Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-02
Topic: Health
Questions: First, may I say how brave the Ukrainian people are and that they have the full support of the whole House? May I also commend the Prime Minister and the Government for the excellent actions that we have taken so far? Ukraine is very much the bread basket of the world and it grows much wheat. We therefore need to make sure that there is food security and also security of global food supply. Does the Prime Minister agree that we need also to look to our production in this country to make sure that we can maintain a good standard of food production and enhance our food production in order to keep good and affordable food for the future?;   On 28 July last year, every Labour councillor in Bury voted in favour of Andy Burnham’s plan to impose a 493 square mile clean air charging zone on my constituents and the residents of Greater Manchester. The Mayor’s plan is an attack on jobs and opportunity; it is based on flawed data and should be scrapped. Does my right hon. Friend agree?; The nurses and doctors working at Warrington Hospital in my constituency provide selfless care for families living in some of the most deprived areas of England, where life expectancy is 12 years lower than the national average. At the same time, the population has expanded, with thousands of new homes being built in Warrington and putting pressure on services, particularly at the general hospital. Does the Prime Minister agree that tackling health inequalities is key to levelling up, and will he support my campaign for a new hospital in Warrington?; The situation in Ukraine continues to appal most of the world and shame the rest—and, importantly, highlights the need to break our economic dependency both on Russia and on China. Does the Prime Minister agree that our national security must be protected, and our food, energy, fibre and national infrastructure must be secure, both now and in the future, from hostile Governments? Specifically, will he commit to the real hydrogen strategy that both industry and trade unions such as the GMB are calling for by doubling the hydrogen production target for 2030?;   Last September, my constituent Dylan Rich, who was a talented 17-year-old footballer, tragically collapsed and died during a youth FA cup game. His family and his club, the West Bridgford Colts, raised money in his honour to buy more defibrillators to put on-site, but were faced with a VAT bill of hundreds of pounds on each life-saving device. Will my right hon. Friend commit to reviewing the VAT on commercial defibrillators to bring them in line with the zero rate applied to other medical instruments, and will he meet me, Dylan’s family and his club to discuss this much-needed change?; Will the Prime Minister instruct the Conservative party to give to Ukrainian humanitarian causes the £2 million it has accepted from Lubov Chernukhin? This includes £80,000 referred to in data released today by the Electoral Commission. I know he does not want to tar everyone with Russian links with the same brush, and neither do I, but leaked documents—[Interruption.] Conservative Members might want to listen to the question. Leaked documents show that Lubov Chernukhin received £8 million from a Russian member of Parliament, an ally of Putin who was later sanctioned by the United States. This is an opportunity for the Conservative party and for the Prime Minister to end the suspicion of conflicts of interest with Putin, while showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.; Does my right hon. Friend agree that choices always have consequences? Putin has chosen to inflict death and destruction on the people of Ukraine and must be made to pay, but others, including those in the Russian military and Russian oligarchs, could still choose to be on the right side of history. Will my right hon. Friend and other world leaders tell them to make the right choice and to make it soon, because in this conflict, time is life?; Two weeks ago in a letter to the Prime Minister, I outlined that over half a million people in the UK are immunocompromised, and to them, the idea of living with covid is frightening, while many charities such as the MS Society are not reassured by the Government’s lifting of restrictions around free testing and isolation. Does he agree that in order to protect this group, free covid-19 testing must continue, and include their families and friends as well as any unpaid carers, so that they can really be allowed to live with covid?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): As I think I said to the hon. Lady last week, it is absolutely essential that those who are immunocompromised and the clinically extremely vulnerable continue to have access to free testing and all the therapies and antivirals that they need.