argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Jonathan Taylor: SBM Offshore — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: International Affairs
Lisa Eva Nandy (Labour, Centre-left): I start by extending my best wishes to the Foreign Secretary, who I understand is self-isolating I thank the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes) for securing this urgent question. There is no doubt that the case of Jonathan Taylor, as she said, sends a chilling message to others who find themselves in a similar position. That is why it was so disappointing to hear the Minister’s response today Does the Minister agree that the charges of bribery and corruption brought against Mr Taylor bear all the hallmarks of a retaliatory act by the Government of Monaco for the widespread wrongdoing his evidence helped to expose? Mr Taylor’s legal team, whom she referred to, have stated repeatedly that there is no basis in law for the red notice issued by Interpol for his arrest and have challenged its legitimacy as a clear abuse of process Mr Taylor has spent 100 days since his arrest in Croatia awaiting the outcome of legal proceedings that will determine whether his extradition to Monaco is granted. Why, during those 100 days, have the UK Government failed to make representations on his behalf to the authorities in Croatia or Monaco? The message this inaction sends to potential whistleblowers is serious: that a British citizen who brings to light bribery and corruption overseas can be pursued by foreign powers without protection or intervention from their own Government The Monégasque authorities have failed to instigate a single criminal investigation into the corruption that Mr Taylor’s whistleblowing brought to light. I was pleased to hear that the FCDO has approached the Monégasque authorities, but I remind the Minister that it was only four months ago that the Foreign Secretary stood at the Dispatch Box and praised Sergei Magnitsky for his bravery in highlighting corruption and wrongdoing. Will she tell us what has caused the Government to review their position The Minister said that the UK Government are unable to intervene in the legal processes of Croatia and Monaco, but surely she accepts that abdicating their responsibility to a British citizen is a clear contradiction to the interventions the Government have previously made on citizens facing similarly spurious charges elsewhere Finally, what message does the Minister think this inaction sends to British citizens who unearth the kind of widescale corruption that Mr Taylor brought to light, who believed that the granting of protected witness and whistleblower status would safeguard them from harassment and persecution? What message does it send to foreign Governments about the willingness of this Administration to stand up for and protect their own citizens abroad? The silence from the Foreign Secretary and his Ministers is deafening, and it will be heard throughout the world unless the Government change course and take the steps necessary to bring Mr Taylor home.
Jonathan Taylor: SBM Offshore — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Minister not believe that a whistleblower such as Jonathan Taylor, who is continuing to support UK law enforcement agencies in their battle against corruption, deserves the urgent support of his Government, the UK Government? Why are the Government repeatedly refusing to support one of their own citizens?
Jonathan Taylor: SBM Offshore — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Law and Crime
Matthew Raymond Western (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister says that the Government are following due process, but it has now been 100 days since Mr Taylor was arrested. There has been a request from the Croatian Supreme Court for information, but the Government do not appear to have responded. What signal does that send out, not just to him but to other whistleblowers in the future?
Future of Financial Services — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Environment
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): I listened carefully to the Chancellor, and he announced a green curve, a landscape review, a call for evidence, a taskforce and, God help us, a road map. Where is the bold action that is needed on green jobs and green finance? What people want is not a technical discussion but the sort of initiative that will allow things such as the Swansea bay tidal lagoon to be developed. Is he just paralysed by Treasury orthodoxy, which killed that key green project?
Future of Financial Services — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Macroeconomics
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): We do not see very much of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in this place. I wonder what it could possibly be about the Monday after the electoral routing of populism in the USA over the weekend that makes him want to come to the Dispatch Box and speak about climate change. Never mind the good management of his reputation, his Government cannot escape the consequences of Brexit and the lack of the deal that was promised for financial services. Given the shape of the UK’s economy, the consequences will be far worse for those workers that we keep talking about who are in financial services outside London and in other regions. Will he confirm what he believes will be the relative regional impact of the current state of the Brexit negotiations? What is his policy to stop Brexit making regional inequality even worse?
Future of Financial Services — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Macroeconomics
Charlotte Louise Nichols (Labour, Centre-left): The pandemic has accelerated the decline in the use of cash across the country, but there are still 8 million people who say that it is an economic necessity, and many others who are employed in the cash industry, including in Warrington North. According to the National Audit Office, the Bank of England does not know the whereabouts of around two-thirds of known currency—about £50 billion —which may be in the shadow economy. Does that show the need for a comprehensive plan for cash?
Future of Financial Services — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Energy
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): As the shadow Chancellor pointed out in her excellent remarks, the United Kingdom, under successive Tory Governments over the past decade, has pumped £6 billion into climate-damaging fossil fuel projects overseas via UK Export Finance. Will the Chancellor now commit to ban this activity immediately and make it a priority to invest in British green energy industries in places such as the Humber estuary and to create the future jobs we need for a real green northern powerhouse?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): I do hope that the Secretary of State will have the good grace to acknowledge and thank Marcus Rashford for his campaign, as I certainly do I welcome the additional support that the Secretary of State has announced today. Will she outline how the funding is going to be allocated among all the local authorities in England? What will the basis for that allocation be? I welcome her reference to "funding available for every child in the UK"; will she confirm that families with no recourse to public funds will be eligible for help from the funding she has announced?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Sarah Mei Li Owen (Labour, Centre-left): Nearly 4,000 children in Luton North and 8,000 children across the whole of Luton did not know where their next meal was coming from last half-term. Yet again, our wonderful community stepped up when the Government stepped back. When the Prime Minister chose to ignore Marcus Rashford’s campaign, it revealed a moral and compassion deficit that runs rife throughout his Government. Does the Minister agree that she should ensure that no child faces holiday hunger again, not just for the winter months but beyond this pandemic, and that she should start by paying workers a real living wage and ending in-work poverty?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the package of support for tackling child hunger over Christmas. As a Manchester City fan, let me pay tribute to that United hero, because without him, I do not believe that this Government would have done anything here, so thank you Marcus Rashford. Child poverty is serious. It is not just about free school meals; it is also about the proposed cut to universal credit in April and the inadequacy of the local housing allowance that is pushing too many children and families into poverty at this time. Rather than U-turning again next spring, which is probably inevitable, why will the Secretary of State not do the right thing now?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Holly Jamie Walker-Lynch (Labour, Centre-left): Like everybody in the Chamber today, I very much welcome this announcement. But will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to Calderdale Council, the Community Foundation for Calderdale, the Piece Hall and so many others in Halifax that came together to launch the Never Hungry Again campaign, which was made possible by donations from the general public and plugged the gap of free school meals over the recent half-term? Following her announcement today, will the Secretary of State commit to reimbursing Calderdale Council for the resources it had to invest to ensure that no child went hungry over the recent half-term?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): I know the Secretary of State to be a very pleasant colleague and woman, but I have to tell her that I have never seen such poverty in our land in all my 40 years in Parliament. What she has announced today is too little, too late. She talks about working across Government—I remember how they got rid of Sure Start and children’s centres. Early years provision, which so many working families depend on, is in deep financial trouble. When is she going to do something across Government to tackle the family poverty that stalks this land right now?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Neil Coyle (Labour, Centre-left): Today’s measures are reactive; they have been forced out of this Government by the covid pandemic and the epic campaign of Marcus Rashford. The truth is that last year, the Trussell Trust had to provide 720,000 emergency packages of support to children in this country. That is more than 700,000 higher than when Labour left office in 2010. All we are asking today is for the Secretary of State to be proactive—scrap the benefit cap, scrap the universal credit delay and scrap the "no recourse to public funds" restrictions, which will all leave children hungry across this country if the Government continue to fail to listen.
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Barbara Mary Keeley (Labour, Centre-left): I want to raise the issue of carers and financial disadvantage. During this crisis, millions of unpaid carers have taken on more caring duties or started caring for a family member for the first time, and many of them are struggling to make ends meet. Although universal credit was uplifted during the crisis to provide people with more support, there was no change to the level of carers allowance, despite it being the lowest benefit of its kind. Will the Secretary of State recognise the monumental impact that the pandemic has had on carers’ lives and introduce an equivalent uplift payment to that for universal credit for carers in receipt of carers allowance?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Mary Kelly Foy (Labour, Centre-left): Last month, Conservative Members took to social media to claim that free school meal vouchers were being spent on prostitution and drugs, as well as to criticise selfless business owners who stepped in to provide the support that the Government refused to. Will the Secretary of State condemn these comments by MPs as not only false, but as yet more demonisation of those in poverty by the Conservative Government?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Naseem Akhtar Shah (Labour, Centre-left): I came into politics because I had this feeling that politics was broken and today’s example of the Secretary of State coming in here and using the words of social justice when announcing this package is just absolutely shocking. But I do welcome—I genuinely welcome—anything that helps my constituents, when I have in my constituency the fastest growing rate of child poverty in the whole of Yorkshire and Humber. The country’s compassion shone through. It filled the gaps where the Government failed, and I just want to say thank you to the council, Cafe West in Lower Grange, the churches, the Bradford Foundation Trust and Bradford Central food bank, which really stepped up. But what an insult to all these businesses came from the hon. Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby), who suggested that she was delighted that businesses had bounced back from the pandemic to offer this support and should no longer receive Government help. Does the Minister agree with me that that was a shameful comment?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Bethan Winter (Labour, Centre-left): Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found significant increases in poverty rates as a result of the covid pandemic. Local and devolved Governments in every country of the UK have now democratically called for pilots of universal basic income. There is a clear will across political parties and among the public for such pilots to go ahead. Will the Secretary of State agree to meet me and the other co-chairs of the cross-party group on UBI to discuss what support her Department can provide for that important initiative?
Supporting Disadvantaged Families — House of Commons, 2020-11-09
Topic: Social Welfare
Yvonne Helen Fovargue (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome the expansion of grants, but can I urge the Secretary of State to scrap the five-week delay in claiming universal credit? An advance that has to be repaid over whatever period is a loan. There is increasing evidence from debt charities that that is pushing vulnerable families further into debt.
UK Internal Market Bill: Effect on the Union — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: Foreign Trade
Louise Margaret Haigh (Labour, Centre-left): It is very welcome to hear that a slimmed-down Finance Bill is coming later in the year, but not a single clause in the internal market Bill changes the fact that new requirements on trade between Britain and Northern Ireland will be coming into force in 13 weeks’ time. Why is a coalition of business groups still waiting for answers on 60 of the 67 basic questions that it put to the Secretary of State in June on how the protocol will work? Why is there still no border operating model? Why has the necessary infrastructure been described by the permanent secretary for environment and agriculture as undeliverable? Is it not time for both the EU and the UK to act in Northern Ireland’s interests and deliver the certainty that businesses are crying out for?
UK Internal Market Bill: Effect on the Union — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: International Affairs
Louise Margaret Haigh (Labour, Centre-left): Those are absolutely ridiculous comments from the Minister. We have been supporting the protocol and the implementation of it, and it is the divisive, law-breaking UK Internal Market Bill that has undermined the implementation of the protocol. While criticism from five former Prime Ministers, the leaders of three Northern Ireland parties, the Speaker of the US Congress and the resignation of the Government’s most senior law officer may not have concerned the Government, I wonder whether the comments of the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland have. Sir Declan Morgan said that the threat to break the law may have undermined public confidence in the legal system. I wonder whether the Minister now regrets the comments made by the Secretary of State and the actions of Governments over the past fortnight.
Northern Ireland Protocol — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: Foreign Trade
Kevin Denis Brennan (Labour, Centre-left): I am not sure that the Secretary of State told me what representations he had received, which is what I actually asked. He conceded earlier that there will be some changes to the movement of goods as a result of the protocol. Can he tell us what that will look like in practice, because that is the clarity that businesses want?
UK Internal Market Bill: Political Party Discussions — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: International Affairs
Antonia Louise Antoniazzi (Labour, Centre-left): Given that the leading member of the United States Congress, the Democrat nominee for President, the Trump-appointed special envoy to Northern Ireland, the Irish Government, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and three of the five parties of the Executive have all condemned the Secretary of State’s juvenile law-breaking boasts in this House, does he now accept that he has done more harm than good?
Legacy Investigations: Cross-community Support — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: International Affairs
Mary Kelly Foy (Labour, Centre-left): The Stormont House agreement was agreed by the overwhelming majority of political parties in Northern Ireland, was endorsed by the British and Irish Governments and had cross-community support. Will the Secretary of State recommit to the principles of Stormont House and reconfirm the central involvement of victims’ groups in any legacy proposals?
Speaker’s Statement — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: Government Operations
Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (Labour, Centre-left): I wish to make a statement about this House’s scrutiny of delegated powers during the pandemic, and on the selection of amendments to the motion relating to the Coronavirus Act 2020 later today The way in which the Government have exercised their powers to make secondary legislation during this crisis has been totally unsatisfactory. All too often, important statutory instruments have been published a matter of hours before they come into force, and some explanations why important measures have come into effect before they can be laid before this House have been unconvincing; this shows a total disregard for the House The Government must make greater efforts to prepare measures more quickly, so that this House can debate and decide upon the most significant measures at the earliest possible point. The use of made affirmative statutory instruments under the urgency procedure gives rise to particular concern. I will give very sympathetic consideration to applications for urgent questions or emergency debates in such cases, requiring Ministers to come to the Dispatch Box to justify the use of such powers I hope that all hon. Members will have a chance to express their views through substantive amendable motions on scrutiny of delegated powers, or on the operation of the Coronavirus Act 2020, or both I turn now to the motion to be considered later today, which invites the House to make a narrow, binary choice as to whether the temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020 should or should not expire. Unfortunately, as it is only a 90-minute debate as a proceeding under an Act under Standing Order No. 16, I am disappointed that I cannot give additional time to discuss the issues. I know some Members will be disappointed When I became Speaker, I made it clear that I would take decisions on matters relating to procedure guided by professional advice. I have concluded, on the basis of advice that I have received, that any amendment to the motion before the House risks giving rise to uncertainty about the decision the House has taken. This then risks decisions that are rightly the responsibility of Parliament ultimately being determined by the courts. Lack of clarity in such important matters risks undermining the rule of law. I have therefore decided not to select any of the amendments to the motion As I hope my earlier comments show, I have not taken this decision lightly. I am looking to the Government to remedy a situation I regard as completely unsatisfactory. I now look to the Government to rebuild the trust with this House and not treat it with the contempt that they have shown.
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: Law and Crime
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): May I join the Prime Minister in sending my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sergeant Matt Ratana? This was a truly appalling incident, and I have to say that every time I contemplate the circumstances, I shudder, and I suspect I am speaking for a lot of people when I say that. It reminds us of the huge debt that we owe to all our police officers and of the risks that they take every day to keep us safe More than 16 million—around one in four—people are now living under local restrictions. In recent months, 48 areas in England have gone into local restrictions, but only one has ever come out and stayed out—Luton. Why does the Prime Minister think that is?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: Government Operations
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): One of the major problems, as we have seen in the last 24 hours, is widespread confusion about the local restrictions, and I do not just mean the Prime Minister not knowing his own rules. Having sat opposite the Prime Minister at PMQs every week, that did not come as a surprise to me. But let me quote to him the Conservative council leader in Bolton, who said that the Government’s handling of restrictions was "breeding resentment" and: "It’s become too complex, too complicated…People feel very let down, they feel frustrated…very forgotten" If the Prime Minister does not understand the rules and his own council leaders are complaining about mixed messages, how does the Prime Minister expect the rest of the country to understand and follow the rules?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-09-30
Topic: Macroeconomics
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): The idea that anybody who asks the Prime Minister a question at Prime Minister’s questions is undermining the Government effort is wearing a bit thin. We have openly supported the restrictions, but it is perfectly reasonable to ask why they are not working. I spoke to the leader of Newcastle City Council yesterday. He said the other big problem, apart from Government messaging, is the lack of economic support being provided to local communities under restrictions. Newcastle City Council indicates that by the end of the year 10,000 jobs in hospitality will have been lost. Many businesses are forced to stay closed. Prime Minister, but for these extraordinary restrictions, these are viable jobs. These businesses are doing the right thing. Why have the Government decided that these jobs are not worth saving?