argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour, Centre-left): I feel as if I have completely let down those who showered me with so much love. Why wasn’t I by the bedside of my lovely grandmother during her final few days? Why did I let her die alone in that hospital? Why did I not attend the funeral of my uncle? It was because of worries about Government restrictions on numbers. And why did I not go to comfort my brother- in-law’s father as he was dying in a Slough care home? With all of this context, it is utterly hypocritical for those very individuals who were preaching to us ad nauseam about patriotism, the flag and the Queen to be having late-night parties, including two on the night before the Queen had to sit all alone during her husband’s funeral when the country was in a state of national mourning. Absolutely shameless. Given that the Prime Minister is not going to do the right and honourable thing, does he agree that it is not the support and sympathy of the British people that are keeping him in power, the majority of whom want him to resign, but the support and sympathy of those—
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Other
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. I am sorry, but this is meant to be a question. Also we do not normally bring the monarchy into proceedings. I am sure that the Prime Minister will have got the gist. I understand the emotions behind this, but questions have to be shorter.
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): What a load of baloney. Excuse after excuse after excuse, and it simply does not wash with the British public, who are sick and tired of being taken for fools. The truth is that the Prime Minister encouraged the gatherings, he attended the gatherings, he poured the drinks at the gatherings and he even raised a toast at the gatherings, so he knew perfectly well that these gatherings had taken place. The most despicable thing of all is that Sue Gray says she saw "multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff." They knew what the rules meant, even if nobody else did. Does the Prime Minister show no contrition, no sense of shame, that Downing Street, under him, has been a cesspit full of arrogant, entitled narcissists?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Other
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. Both of you need to have a cup of tea outside, because I cannot hear the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton) with you both shouting at each other A separate debate was trying to be created, but we do not need to worry anymore.
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): I do not believe that the Prime Minister has any credibility left, because my constituents tell me that they do not believe what he says. So I want to ask the Prime Minister about what I think is the bare minimum in this situation: cleaning staff and security staff in No. 10 were treated with a lack of respect, so has he personally apologised to them?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister’s leadership—his behaviour—drives the culture not only in our politics, but in our country. It also gives licence to others to behave in a similar manner. So if he is genuine in his apology, and—[Interruption.] Will he, first, ensure that the ministerial and Members’ codes have the Nolan principles incorporated into them and put them into statute? Secondly, will he condemn those Oldham Conservative candidates who delivered toxic racist and misogynistic leaflets during the recent local elections? His chairman has details of that.
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Karin Marguerite Smyth (Labour, Centre-left): The problem with the report is that the dates that are outlined so clearly reopen many of our wounds. I am going to ask the Prime Minister the question that the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell) asked earlier but the Prime Minister did not answer: when he met with Sue Gray recently, did he ask her not to publish the report?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sarah Ann Jones (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister was asked whether he thought any other Prime Minister would have allowed such rule breaking on their watch. I was a senior civil servant for two Prime Ministers—Gordon Brown and the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May)—and I can tell the Prime Minister that when I was a senior civil servant no such behaviour would have occurred. What is clear to me in the Sue Gray report is the number of comments by civil servants who knew that they were doing something wrong. They said: "we seem to have got away with" it; this is "somewhat of a comms risk"; people should not be "walking around waving bottles of wine" in front of cameras—and it goes on. They knew they were doing something wrong; did the Prime Minister, at any stage and at any of the events he attended, think he was doing something wrong?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rushanara Ali (Labour, Centre-left): I, like many in this country, have lost loved ones. My constituents have lost loved ones. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost loved ones. The longer that this goes on the more traumatising their experience is. I can tell the Prime Minister that sitting through this statement is very traumatising for many of us who have lost loved ones and our constituents. We cannot go on like this. Will the Prime Minister now do the decent thing—the honourable thing—accept responsibility and step down so that we can all move on and get on with our lives and ensure that people who have suffered so much are protected and served properly?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Civil Rights
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): My constituent Ruby Fuller lived by the motto, "Live kindly, live loudly" in pursuit of social justice. Ruby died from cancer on 20 May 2020 as the "bring your own booze" party was happening in Downing Street. Her grandparents and her young friends had to say goodbye to Ruby by Zoom. What does the Prime Minister have to say to Ruby’s friends—young people in my constituency who are listening to him today blaming everybody but himself? When will he accept that every single day that he remains in Downing Street our politics is corroded further?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Other
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): To those MPs who have clearly gone for their lunch, may I advise them that the Prime Minister’s humble pie is off? Was the Prime Minister at the party on 18 December 2020—the so-called wine and cheese evening that lasted for five hours, where red wine was "spilled on one wall", it was "crowded and noisy", and a cleaner was forced to clean up afterwards. Was he at it, at any stage of the proceedings?
Sue Gray Report — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Other
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): In response to the question put by my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern), the Prime Minister said that he had not had time to apologise to the cleaning and security staff. Is he telling this House that Sue Gray and no official apprised him of one of the eight conclusions of this report prior to his coming to the House today—or are those staff just not his priority?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Paul Christopher Blomfield (Labour, Centre-left): There is clearly considerable agreement across the House on these issues. One of the important areas in which we have played our part, and should play our part more, is the provision of refuge for those who are seeking a home away from the conflict. People in Sheffield responded very generously to the Homes for Ukraine scheme, but are expressing enormous frustration at the inability of the Home Office to deliver visas within the timeframe that we would expect. At the beginning of April, when Lord Harrington—for whom I have a high regard—took responsibility for the scheme, he set a public target of 48 hours from when people "download the application form" to when they are given permission to travel. I have constituency cases in which families who applied on 26 March still do not have permission to travel two months later, and it is clear that my experience is shared by Members across the House People have told me that they are now applying a second time, particularly when children are involved, because they face such long delays and they have no faith that their original application is still being worked on. Obviously that will only cause further complications and congestion in the system. What assurance can the Minister give me that he will take this up with the Home Office, and that we will do something to meet the obligations we took on, and the ambition that we set, when we launched the Homes for Ukraine scheme?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Janet Jessica Daby (Labour, Centre-left): I am extremely grateful. My intervention is similar to that of my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield). I have constituents from Ukraine. They are a family of five, but their children have been unsuccessful in obtaining visas. I recognise that there is a priority for visas for Ukrainian people who are outside the UK. Could the Minister ask his ministerial colleagues at the Home Office to look at this case and perhaps give it a degree of priority, so that this family can get their benefits and so on?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Janet Jessica Daby (Labour, Centre-left): The cases coming to my attention in my constituency involve families waiting for up to two months for visas for the Ukraine family scheme and the Homes for Ukraine scheme. That is unacceptable. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Home Office must address that matter, as well as the issue of staff having to wait up to two hours on the phone to get through to the Home Office?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Luke Pollard (Labour, Centre-left): All of us in this place will have seen the queues snaking around Portcullis House. Our parliamentary staff, who have an awful lot on their plates regardless of whom they work for, are sitting in a queue to try to get answers out of the Home Office system. It should not take an intervention by a Member of Parliament to make the system work properly. It should certainly not take hours and hours of our staff’s time to try to get a decent answer. The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) is in his place and will have heard what I have said. We wish him luck with fixing this broken system. At the moment, it is not delivering on the promise made by him and the Home Secretary of a swift, efficient system to help people fleeing conflict to get to a place of safety and to get there quickly. There are people now who question how long it will take for families to get here, and that even includes those who have contact with a Ukrainian family. We need to ensure that the system works In Plymouth, we have families across the city who want to take up the offer, but they are waiting for that matching service. I pay tribute not only to those families, but to our schools, our health services and our mental health services across the country who are assisting Ukrainian families and individuals who have been fleeing such difficult circumstances.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): I was in Lithuania with an all-party group. At the reception centres for refugees, women were coming in with children and were being processed within 12 hours. They were simply given biometric and other checks and then associated with a family, with a kindergarten and with work, and then they were done. They were regarded as friends and as people helping in the workforce rather than as Russian spies. The men were put in another place, because they were expected to fight.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Mathew Richard Allen Rodda (Labour, Centre-left): I offer my wholehearted support for Finland and Sweden’s inclusion in NATO, and for the important work that NATO does on collective security. Does my hon. Friend agree that, on a parallel track, there should be much better support for refugees? The Government need to step up their support, particularly with respect to family reunification. I have recently dealt with some very difficult cases in which families have been separated. May I ask my hon. Friend to focus on that point?
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful for that intervention. We are not just talking about economic costs and sanctions; the main cost of this war is the loss of human life, and the 5 million refugees who have left Ukraine. There is a lot of talk in this place about the need to stop people getting into boats and crossing the channel, but we are simply are not doing enough for those 5 million Ukrainians When I visited Lithuania, I went to centres at which hundreds and hundreds of people were arriving each day. People—usually women with young children—were processed within hours. Biometric and basic checks would be done, and then the individuals would be associated with a family, a kindergarten, work and so on. I talked to the head of the civil service about immigration and refugees, and she said that they regarded those people not as refugees, but as friends or part of their family, and as a support to their labour market. In Britain, the view tends to be, "Hold on, what about the cost to the health service, education and so on?" That is despite the fact that we have labour shortages, as 1.4 million Europeans who were registered to work here have stayed in Europe. Obviously, we should open our hearts and homes to the people of Ukraine, who share our values. We share their suffering, and we should support them in every way we can. Not enough is being done, and we need to do much more, much more quickly and effectively.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Geraint Richard Davies (Labour, Centre-left): The right hon. Lady makes an excellent point, which I fully concur with. Frankly, the reason for this discrepancy has been the mean-minded culture in Britain—the idea that we somehow have a refugee problem. Across Europe, we are 17th for the number of asylum seekers we take per head of population, and fifth overall. It is not as if we have a huge burden. In Poland and elsewhere—I have mentioned Lithuania—there is a massive burden of people coming over. A lot of them are in a state of psychological flight, and they think, "Actually, we want to go to Britain." Getting to Britain is being made out to have been made easy, but it has not. People are taking months, not days, to get here, and that should be resolved straight away.
Ukraine — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Immigration
Sarah Mei Li Owen (Labour, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there is deep concern about reports that Ukrainian refugees are becoming homeless after falling out with hosts in this country? There is a problem not only with the matching of Ukrainian refugees and their hosts, but with maintenance. We are not checking that those refugees—they are incredibly vulnerable, and many of them are women—are safe when they get to this country.
Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Emma Louise Lewell-Buck (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker, for granting me this debate on the operation of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953. This is not just a debate about the operation of an Act or our campaign to make changes to it; it is a debate about the enduring pain of loss. It is about unimaginable heartbreak and how the Government can inject some humanity and empathy into this decades-old legislation.
Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 — House of Commons, 2022-05-25
Topic: Mixed Topics
Maria Eagle (Labour, Centre-left): I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. She is aware, I know, that I too have constituents who lost a child in those events. They have said to me that the lack of ability to register the death of their child has taken from them the last thing they felt they could do for her. Does my hon. Friend agree that reform of this provision would be a blessing for some of the families—although not all—who find themselves caught up in such dreadful public disasters, and feel that they are carried away with no control and no capacity to have an input in the final way in which their child is dealt with by the state?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-03-03
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: We have many successful global exporters home grown in North Devon, such as Turnstyle Designs, S+H lighting and Saltrock surf wear, but many smaller companies feel that this is not something that they can do. Will my hon. Friend highlight what support is available to companies in remote and rural areas such as North Devon to help them to grow and export?; Both myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Paul Bristow) had the great privilege of visiting Bangladesh last month with the Al-Tazid Foundation, where we had the opportunity to meet not only His Excellency the High Commissioner, who is doing such a fantastic job, but the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister. We also took part in the business side. Bangladesh’s economy is growing at great pace; it is an increasingly dynamic economy. I appreciate that we are going to do a trade deal, but can the Secretary of State outline what steps are being taken by the Government to intensify trade, co-operation and investment between our country and Bangladesh?; Some pork producers, including Cranswick, which has premises in Thirsk and Malton, did the right thing and self-suspended export licences to China due to a covid outbreak. Seventeen months later, those licences have not been reinstated. Can we do whatever we can to get these licences back in place? It would help Cranswick, those other producers and the pig industry generally, which is suffering quite badly.; I warmly welcome the new trade deals that are being announced. Not all of them include financial services, which is our biggest export sector. Working closely with the Treasury, can the Secretary of State update the House on where the strategic focus is in increasing access for financial services firms and financial services exports?
William Roffen Esterson (Labour, Centre-left): When the Secretary of State responded to the question about luxury goods by not answering it, it begs the question, why not, and raises the question of whether there are conflicts of interest behind it. The contrast with Syria, where export controls were put in place, is stark. If it was appropriate for Syria, why is it not appropriate for Russia? I remind her of her words. She talked about working with allies and tightening the screw, so will she now, with her colleagues across Government, put in place that ban on luxury goods?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-03-03
Topic: Other
Questions: We have many successful global exporters home grown in North Devon, such as Turnstyle Designs, S+H lighting and Saltrock surf wear, but many smaller companies feel that this is not something that they can do. Will my hon. Friend highlight what support is available to companies in remote and rural areas such as North Devon to help them to grow and export?; Both myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Paul Bristow) had the great privilege of visiting Bangladesh last month with the Al-Tazid Foundation, where we had the opportunity to meet not only His Excellency the High Commissioner, who is doing such a fantastic job, but the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister. We also took part in the business side. Bangladesh’s economy is growing at great pace; it is an increasingly dynamic economy. I appreciate that we are going to do a trade deal, but can the Secretary of State outline what steps are being taken by the Government to intensify trade, co-operation and investment between our country and Bangladesh?; Some pork producers, including Cranswick, which has premises in Thirsk and Malton, did the right thing and self-suspended export licences to China due to a covid outbreak. Seventeen months later, those licences have not been reinstated. Can we do whatever we can to get these licences back in place? It would help Cranswick, those other producers and the pig industry generally, which is suffering quite badly.; I warmly welcome the new trade deals that are being announced. Not all of them include financial services, which is our biggest export sector. Working closely with the Treasury, can the Secretary of State update the House on where the strategic focus is in increasing access for financial services firms and financial services exports?
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. We ought to be cautious about the language we use against Members. I support the Minister, who is suffering heavily from intimidation from people who I would not support. Let us be a bit more cautious about how we put things in future.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2022-03-03
Topic: Other
Questions: We have many successful global exporters home grown in North Devon, such as Turnstyle Designs, S+H lighting and Saltrock surf wear, but many smaller companies feel that this is not something that they can do. Will my hon. Friend highlight what support is available to companies in remote and rural areas such as North Devon to help them to grow and export?; Both myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Paul Bristow) had the great privilege of visiting Bangladesh last month with the Al-Tazid Foundation, where we had the opportunity to meet not only His Excellency the High Commissioner, who is doing such a fantastic job, but the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister. We also took part in the business side. Bangladesh’s economy is growing at great pace; it is an increasingly dynamic economy. I appreciate that we are going to do a trade deal, but can the Secretary of State outline what steps are being taken by the Government to intensify trade, co-operation and investment between our country and Bangladesh?; Some pork producers, including Cranswick, which has premises in Thirsk and Malton, did the right thing and self-suspended export licences to China due to a covid outbreak. Seventeen months later, those licences have not been reinstated. Can we do whatever we can to get these licences back in place? It would help Cranswick, those other producers and the pig industry generally, which is suffering quite badly.; I warmly welcome the new trade deals that are being announced. Not all of them include financial services, which is our biggest export sector. Working closely with the Treasury, can the Secretary of State update the House on where the strategic focus is in increasing access for financial services firms and financial services exports?
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): Order. They have to be short questions. [Interruption.] In fairness, Sir Bernard, you know better than anybody, which is why you are the Chair of the Liaison Committee. I think the Secretary of State has got the message.