argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Police Funding — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Gerald Jones (Labour, Centre-left): English police forces are fully reimbursed by the Government for the cost of training police officers. In Wales, the Home Office has reimbursed only half the cost, leaving Welsh police forces with a shortfall of over £2 million. Will the Minister and the Secretary of State persuade their Cabinet colleagues to meet the historical funding shortfall in full, so that Welsh police forces are no longer penalised and are in future treated equally with English ones?
Cross-Border Transport — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Transportation
Christian John Patrick Matheson (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for meeting me last week. He will understand that if north Wales is to get the full benefits of HS2, the line from Crewe to Chester and on to north Wales will need to be upgraded, including work at Chester station. Will he get on to his Transport Department colleagues and get them to get a move on with making a decision on that upgrade work?
Steel Industry — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Energy
Jessica Elizabeth Morden (Labour, Centre-left): While he was campaigning for Brexit in 2016, the Prime Minister told steelworkers in Wales that it was: "Mad that we can’t cut steel energy costs because of EU rules" Now that we have left the EU, is it not madder that the Government have still done little to cut sky-high energy bills, which are a massive burden on our steel producers in Wales?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): The degrading strip-search of Child Q two years ago, in a school that should have been a safe place, at the hands of police officers she should have been able to trust, has caused anger and distress across the country. On Monday, the Minister for Crime and Policing failed to answer four separate questions in this Chamber about when he first knew about Child Q and what urgent action he took in response, so I ask the Prime Minister: when did he first hear about the strip-search of Child Q in her school? Does he believe that the characteristic dither and delay of his Government in responding to this appalling case is remotely acceptable when it comes to the safety of children?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Labor
Questions: People across North East Hertfordshire are coming together to provide support and refuge to families fleeing the invasion in Ukraine. The Baldock and District action committee is about to welcome four families to our community. Does the Prime Minister agree that that shows the open-hearted generosity of the British people? Will he continue to do all he can with the Minister for Refugees to make the process as simple and speedy as possible?
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): When Owen Paterson was on the ropes, the Prime Minister was prepared to rip up the entire rule book to save his jobs. P&O workers want him to show the same fight in relation to them. The Government had advance warning of these mass sackings—a memo was sent to the Transport Secretary and to the Prime Minister’s office—but they did not lift a finger to stop them. Did the Prime Minister not understand the memo, or did he just not bother to read it?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Labor
Questions: People across North East Hertfordshire are coming together to provide support and refuge to families fleeing the invasion in Ukraine. The Baldock and District action committee is about to welcome four families to our community. Does the Prime Minister agree that that shows the open-hearted generosity of the British people? Will he continue to do all he can with the Minister for Refugees to make the process as simple and speedy as possible?
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): Those at DP World must be quaking in their boots. The Prime Minister says how disappointed he is in them, while handing them £50 million The Prime Minister has referred to the law. Speaking of hollow reviews, as the law stands it is not illegal to pay seafarers less than the national minimum wage, even if they are working out of UK ports and in UK waters. Two years ago, the Prime Minister’s Government admitted that that was unjustifiable, and promised, two years ago—you’ve guessed it—to review it. Two years on, despite what the Prime Minister says today, nothing has been done, which has left the gate wide open for P&O. British workers do not need another empty review; they need action, so when will the Prime Minister fix that gap in the law?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Labor
Questions: People across North East Hertfordshire are coming together to provide support and refuge to families fleeing the invasion in Ukraine. The Baldock and District action committee is about to welcome four families to our community. Does the Prime Minister agree that that shows the open-hearted generosity of the British people? Will he continue to do all he can with the Minister for Refugees to make the process as simple and speedy as possible?
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): The problem is, that is what the Prime Minister said two years ago. It did not happen, and P&O took advantage of the gap left wide open by this Prime Minister. P&O’s behaviour comes off the back of a string of fire and rehire cases, with profitable companies threatening to fire workers unless they accept a pay cut. The Prime Minister keeps telling us just how opposed he is to fire and rehire, but as we saw on Monday, he does not have the backbone to ban it. While he sits on his hands, more and more workers are having their lives turned upside down by this appalling practice. What good to them is a Prime Minister who is all mouth and no trousers?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Labor
Questions: People across North East Hertfordshire are coming together to provide support and refuge to families fleeing the invasion in Ukraine. The Baldock and District action committee is about to welcome four families to our community. Does the Prime Minister agree that that shows the open-hearted generosity of the British people? Will he continue to do all he can with the Minister for Refugees to make the process as simple and speedy as possible?
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister can complain all he likes, but on Monday he ordered all of his lot to abstain on a vote to ban fire and rehire. And they all did! Then, to add insult to injury, after the vote his party posted a message saying that, where possible, they will look to find P&O workers new jobs. Pathetic! They do not want new jobs; they want their old jobs back. They do not want a Prime Minister hoisting the white flag; they want him to fight for their livelihoods. There are 82,000 seafarers in this country. I have spoken to dockers, engineers, deckhands and sailors, and they are all worried about what this means for them. This morning, one of them said to me: "If P&O can get away with this, other companies will get rid of us too and replace us with cheap labour from abroad." Why does the Prime Minister think that they will take a crumb of comfort from his half-arsed bluster and waffle today?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Energy
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): May I draw attention to two stories in the Sheffield Star today? Sheffield is still a city of steel. Ben McIvor, president of Forged Solutions Group, which employs 400 skilled workers in the steel industry, is begging for help with the rise in energy costs, because the company simply cannot pass on those costs to its customers. Workers at Liberty Steel are protesting about the Prime Minister’s broken promise that if we left the EU, he would cut energy bills for steel companies. Why has the Chancellor chosen to break the Prime Minister’s promise?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Labor
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): The Government have been warned privately and publicly not to make up employment statistics, so alarm bells rang when the Chancellor of the Exchequer glossed over the employment numbers in his statement just now. The small print reveals that unemployment is forecast to rise next year and then plateau, so may I ask him what the Department for Work and Pensions is playing at?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Seema Malhotra-Saluja (Labour, Centre-left): Consumer spending is vital to the growth of our economy in the aftermath of the pandemic, but with inflation at its highest level for 30 years—the Chancellor has seen the data—consumer confidence is declining, hitting our small businesses hard and setting back their recovery from the pandemic. Why on earth is the Chancellor not fully U-turning on his rise in national insurance contributions at this time—a rise that the Government themselves have admitted will increase inflation and decrease spending power?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): The Conservative party introduced universal credit, but instead of uprating it in line with current inflation, the Chancellor has chosen to increase the size of the household support fund. Those who have heard of it have to go to their local councils to receive it. What evidence, if any, does the Chancellor have that the fund is effective in delivering help to the families who need help most?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
John Martin McDonnell (Labour, Centre-left): Let us be absolutely clear that benefits and pensions are going to rise by 3.1% while inflation is predicted to be between 7% and 10%. That is a cut for some of the poorest in our society. I want to make this specific appeal to the Chancellor. The people I am desperately worried about in my constituency are those who are forced to live on benefit, largely through disability or ill health, and the poorer pensioners. We know that energy prices are rising rapidly, and that the assistance provided so far will not enable them to cope. When we get to November, those people will be freezing in their own homes and lives will be put at risk. One simple solution is to double the winter fuel allowance. Can I appeal to him to go away, think about that and come back sooner rather than later to give vulnerable people some confidence in the future?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Lilian Rachel Greenwood (Labour, Centre-left): This year, the Chancellor is delivering the largest fall in living standards since Office for National Statistics records began in 1956-57. Will he tell us how many more people will fall into poverty as a result of his failure to ensure that increases in social security match inflation?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Andrew Joseph McDonald (Labour, Centre-left): The Chancellor really has not helped those in greatest need. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that the current uprating of working-age social security benefits will mean 400,000 people falling into poverty this year. With inflation now forecast to average about 8% in 2023, will he reflect on the very different circumstances the country finds itself in and uprate benefits by the inflation rate forecast in the OBR’s economic and fiscal outlook?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Katherine Anne Green (Labour, Centre-left): I do not think the Chancellor understands the depth of despair and fear among the very lowest-income households in this country, for example, those whose incomes were already below the thresholds for national insurance or tax—those who have to rely on social security benefits as they are not able to work because of caring responsibilities, health or disability. To uprate benefits by less than half the rate of inflation at the same time as families face particular pressures on paying for the basics of energy and food will simply leave those families destitute. Will he please heed the calls from around the House this afternoon and look again at his benefits uprating policy?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Energy
Eleanor Claire Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): Many of my constituents are having to choose between putting food on the table or heating their homes. At my local food bank last week, staff told me that they were facing levels of demand that they had never seen before. Meanwhile, the boss of BP’s salary has increased to almost £4.5 million. Surely the Chancellor must see that it is time for a windfall tax on oil and gas, to tackle rising energy bills.
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Energy
Zarah Sultana (Labour, Centre-left): The richest Member of Parliament just spoke about how he understands the impact that the cost of living crisis is having on millions of people, but what he said will sound like a cruel joke to people across the country. Energy bills are rocketing, while fossil fuel giants BP and Shell are set to make £40 billion in profits this year. Why has the Chancellor refused to introduce a windfall tax on those companies to fund the restoration of the old, lower, energy cap? Is it because he would rather squeeze the livelihoods of ordinary people than the profits of the super-rich?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Alexander James Jorden Norris (Labour, Centre-left): I am old enough to remember when levelling up was the centrepiece of the Government’s domestic policy. People will be incredulous that we did not hear a single mention of it from the Chancellor this afternoon. He talks of low growth; we have low growth because we are not unleashing the potential of the regions of this country. It is time for the Chancellor to just admit that levelling up is a sham.
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): I commend the Government’s action on Russian sanctions, but we cannot possibly think that this is "job done." Mariupol still burns; children are fleeing the bombing of their home. We still have not even introduced a sanction regime that is as tough as the sanction regime on Iran. Can I urge the Chancellor to go a bit further? We need to sanction all the Russian banks, not just 60% of them. We need to tackle the trust funds, such as that recently set up by Alisher Usmanov to protect his assets in the UK. We need to tackle the families and the hangers-on, such as Lavrov’s family, who are in the UK, and we need to tackle shipping. We must do all these things for the people of Ukraine as fast as possible.
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Barbara Mary Keeley (Labour, Centre-left): Today, the Welsh Government announced a £500 payment to unpaid family carers, to recognise their commitment during the pandemic. Unpaid carers in Scotland receive the carer’s allowance supplement. Meanwhile, carers in England get a miserly carer’s allowance, which is increasing by only £2 this year. That means not only that the sacrifice and commitment of unpaid carers in England is going unrewarded, but that carers are being driven further into financial hardship. How many more need to be pushed into poverty before this Government act to value carers, and give them the targeted support they deserve?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Samuel Peter Tarry (Labour, Centre-left): This week it was revealed that 75% of people in my constituency are struggling to pay for basic groceries. The OBR’s analysis following today’s statement has said that we face the largest fall in disposable incomes since the 1950s. Will the Chancellor visit my constituency, sit down with the people who use the local food bank, many of whom are in work, and see just how little the policies announced today will do to support them, to get them into work, and to allow them to live with dignity in their community?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Barry Strachan Gardiner (Labour, Centre-left): Can the Chancellor explain why, in the fifth-richest country in the world, and under his stewardship of the economy, this morning’s news reported that a mother would not accept potatoes from a food bank because she did not have enough money to boil them?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Karin Marguerite Smyth (Labour, Centre-left): I am old enough to remember the rampant inflation of the 1990s, when I started my career. I am old enough to remember when, under Ted Heath’s Government, we had to go to the local café because we had no lights on in the house. However, I am not old enough to remember Anthony Eden and the 1950s. What does the Chancellor have to say today to pensioners who worked through the 1950s about the fact that he is presiding over the greatest fall in living standards since that time?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Emma Louise Lewell-Buck (Labour, Centre-left): The household support fund exists only because, thanks to this Chancellor, people do not have enough income to eat or to pay their bills. With pensions and benefits set to rise by a measly 3.1% and the minimum wage by 59p, and with inflation peaking at over 7%, today’s uplift to the fund is more evidence of his continued failure to protect the hardest hit, isn't it?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Energy
Richard Burgon (Labour, Centre-left): Oil and gas giants are making £900 profit per second, while millions of people are having sleepless nights worrying about whether they will be able to heat their homes. Does the Chancellor think that the right of these firms to make these super-profits is more important than the right of people to stay warm? If not, surely now is the time for a windfall tax on these profits to fund lowering people’s energy bills.
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): As always, the Chancellor has forgotten the poorest—those claiming pensions, those claiming social security and those living below the minimum income threshold, who have been hit by the cost of living crisis. All that my poorest constituents want is food, warmth and shelter against soaring house prices. All they got was 6p a day from the housing support fund on average. Will the Chancellor go back again and review the rise in social security payments? Those people need that money, or else they will go hungry, they will experience hypothermia and they will be homeless.
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Ian Robert Byrne (Labour, Centre-left): I have asked this of the Chancellor on numerous occasions. On Monday, I led a delegation to Downing Street to deliver a letter urging him to grant a right to food. With millions having to choose between starving or freezing in their homes because of the cost of living crisis, when will the penny drop with the Chancellor that hunger is a political choice, and it is he who controls the levers to eradicate it? Does he agree that it is a dereliction of his duty to the security of every household that we all serve not to enshrine into UK law access to food for all?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Fleur Anderson (Labour, Centre-left): In Putney, 31% of children live in poverty. The biggest measure that the Chancellor could bring in is scrapping the two-child benefit cap, which is cruel and leaves children in poverty. Has he assessed the two-child benefit cap, and when will he scrap it?
Financial Statement — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Olivia Frances Blake Dagnall (Labour, Centre-left): Figures from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research have shown that destitution has more than doubled from 197,400 to over 400,000. Destitution is defined as two single people living on £100 a week after housing costs. Is the Chancellor happy that none of the announcements today will benefit those who are in destitution?
Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Eleanor Claire Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): I was six years old when Daniel Morgan was murdered in my constituency just round the corner from where I lived. His brutal murder shocked our community, and it was made worse by the fact that no one was convicted and that last year’s inquiry cited institutional corruption in the Met. Daniel’s family have campaigned for justice for 35 years. No other family should ever have to go through this, yet yesterday’s damning report found that not nearly enough has been done to ensure that it does not happen again. Will the Minister personally ensure that the next Met commissioner cleans up this failing force?
Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing convention to be waived so that I can speak from the Back Benches on this matter. Alastair Morgan, Daniel’s brother, has been campaigning for some justice for his brother for 35 years and I have stood alongside him for the past 17. The Minister referred to the "original report". It was not the original report. There have been many, many inquiries. There have been inquiries into inquiries. This has been going on for years and years, with corruption layered upon corruption and nobody ever telling the truth. It is no wonder, in those circumstances, that Alastair has said that the Metropolitan police "cared more about its own tatty reputation than solving my brother’s murder." Now what do we see? We see an official report that states that it has "found no evidence that someone, somewhere, had adopted the view that this must never happen again." Nobody even cares if it happens again. What is the Minister going to do about that? What are we going to do about the Met?
Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Barry John Sheerman (Labour, Centre-left): The Daniel Morgan case is one of those that I am most familiar with as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice. If it were not for a Welsh solicitor called Glyn Maddocks, who has tirelessly followed this and never given up on it, we would not be where we are today. I pay tribute to him, his work, and the support he has given to the miscarriages of justice group. This is a very important occasion. I am a little sad that the Minister has made it a bit party political in blaming the Mayor. The fact is that we are faced with a tremendous crisis in the Met and in any police force where the relationship between the police breaks down and becomes sloppy, and we see—I did the research on this and I was astonished by it—the close links between senior Met police and organised crime. Surely that was wrong and it has to be sorted out.
Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Report — House of Commons, 2022-03-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Florence Eshalomi (Labour, Centre-left): We are back here again discussing the police. Some of the issues in this report about the vetting of police officers and the fact that some had links to known criminals will be quite shocking for a number of my constituents, who continue to be stopped and searched. Some of those constituents are on the gangs matrix, which had such a massive impact on their life in terms of finding jobs, access to benefits, and ability to rent. The Minister will know that in 2019 a freedom of information request revealed that a person as young as 13 was on the gangs matrix. How will he help to restore confidence in our communities who want to work with the police in addressing some of the issues, when we have known criminals involved, people not being vetted properly and some of my young people continuing to be on the gangs matrix?