Engagements — House of Commons, 2021-11-03
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: I share my right hon. Friend’s commitment to building back better, building back greener and levelling up, and I have a project that would deliver on all those things: rebuilding the ageing Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn. I have shown him the pictures of the 200 props holding up its decaying roof, so will he make the Queen Elizabeth one of the eight new schemes giving people in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire the hospital they need?; I thank the Prime Minister and the Government for securing our fantastic Stoke-on-Trent levelling-up funding. If we are truly to level up opportunities and access to opportunities in Stoke-on-Trent, we must also improve our poor public transport, so will my right hon. Friend agree to look at the possibility of bus franchising in the Potteries?; House prices are rising in East Devon, with the dream of home ownership becoming out of reach for too many local people. New-build developments must be affordable, with protections in place to restrict the number of properties becoming second homes. The loophole that allows second-home owners to avoid paying council tax should be closed quickly to help local authorities. Will the Prime Minister meet me and colleagues from across the south-west to discuss this growing crisis across our region?; Darlington station is receiving £105 million thanks to this Government’s plans to make it HS2 ready. I want to make sure that Darlington benefits from high-speed rail, so will my right hon. Friend meet with me and regional colleagues to discuss the eastern leg of HS2 and the reopening of the Leamside line to allow the full region to be better connected?; The Prime Minister says that he is fanatical about buses, but what about trains, and not just in Darlington? I am talking about the Leamside line. Last Wednesday, I was notified that a joint bid to reinstate the mothballed Leamside line had not been successful in attracting the next stage of the feasibility funding from the Government as part of the restoring your railway fund. Will the Prime Minister tell us what specific plans the Government have to invest in the north-east, in places such as Gateshead and south Tyneside in my constituency, and when will he get serious about levelling up in our communities instead of just using the term as a meaningless, populist slogan?; I want to really thank my right hon. Friend for his support for the early years healthy development review and, in particular, for the half a billion pounds of new money at the spending review last week. He often says that talent is spread equally across our country, but opportunity is not, so does he agree that giving every baby the best start in life is the best possible way to level up across our country?; I was recently contacted by a Vauxhall constituent whose mother tragically committed suicide after criminal domestic abuse by her husband, with the inquest into her suicide finding his actions to be a direct cause. Incredibly, her abuser now stands to inherit her pension and entire estate because she was unable to complete a divorce. This has left the family devasted, and I am sure that the whole House will join me in sending them our condolences. Does the Prime Minister agree that convicted domestic abusers should never be able to profit from their victims, and will he meet my constituent and me to fix this hole in the law?; NHS staff performed magnificently during the pandemic, but there are now severe shortages in nearly every specialty. Will my right hon. Friend support an amendment to the Health and Care Bill that is backed by 50 NHS organisations and every royal college to require Health Education England to do regular independent forecasts of the numbers of doctors and nurses that we should be training, so that we can reassure people that, despite the pressure today, we are at least training enough doctors and nurses for the future?; It is a little over a year since I last challenged the Prime Minister over his campaign promises to the 1950s-born women, in which time he has done hee-haw about their pension injustices, so will he tell me today: do his Government have any plans to deliver justice for the women involved?; The Epilepsy Society is a charity and world-leading research centre based in my constituency. It started the epilepsy climate change initiative to better understand the effects of global warming on epilepsy, and the impact is already clear. A recent survey showed that in hot weather 62% of those whose seizures were uncontrolled experienced an increase in seizure frequency or severity. Will the Prime Minister join me in endorsing the epilepsy climate change initiative and commit to more funding to research the impact of climate change on human health?; In a recent ITV interview, the Prime Minister was asked about my constituent Jenni Garratt. Jenni is a victim of the cladding scandal. Just before last Christmas, her building was evacuated because of safety concerns. She has been forced to pay £5,000 for a waking watch and alarms. She has to find £1,200 a year for car parking she can no longer access. The work needed to make her building safe is being blocked by the actions of her freeholder. She does not know the costs she will face, but they are estimated at thousands of pounds. Yet in his interview, the Prime Minister said Jenni had“a frankly unnecessary sense of anxiety”.So will he meet her to hear why she is worried, and do so before the Building Safety Bill completes its passage through the House?; Prime Minister, we can save the UK taxpayer £200 million and level up south London’s health service. St Helier Hospital is set to lose its A&E, maternity, intensive care, children’s service, renal unit and 62% of beds to healthy, wealthy Belmont, at a staggering cost of £600 million. But there is an alternative: rebuild St Helier, where health is poorest, and save £200 million. Now, it is not my job to help the Prime Minister sort out his budget, but would not this be a good place to start?; The universal credit cut is already hitting people hard. Even before the challenges of the pandemic, 39% of children in my constituency grew up in poverty. Deptford First, a local charity that I chair, has launched a fundraising campaign to support people through the winter months. The Prime Minister is well known for his abilities to attract wealthy donors to the party. Will he use those skills to boost our campaign or—even better—will he cancel the cuts?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for the campaign that he has been running for Jagtar Singh for a long time. I say to him that the closeness of our relationship with India in no way diminishes our willingness to raise that case with the Government of India. Indeed, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary raised it the last time she was in India.