Engagements — House of Commons, 2018-05-02
Topic: Housing
Questions: Medway has recently been shortlisted to receive £170 million from the Government’s housing infrastructure fund, which will help to build and support 12,000 houses locally, having also benefited from the £6 billion Government lower Thames crossing. Can the Prime Minister confirm that this demonstrates the Government’s commitment to supporting local communities?; In 331 days, 11 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds, the Prime Minister will be leading us out of the European Union. She will end the free movement of people, we will stop sending billions of pounds each and every year to the EU, and we will make our own laws in our own country, judged by our own judges.My question to the Prime Minister is: in 332 days’ time, will she come to Wellingborough, where she will be carried shoulder high through the streets to the echoing of cheering crowds? I will be able to show her the site where a statue to the Brexit queen will be erected.; Carver barracks in my constituency of Saffron Walden is home to the Royal Engineers’ bomb disposal unit, which carries out life-saving but very dangerous work on behalf of all us. Will the Prime Minister tell the House what the Government’s veterans strategy is, and how it will help soldiers such as those at Carver barracks in their transition to civilian life?; Evidence of the inhumane and cruel impact of the Government’s flagship universal credit policy is clear for all to see. Its impact has been devastating, and the Prime Minister can no longer bury their head in the sand as they have done with the Windrush scandal. Therefore, will the Prime Minister get a grip and take action to protect families from being forced further into crisis; or does the Prime Minister simply believe that the damage being done to the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities is a price worth paying?; A couple of weeks ago, the Prime Minister indicated that she was minded to visit my constituency of Carlisle. I am delighted to inform her that from 4 June she will be able to fly into Carlisle on a commercial flight for the first time in 30 years. She will arrive in a city that is at the centre of the United Kingdom and a city recently described as “the beating heart” of the borderlands region. But if Carlisle and the borderlands are to succeed, thrive and grow, we need Government support. Can the Prime Minister confirm that she will give the borderlands such support?; The Prime Minister has said many, many times that she will have no hard border between Dublin and Belfast. Can she tell this House, just once, what sort of a border she would like to see between Dublin and Holyhead?; With a rising budget and a new medical school for Lincolnshire, this Government have very clearly demonstrated their commitment to the NHS in Boston and Skegness, but there are short-term challenges in recruiting staff to the paediatric ward. Can my right hon. Friend reassure parents in my constituency that the decision to make a temporary closure has not yet been made, and that she will work with me to leave no stone unturned so that the trust, NHS England and NHS Improvement can work together to make sure that we recruit the doctors we need and that this Government are investing in?; The Windrush scandal is not a mistake, nor is it an aberration; it is the direct result of the Prime Minister’s policies. Unobtainable net migration targets and the “hostile environment” are the Prime Minister’s policies, so will she take this opportunity to make a public apology to people who have been—[Interruption.] Will she make a public apology to people—[Interruption.] Will she make a public apology for her policies?; The Prime Minister’s new Home Secretary says that her “hostile environment”“does not represent our values as a country”.—[Official Report, 30 April 2018; Vol. 640, c. 41.]Does she agree with him?; Ministers will today discuss the two customs arrangement proposals first put forward last August. The first is untried and untested. The second relies on unproven technology. In any event, neither will be ready by the time they are needed, and both have been written off in Europe. Why, with just six months to go before a draft Brexit deal is signed off, are the Government still considering options that we all know are not feasible?; The interim report of the Mental Health Act review stated that BAME men and women are more likely to come into contact with mental health services through the police, to be admitted to secure hospitals and to have poorer mental health outcomes over time. The Prime Minister has talked about ending the burning injustice of mental ill health, so why have her Government still not appointed an equalities champion to tackle these inequalities, nearly two years after that was recommended by the “Five Year Forward View for Mental Health”?; When one of my constituents had a heart attack, he waited an hour and 20 minutes for a paramedic and two hours for an ambulance, because they were having to queue up at local hospitals. He never made it back home. Faced with such a human tragedy, does the Prime Minister feel any pang of conscience for the shambles she has created in our NHS?; Can the Prime Minister confirm that every UK Government Department has budgeted for a derisory 1% pay rise for all its civil servants? Is it fair that workers who collect tax, and who try to make a broken social security system and a broken immigration system work, are getting a real-terms pay cut and are still subjected to a public sector pay cap?
Theresa Mary May (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the facts that he has set out in relation to council tax. That is a result of decisions that have been taken by the Government to have that council tax referendum in place and of Conservative councils actually making decisions to freeze or to lower council tax, or to ensure that it is kept lower than in Labour councils. Conservative councils, on average, cost a typical family £100 less in council tax than councils run by other parties. That is important, and the Government have played their part with the council tax referendum.