Engagements — House of Commons, 2019-04-03
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: With party loyalties being severely tested, is my right hon. Friend aware that, as the country and the world ponder whether Brexit means Brexit and whether we will make a success of it, Southend-on-Sea has been welcoming ambassadors from all over the world to work in partnership and on investment, looking at our pier and building a new marina? Will she consider bringing forward a meaningful vote, for which I believe there is a majority in the House, that Southend-on-Sea be declared a city?; When the Prime Minister sits down later this afternoon with my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Brexit Secretary, no doubt she will hear that Labour’s policy on Brexit is to secure membership of a customs union and the single market, and—crucially—to get a people’s vote on any deal. If the Prime Minister accepts that compromise, she can pass her deal and leave office. Will she do so?; This afternoon there will be a reception in Parliament to honour the 51 Muslims killed in Christchurch. In the wake of that horrific terror attack, mosques were targeted in Birmingham and Newcastle. There is a global rise in Islamophobia, including in the ranks of the Tory party. In an article for The Times this week, their party chairman could not even utter the word “Islamophobia”. How can they deal with a problem they cannot even name? I ask the Prime Minister, for the third time, when will the Conservative party conduct an inquiry and adopt the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims definition of Islamophobia?; The British Government are in meltdown, Westminster is completely dysfunctional, and this morning the Wales Office lost its fourth Minister in a year. Who could possibly say that Westminster is working for Wales?; My constituent Georgia Stokes has two children with autism who have been unable to get the support they need and are therefore not at school because of incorrect diagnoses. Every child with autism is unique, which is why awareness raising and education about autism is vital. Some 34% of children on the autism spectrum say that the worst thing about being at school is being picked on. This World Autism Awareness Week, will the Prime Minister commit to speeding up the time between referral for autism and diagnosis, and will she promise to fund mandatory training for healthcare professionals so that parents such as Georgia are not left to fend for themselves?; After two years of Brexit deadlock, intransigence and a seven-hour Cabinet meeting, the best the Prime Minister can do is invite the leader of the British Labour party to become the co-owner of her Brexit failure. Let me ask her: had she been the Leader of the Opposition and been invited into a trap like that, would she have been foolish enough to accept?;   Back in June last year, I asked the Prime Minister to help fund the recycling of the 20 old nuclear submarines tied up and rotting in Devonport and Rosyth. Today’s National Audit Office report shows that the Ministry of Defence has no funded plan to do this work, and no submarines have been dismantled since 1980—that is the year I was born. Will the Prime Minister now extend the civil nuclear clean-up to make sure that it includes all the Royal Navy submarines, so that we can deal with this issue, and make that part of her legacy in office?; Grace Warnock is a young East Lothian constituent of mine who has Crohn’s disease. Using accessible toilets, she has faced negative comments and abuse from adults, but this has inspired her to create Grace’s sign to remind everyone that there are people with invisible disabilities, who have every right to use accessible toilet facilities, and that society should have a heart. Will the Prime Minister join me in endorsing Grace’s campaign to standardise toilet signage to ensure that anyone—anybody—with a disability feels able to use accessible toilets without abuse?; The Prime Minister stated last night that she will meet the Leader of the Opposition. Can she indicate for the benefit of my party, the Democratic Unionist party, but also for all Members of this House, which of the Leader of the Opposition’s Brexit policies she thinks she could accept?;   South Wales Police is doing a brilliant job in Cardiff South and Penarth, in spite of pressures, dealing with knife crime, drugs, domestic violence and so much more, but it does not get capital city funding, unlike in other capitals, which makes the pressure worse. Will the Prime Minister look at this again urgently, and does she agree that we would be better off spending billions on our police instead of Brexit?; Despite the repeated efforts of my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Afzal Khan) and others in calling on the Prime Minister to adopt the all-party group on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia, the Prime Minister refuses. Despite repeated calls for an independent inquiry into institutional Islamophobia in the Tory party by the former chair, Baroness Warsi, the Muslim Council of Britain and the Tories’ own Conservative Muslim Forum, the Prime Minister again refuses. The London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, said just a few days ago: “I have never received an explanation let alone an apology for the openly Islamophobic campaign the party ran against me in London in 2016,”and that the attacks on him continue. I ask the Prime Minister directly today: will she now show some leadership and at the very minimum apologise to London Mayor Sadiq Khan for the Islamophobic campaign led by her party?; Head- teachers and governors in my constituency have cut school budgets to the bones. They are now desperately concerned about the impact on children. The Prime Minister’s own advisers have been sent into schools and, as reported by Schools Week, their ideas are truly shocking: reducing lunch portions for some of the most disadvantaged; holding back money for charities; and even employing unqualified teachers. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that these suggestions belong to the days of the workhouse, not 21st-century England?; Freedom of movement is a good thing. It is good economically: EU citizens exercising their free movement rights contribute to our GDP. It is good socially: our communities are more diverse and more successful as a result. And it is good for our young people, who can go to Europe to study and to work. Can the Prime Minister be honest about the benefits of freedom of movement and ensure that we retain those benefits?; The Prime Minister and I are both fans of Geoffrey Boycott, who was perhaps not best known for compromise in his prime but, like many of us, has mellowed with the years. In the spirit of the times, will the Prime Minister find time in her busy diary to look at the compromise proposals advanced by the Mayor of South Yorkshire on the important subject of Yorkshire devolution?
Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (Independent, Unknown): I find myself in a slightly curious position, sandwiched between the Liberal Democrats and the Welsh nationalists. I reassure my constituents and hon. Members that I remain a progressive Conservative while I am, sadly, independent in this House The Prime Minister’s late conversion to compromise is welcome, but I am sure she will understand the scepticism of those of us who have been working on a cross-party compromise for many months. Can she reassure me that she will enter discussions with the Leader of the Opposition and other parties without the red lines that have bedevilled the Brexit negotiations so far?