer was that the Prime Minister cannot give an answer yet, but hundreds of thousands of businesses are affected by this. The trouble is that businesses do not work…10 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsMay I begin by thanking everybody involved in the vaccine roll-out? We have now vaccinated 12.6 million people and are on course to vaccinate the first four priority groups by the…10 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsThe truth is this: the Prime Minister is failing to give security to British businesses and he is failing to secure our borders. The Prime Minister often complains that we never…10 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsWe all know what the Prime Minister once said that he wanted to do to business. We on these Benches would rather listen to businesses. We have no decision on business rates, no…10 Feb 2021HANSARDEngagementsLet me let the Prime Minister into a secret: he can take decisions for himself and he does not need to leave everything to the 11th minute. If I were Prime Minister, I would say…10 Feb 2021