Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-01-26
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: My local hospital, the George Eliot, has recently issued all of its staff, helpers and volunteers with a medal in recognition of the work that they have done and continue to do throughout the covid pandemic. Will the Prime Minister join me in thanking them all for the incredible work they have done, including the specialist teams such as palliative care, who have had to act as surrogate families for patients whose relatives have been unable to attend because of restrictions? Will he consider following their lead in issuing a national service medal for all our key workers, who have done such an outstanding job in keeping our country going throughout the pandemic?;   In Clwyd South, the Welsh Government have been dragging their feet on urgent repairs to the Newbridge Road, while in contrast the Prime Minister and his Government have delivered record levelling-up fund investment of £13.3 million along the Dee Valley, from the Trevor basin to Llangollen and Chirk, and on to Corwen. Will the Prime Minister comment on how the next phase of the levelling-up fund will bring hope and prosperity to other communities right across our proud Union of the United Kingdom?;   As the Prime Minister will know from personal experience, the River Wye is one of the most beautiful rivers in Europe, yet its fragile ecosystem is being destroyed by phosphate and other pollution. The river crosses the border between England and Wales, but so far it is has proven impossible to get the Environment Agency, Natural England and Natural Resources Wales even to begin planning a single, integrated, long-term strategy to clean up the river. Will the Prime Minister now press those agencies, and the Welsh Government, at last to come to the table? Will he ask Ministers to look at the idea of a new, ringfenced national rivers recovery fund, using fines paid by the water companies, so that we can clean the Wye and other rivers up properly, once and for all?; Has my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister seen the report published earlier this month by the Environmental Audit Committee that makes recommendations about what else should be done, in addition to the welcome measures in the Environment Act 2021, to clean up all our rivers, including the River Wye? One recommendation was that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs should give guidance to Ofwat to require water companies to invest much more in water treatment in the next round of capital spending approvals. Will my right hon. Friend encourage his Secretary of State to give that guidance to Ofwat in the strategic policy statement that is expected shortly?; Happy unbirthday to him! Just like the Mad Hatter, the Prime Minister did not need the excuse of a birthday to have a party—but it did help, didn’t it? Given that he had groups of people singing to him when gatherings indoors were illegal and communal singing was banned, my constituents think that he has lied. My constituents think that he lied to this House and my constituents think he lied to them when he was partying and telling them all—; The great people of Cornwall voted in our Prime Minister on a promise to get Brexit done; he was successful. Faced with the global pandemic, our Prime Minister set out to build a world-beating vaccination programme to save lives; he was successful. He has now lifted covid restrictions against huge pressure not to do so, and he has got the economy back on track. Will my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister continue to deliver on the priorities of my constituents and the millions across the country who voted for him in 2019?; Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the murder of my constituent Mike O’Leary, whose body was desecrated in an attempt to cover up the crime. Will the Prime Minister meet campaigners and me to discuss the need for a new offence or amended sentencing guidelines to reflect the extra suffering faced by the families of murdered victims whose bodies were concealed or desecrated?; On 24 November, I asked the Prime Minister if he would meet me and my constituents to discuss the future—or lack of future—of a new hospital in Hemel Hempstead. When I secured this question today, I thought that I would have to ask the same question, but last night I was offered the meeting—[Laughter.] So on another note, Prime Minister: many children in this country are suffering from a special form of seizure, and medical cannabis prescribed by a consultant helps them to live. Only two children in this country get that free on the NHS. The rest of those children’s families have to beg, borrow and scrape to try to pay for that prescription issued by a consultant. Will the Prime Minister please use the political will—I know that the Health Secretary has the political will—to push this matter forward so that these children live?; Threats and intimidation, bribery and blackmail, racism and Islamophobia: that is the character of the Prime Minister’s Government. Every day, the Prime Minister lurches from scandal to scandal. Meanwhile, his Government have written off £4.3 billion to fraudsters. Instead of writing off loans to fraudsters, why will the Prime Minister not write his resignation letter to the Queen?; The recruitment of 20,000 police officers is a fantastic commitment to law and order by this Government. Bedfordshire, in common with many other police forces, has lost out on about 95 officers as a result of the imposition of damping in 2004. So that we do not have to rely on one-off special grants to stay solvent, will the Prime Minister recommit to the reformation of the police funding formula in this Parliament?; Twice in recent months, I have asked the Prime Minister about his and his Transport Secretary’s commitment to delivering the Prime Minister’s pledge to invest in UK-built ZEBs—zero-emission buses. I did not receive a clear answer. Worrying reports in the media of Treasury cuts to bus-buying plans highlight a conflict between the Prime Minister and his Chancellor. Is the current Chancellor denying the current Prime Minister the right to fulfil his pledge to buy 4,000 zero-emission buses?; Securing extra health services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup is a key priority for local residents, as it is for me, as the first home-grown MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup. Will the Prime Minister support me in delivering this extra investment for our local hospital and join me in thanking all the staff at Queen Mary’s for their incredible efforts?; A nurse who organised a small socially distanced demonstration against this Government’s pay cuts was fined £10,000. People out there are sick to the back teeth of it being one rule for the Tories and another for everyone else. The Prime Minister, for once, needs to do the decent thing—for God’s sake, resign!; Alongside the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine there are real fears of China invading Taiwan. On Sunday, Beijing staged the largest incursion into Taiwan’s airspace since October. Does my right hon. Friend agree that military aggression and threat of occupation are never acceptable anywhere in the world, and will he confirm that under this Conservative Government the UK will always be at the forefront of standing up forcefully for freedom and democracy, security and stability?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend. The Chinese military flights that have taken place near Taiwan in recent days are not conducive to peace and stability in the region. What we need is a peaceful and constructive dialogue by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. I know that that is what my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and all colleagues are working for.