argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Withdrawal Agreement: Proposed Changes — House of Commons, 2019-10-07
Topic: International Affairs
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): The Minister will be well aware that the withdrawal agreement we already have says that it protects the Belfast/Good Friday agreement "in all its dimensions"—those are the precise words. The withdrawal agreement also protects the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the principle of consent. I would like the Minister to take a few moments to explain in detail to the people of Northern Ireland in particular how the Prime Minister’s new proposals guarantee those essential features of the withdrawal agreement.
No-deal Brexit: Schedule of Tariffs — House of Commons, 2019-10-07
Topic: Agriculture
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): Dairy Council Northern Ireland represents the four companies that account for over 90% of the milk collected from farms in Northern Ireland each year. We are talking about 3,000 farming families in Northern Ireland. I want the Minister to address the warning given by the chief executive of Dairy Council Northern Ireland, who said today: "If we don't get a Brexit deal and cannot transport raw milk south, without significant delays and/or certification requirements, then our industry is facing a crisis of epic proportions" How will the Minister attempt to reassure dairy farmers in Northern Ireland?
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe — House of Commons, 2019-10-07
Topic: International Affairs
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Independent, Unknown): I commend my right hon. Friend on the way in which he is handling this distressing issue, and I again commend the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq) on the way in which she raises it. The House is united in expressing concern and distress about the circumstances concerning Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, as it has done before I have two questions for my right hon. Friend. First, is it not the case that even if Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is treated as an Iranian citizen, she has now served enough time to be eligible for parole, and it is therefore open to the Iranian authorities, without making any concession in relation to the charges against her, to release her? Secondly, although there are no formal linkages related to her case, Iran covers a wide front in terms of its concerns about issues around it and the negotiations it takes part in, so will he simply confirm that the United Kingdom keeps an open mind in engaging in all those discussions, which will help to reduce tensions in the region? A reduction in tension may make it easier for other matters to be considered.
Rural Areas: Health Service Funding — House of Commons, 2019-07-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Ivan Lewis (Independent, Unknown): People in rural areas need more investment in social care services. I do not always agree with the Daily Mail, but is it not right when it says that we now need a national dementia fund and an all-party approach to defining the nature and funding of the social care system in this country? Successive Governments have failed in that respect, and older people, disabled people and their families are being let down as a consequence. When will we see some action?
Personal Independence Payments: Supreme Court Ruling — House of Commons, 2019-07-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Frank Field (Independent, Unknown): Will the Minister please answer the question that the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) asked him at the beginning: how many more claimants will now be eligible for PIP who previously were not? Also, will he again clarify a commitment that he will look at all those claimants who have had their PIP application turned down, to see whether they are now eligible under the new rules?
Leaving the EU: Workers’ Rights — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Labor
Margot Cathleen James (Independent, Unknown): I welcome my right hon. Friend’s commitment to the UK becoming the best place in the world in which to work and grow a business. Does she agree that we need to consider the way in which employment protection and the tribunals system impact on those in low paid and insecure employment in particular?
Leaving the EU: Workers’ Rights — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Labor
Edward Vaizey (Independent, Unknown): One way in which the Government could show that they are not only committed to workers’ rights but innovative in the field of workers’ rights is to look at carefully at what rights we might extend to workers in the so-called gig economy, which has emerged from the success of tech in the UK. Will the Secretary of State update the House on the progress in looking at the Taylor report and on her thoughts on this important area of the economy?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: International Affairs
Kenneth Clarke (Independent, Unknown): My right hon. Friend was one of those who delayed Brexit in March by voting against departure then on the deal that had then been negotiated. He did get a majority of 30 for his deal in principle last week, and if the subsequent time of this House had been devoted to the Committee and Report stage of the House, following the ordinary principles of government, we would be well on our way to leaving in the middle of November. I respectfully say to my right hon. Friend: can he find a slightly better basis for fighting this election when we get to the campaign in due course?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: International Affairs
Frank Field (Independent, Unknown): Will the Prime Minister look at the amendment tabled in my name, which suggests that if we work seven days a week—like many of my constituents do—we could get the Brexit Bill through and meet his deadline? Is not a Brexit in the hand better than two Brexits in the bush?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: International Affairs
Edward Vaizey (Independent, Unknown): Does my hon. Friend not agree with me that this election provides a fantastic opportunity for each of the main parties to set out in principle what they want to see from Brexit, and to finally address the point that the public voted to leave the European Union but are leaving it to parliamentarians to decide the best way of delivering Brexit? It is therefore incumbent on both main parties to set out their Brexit proposals. We can at least unite in this fractious Chamber by agreeing that no deal is not an option and that those who voted to stop no deal are the real heroes of Parliament.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: International Affairs
Edward Vaizey (Independent, Unknown): Anyone on the Government Benches who voted against the withdrawal agreement proposed by the last Prime Minister cannot really complain if other people voted against different versions of Brexit, because they clearly subscribe to the principle that their interpretation of Brexit should guide their vote.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: International Affairs
Edward Vaizey (Independent, Unknown): I am grateful to have been called when I was not able to be present for the whole debate. I will try to keep my remarks brief, because I know that other colleagues want to speak It is an example of the journey I have made in my 14 years in this House that my maiden speech was a Eurosceptic speech that followed a speech by a Labour Eurosceptic, the hon. Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins). I will now make a resolutely pro-remain, pro-European speech following the excellent speech by one of the Members whom I most admire in this House, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips).
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Government Operations
Edward Vaizey (Independent, Unknown): I echo what my hon. Friend is saying. It seems absolutely clear that the will of the House is that elections in this country should always be on a Thursday—always on a Thursday! But the silver lining—it is a small one—to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act is that this is the first time that we have had a debate in this Chamber about elections, and there are lots of interesting ideas. My best polling station is a garden room in Woolstone. Where should we have our polling stations? More and more people are voting by post, and what about voting on an app for our young people when they are at university? [Interruption.] You see? Already a lively debate has started, so after the Tories win the election on 12 December, let us resolve, as one of the first things we do, to have a proper, full day’s debate on the manner and practice of elections in the United Kingdom.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: Government Operations
Questions: Workers’ rights matter. Given that eight out of 10 mums consider work-family balance before thinking about any new job opportunity, can the Government confirm they remain committed to considering the proposal that employers should make all jobs flexible unless there is a good reason not to do so?; British companies have been shown to be complicit in the fires and deforestation in the Amazon through their investments and supply chains. Will the Minister look at introducing mandatory due diligence to address this?; I recently visited Orbex in Forres, which is heavily involved in the new spaceport at Sutherland and is seen as a sector leader with its new innovative launch vehicle. Will the Minister outline what support the UK Government can give to companies such as Orbex, which plans to bring 250 high-quality jobs to the region?;   The town of Blaydon has been without a post office in its shopping centre for about five years, as no local retailer has been prepared to take this on. Leaving the availability of local post offices to the willingness of local retailers is just not working in Blaydon, so what steps will the Minister take to ensure that post office provision is retained where no local retailer can be found, as in Blaydon?
Gregory David Clark (Independent, Unknown): I welcome the Secretary of State to the Dispatch Box and hope that she will have distinguished tenure at this important time. She will know that the recommendations of the independent review of the Financial Reporting Council, conducted by Sir John Kingman, were widely endorsed and are urgently required. I was concerned that the statutory implementation of those recommendations was not included in the Queen’s Speech. Can she assure me that she is not going to miss a golden opportunity to make these reforms and give a big boost to our standing in the world?
British Children: Syria — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Independent, Unknown): I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) for this urgent question. I very much sympathise with my right hon. Friend the Minister in dealing with it, because he, with the Foreign Secretary, has a responsibility in this House to work out the practicalities of the respective duties of care of those he would send to rescue those who are trapped in this situation abroad with their needs and everything else. However, sometimes the sheer practicality of difficulties can mask a failure in Government to make the decisions they need to make. This is particularly about the mothers of the children. It has seemed to me over a period of time that we have to recognise an international responsibility to take back even those who have been indoctrinated and radicalised in order to protect the children, and that we should have the resources to be able to deal with them, as well as to protect the children, who are the only innocents, by and large, in this situation. Can he reassure me that there is in Government now a clear decision being made with the Home Office to bring people back, as they should be cared for here?
British Children: Syria — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Angela Christine Smith (Independent, Unknown): The Minister has made a great deal of his hope that the ceasefire will hold, but of course it may not. How does the Foreign Office plan to respond to the end of the ceasefire in its processes for repatriating British children?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: Labor
Frank Field (Independent, Unknown): A number of people, before they vote today, will be very concerned about various rights that are enshrined in Europe but might be vulnerable if, and hopefully when, we leave. One of those sets of rights is rights for working people. Will the Prime Minister give an undertaking, so that we have it on the record—the Bill is quite clear—that if the Government agree with enhanced rights for working people that will become the law of the land here, but that if the Government disagree with a single one or a number of enhanced rights he will bring those proposals before the House and we will have the chance to vote to instruct the Government to accept them?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: Labor
Angela Christine Smith (Independent, Unknown): Schedule 5A to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 lists workers’ retained European Union rights. The directive on work-life balance for parents and carers is omitted from the schedule, along with many others in the same vein. How can those omissions be consistent with the Prime Minister’s commitment to the highest possible standards for workers’ rights?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Brett Charles Anthony Elphicke (Independent, Unknown): I thank the Prime Minister for giving way; he is being incredibly generous. He will no doubt have heard, as I have, the dire warnings in certain quarters that if we leave the European Union, there will be problems at Dover and chaos on the roads of Kent. Can he assure the House, and me, and my constituents, that with this deal there will be no problems at the channel ports and no problems on Kent’s roads?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): I am enormously grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. Let me pay tribute to a former Labour leader, Tony Blair, who was the architect of the Good Friday agreement, which delivered much needed peace and stability to Northern Ireland after 30 years of atrocious violence that affected all communities right across the island of Ireland I am extremely concerned that the Labour party, the right hon. Gentleman and his colleagues have anxiety that the Prime Minister’s new Brexit deal, in some way, undermines the Good Friday agreement and its achievements. Will he please take a few moments to explain his concerns? I think that is really important.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Kenneth Clarke (Independent, Unknown): I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. I regret that I am on a different side from him on this occasion, as I was on Maastricht, but I am enjoying his speech as much as I did then Does my right hon. Friend accept that, until very recently, there was no suggestion that England, Scotland and Wales were going to go into their own customs union and single market, and that the whole of Ireland, including Northern Ireland, was going to go into a single market and customs union with the continent of Europe? Indeed, that was expressly ruled out only a few months ago by the present Prime Minister. At the moment that issue is due to be disposed of in three hours, with other issues being disposed of tomorrow morning. If every member of the DUP tries to speak, they will be reduced to a three-minute time limit in their speeches, and that also applies to other Members of the House. Having spent more than 100 hours over Maastricht, when he occupied quite a lot of the time himself, why on earth does he think that we should not debate such important constitutional issues?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): I am enormously grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for allowing me to intervene. He has mentioned that the Prime Minister’s new deal contains very different provisions for Northern Ireland. They are particularly different, and very complex, in the context of the new consent arrangements. That being the case, why on earth does the Bill to which we are being asked to give a Second Reading not contain a single sentence explaining those very complex consent mechanisms?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): I am enormously grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for allowing me to intervene. He has been a great friend to Northern Ireland for a long time, and he has been a great defender of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement since it was signed 21 years ago. I would be enormously grateful to him if he would explain to the House his concerns, if any, about how this new Brexit deal, brought back in triumph by the Prime Minister, has caused such anxiety in Northern Ireland that it actually undermines the great achievement of the Good Friday agreement.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen Charles Brine (Independent, Unknown): I am listening to what the hon. Lady says, as always. If another referendum were to come forward—that is not out of the question, although I think it is unlikely—and it were, say, to confirm a leave vote by 52% to 48%, would the hon. Lady accept that, or would she continue her campaign?
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-22
Topic: International Affairs
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): The Justice Secretary says that it is time for decisions. Before making a decision, I would like the Justice Secretary to give the Unionist community of Northern Ireland a complete assurance that there is nothing in the Prime Minister’s new Brexit deal that undermines the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the consent principle of the Good Friday agreement.
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Kenneth Clarke (Independent, Unknown): The Prime Minister began his statement, for which I am grateful, by saying how rare it has been for Members of this House ever to support federalism and a united states of Europe, and I entirely agree. Federalism and a belief in a European superstate are as rare in this country as they are, nowadays, in every one of the other 27 member states Does the Prime Minister accept that, for the past 50 years, the vast majority of the Conservative party and all four Conservative Prime Ministers in whose Governments I served believed that membership of the European Union gave us a stronger voice in the world politically, as one of the three leading members of the European Union, and gave us access to a free trade market that enabled us to build a strong and competitive economy? Will he reassure me—as I assure him that I will vote for his deal once we have given legislative effect to it—that, when he goes on to negotiate the eventual long-term arrangements, he will seek a solution in which we have the same completely open access across the channel and across the Irish border to trade and investment with the European Union as we have now, in both directions, even if we have to sacrifice the political benefits we have hitherto enjoyed from membership of the Union?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Philip Hammond (Independent, Unknown): Before I decide whether to jump on the Prime Minister’s bus, I would like to be just a little clearer about the destination; I would like to be reassured that it remains the deep and special partnership with the European Union that we promised the British people in our 2017 election manifesto. In the absence of the UK-wide backstop, which has now gone from the package, the best way to give us that reassurance is to ensure a proper role for Parliament in the process of the future negotiations. So could the Prime Minister today make a commitment to accept the Nandy-Snell amendments, which the previous Government agreed would prevail?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Caroline Fiona Ellen Nokes (Independent, Unknown): Twelve minutes into his statement, the Prime Minister spoke of the importance of this place in future negotiations. Could he please reassure me that today will see the end of the campaign to portray what is happening as "Parliament against the people", and that we will today accept that it is Parliament working on behalf of people?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Sylvia Eileen Hermon (Independent, Unknown): The Prime Minister will be well aware of the considerable anxiety, and indeed anger, caused to the Unionist community in Northern Ireland since the publication of his Brexit deal. I would like him to take this opportunity, since he has not bothered until now, to reach out and reassure the Unionist community. I would like him to take this opportunity publicly to reassure the people in Northern Ireland that there is nothing in his deal that undermines the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, as guaranteed by the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, and the consent principle. I pay tribute to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, who has given a very solemn explanation about his commitment to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, but as a Unionist, I need to hear a British Prime Minister making that commitment to the Unionist community.
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Independent, Unknown): My right hon. Friend is right to characterise the political participation of the UK in the EU as too often uncertain, and it is one of the great regrets of my time here that what he says is true. We will never know, in a way, what the EU might have looked like if the United Kingdom had been a full partner, but if a new relationship with us outside the EU, for which I will be voting today, is to be a success, not only for the trade negotiations but for the diplomatic links, does he agree—as they read our newspapers and know what we say—that the relentless, persistent and too often 1940s anti-EU rhetoric must come to an end, no ifs and no buts?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: International Affairs
Frank Field (Independent, Unknown): I agree with the sentiments expressed by the right hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green). Does the Prime Minister not agree that one of the confusions that we face, in the House but more so in the country, is that some—not all—of those who wish to remain often appear in Brexit clothing? Does he agree that today there is a motion on the Order Paper for those of us who want to deliver on the promise in the referendum, and that only one vote is necessary?
Prime Minister’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-19
Topic: Macroeconomics
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Independent, Unknown): Evidence matters, Prime Minister. How can he possibly assure our constituents that this is a good deal if he has not carried out an economic impact assessment of what it will cost them? If he has carried that out, why on earth are we not able to see it as we debate this today?