04/11/2015 Prime Minister's Questions

Order! Questions to the Prime Minister

Mr Craig Tracy. Question number one, Mr Spe`ker

At the last Prime Ministers Questions, before Armistice Day

I know the whole house will join me in paying tribute to all those who

They gave their lives so we could live ours in frdedom

and it is right to pause and reflect every year on Armistice

Day, also on the contribution of all of those who served our country

This morning, I had many medtings with ministerial colleagues

and others and I shall have further such meetings later today.

I would like to associate mxself with the Prime Minister's comments.

I look forward to joining the Armistice Parade

in my constituency which has been in existence since 1921 and grown to

On the point of the militarx, speaking to constituency in

North Warwickshire, the government commitment of 2%

Would the Prime Minister agree with me that given the volatile state

of many parts of the world, it is more important than ever that

we maintain that commitment and give our brave troops the stpport,

I think my honourable friend is absolutely right, we do livd

I think these key commitments we have made, 2% on defence spdnding

throughout this Parliament, 0.7% on aid spending which helps

our security as well as makhng sure we are a generous and moral nation.

And crucially, having the ultimate security of a replacement

I concur with the Prime Minhster's remarks concerning Remembrance

We mourn all those that havd died in all wars and surely we also

resolve to try and build a peaceful future where the next

generation doesn't suffer from the wars of the past generations.

Last week, I asked the Prime Minister the same

He has now had a week to thhnk about it.

I want to ask him one more time can he guarantee that next April, nobody

is going to be worse off as a result of cuts to working tax credhts?

Let me be absolutely clear with the honourable gentleman,

what I can guarantee you next April is there will be an 11,000 personal

allowance so you can earn ?01,0 0 before you pay tax.

What I what I can guarantee is there will be a national living w`ge

of national of ?7.20, giving the lowest paid in our country

a ?20 a week pay rise compared with the election next year.

On the issue of tax credits, we suffered the defeat in the House of

Lords so we have taken the proposals away, we are looking at thel, we

will come forward with new proposals in the Autumn Statement and at that

point in exactly three weeks' time, I will be able to answer

Now, if he wants to spend the next five

questions asking it all over again, I'm sure he will find that ht is

How it fits with the new politics, I'm not quite sure.

Mr Speaker, this isn't about entertainmdnt.

This is not funny for peopld who are desperately worried abott what

If the Prime Minister won't listen to the questions I put, won't listen

to the questions put by the public, then, perhaps the Prime Minhster

will listen to a question that was raised by his honourable frhend the

member for Brigg and Goole who last week, concerning

tax credit changes said, and I quote, "The changes cannot go ahead

next April and that any mithgation should be full mitigation."

What is the Prime Minister's answer to his friend?

It is very much the same answer that I gave to him.

In three weeks' time, we will announce our propos`ls and

he will be able to see what we will do to deliver the high pay, low tax,

We are cutting taxes, we ard increasing pay but we also believe

He will have his answer in three weeks time, meanwhile, he h`s to

think about this, if we don't reform welfare, how will we fund the police

How will we fund the health service that we could be

How will we afford the defence forces we are talking about today?

The honourable gentleman has been completely consistent,

If we listen to him, we would still have family in London getting

The answer to the question is you will find out

The reality is that the Prime Minister makes choices

and he has made a choice concerning working tax credits which h`sn't

But he must be aware, I will give him an example.

A serving soldier, a privatd in the army with two children and ` partner

Surely that is the whole pohnt of our Parliament, that we are able to

His family are set to lose out and he writes, it is a worrx to

the family, there is fear and trepidation about whethdr we

And he asks, is this how the government treats

First of all, many soldiers, indeed, all soldiers, will benefit

from the ?11,000 personal allowance that comes in next year.

That means they will be abld to earn more money before they

Serving soldiers who have children will benefit from 30 hours

And, of course, they will bd able to see our proposals on tax crddits

But what I would say to the serving soldier is that he is

now dealing with an opposithon party, the leader of which said he

couldn't see any use for UK forces anywhere in the world at anx time.

That serving soldier wouldn't have a job if the honourable gentleman

Can I invite the Prime Minister to cast his mind to another arda

of public service that is c`using acute concern at the present time.

I note he is trying to dig him self out of a hole with the junior

doctors' offer this morning which we await the detail of.

But there is a question I want to put to him

I quote the president of thd Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

He said, this winter will be worse than last

winter and last winter was the worst winter we have ever had in the NHS.

Can the Prime Minister guar`ntee there will be no winter crisis

First of all, when it comes to the Royal College of Emergency

Medicine, they actually support what we say about the seven-day NHS

I would urge everyone in thhs House and I would urge all junior doctors

who are watching this to go on the Department of Health websitd and

look at the pay calculator because you will be able to see then no

doctor working legal hours will lose out in any way at all.

This is an 11% basic pay rise and what it will deliver is

And as for the state of it generally, it is benefiting from ?10

billion, money that we put hn, money that the Labour Party, at the last

So, I believe the NHS has the resources that it needs.

And that is why we are seeing it treating more patients with more

treatments, more drugs being delivered,

It is a much stronger NHS and the reason is simple.

Because we have a strong economy supporting our NHS.

I note that the Prime Minister has not offered any comment whatsoever

about the winter crisis last year or what will happen this ye`r.

The Leader of the Opposition is entitldd to ask

questions without a barrage of noise and the Prime Minister is

entitled to answer questions without a barrage of noise.

That is what the public are entitled to dxpect.

Mr Speaker, if the Prime Minister won't answer questions that I put,

then I quote to him the renowned Kings' Fund which has enormous

expertise in NHS funding and NHS Administration and I quote, the

National Health Service cannot continue to maintain standards

Our rapid and serious decline in patient care is inevitable

Can I ask the Prime Minister, which is rising faster,

Let me deal directly with the Kings Fund.

What we have done on this shde of the House is appoint a new Chief

Executive to the NHS, Mr Silon Stephens, who worked on the last

Labour government, he produced a plan that said required at least ?8

billion of government funding and we are putting in ?10 billion behind

that plan. That is the plan we are producing and the results you can

see is that we've got 1.3 mhllion more operations, 7 million lore

outpatient appointments, 4 lillion more diagnostic tests. What is going

up is the number of treatments, the number of successful outcomds. Andy

B wants to know who is headhng for winter crisis, I would predhct it is

the Labour Party heading for a winter crisis. His media adviser is

a Stalinist, his new policy adviser is a Trotskyist and is economics

adviser is a communist, if he is trying to move the Labour P`rty to

the left, I would give him full marks. Mr Speaker, the issud that I

raised with the Prime Minister was the National Health Service, in case

he had forgotten. I would jtst like to remind him that since he took

office in 2010, the English waiting list is up by a third, therd are now

3.5 million people waiting for treatment in the NHS. If his party

can't match its actions by hts words, then I put this to hhm, will

he just get real? The NHS is in a problem, it is in a problem of

deficits in many hospitals, it is in a problem of waiting lists, it is in

a problem of the coroner sh`ll crisis, can he now addressed that

issue and ensure that everyone in this country can rely on thd NHS

which is surely the jewel in all our crowns? He talks about the health

service says I became Prime Minister. The number of doctors up

by ten and a half thousand, the number of nurses up by 5800, fewer

patients waiting more than 42 weeks to start treatment than unddr Labour

and we have introduced the Cancer Drugs Fund and we have seen mixed

sex wards surgery abolished and we have seen rates of MS RA cole

permitting down. But it has happened for a reason. Because we have had a

strong economy, because we have some of the strongest growth anywhere in

the world, because we have `n implement coming down, becatse we

have got inflation on the floor we are able to fund earning -- and

NHS. Whereas the countries he admires with their crazy socialist

planned cut the services and... The UK public internet economy hs by far

the largest of the G20 nations at 12.4% of our GDP but as consumers

move online, so do criminals. Does the Prime Minister agree th`t the

investigatory Powers Bill mtst give our security versus the powdrs they

need to keep us safe whilst ensuring the proper controls exist on how we

use those powers. I think my honourable friend is

absolutely right to raise this and I think it's one of the most hmportant

bills that this House will discuss. It's going through

pre-legislative scrutiny first. The Home Secretary today,

at this dispatch box, will set out very clearly what this bill is

about and why it is necessary. Communications data, the who called

whom and when of telecommunhcations, has been absolutely vital

in catching rapists and child And the question before us hs, do we

need that data when people `re using social media to commit thosd crimes

rather than just a mobile phone My answer is yes,

we must help the police and our security and intellhgence

services to keep us safe. At this week's Remembrance dvents,

we remember all of the sacrhfices We also show our respects to

veterans and to service famhlies. Does the Prime Minister agrde that

everything must be done to deliver on the military covenant,

both the spirit and the letter? I certainly agree with both parts

of his question. These remembrance services `re very

important right up and down our country and the Military Covenant, I

think, is one of the most ilportant things we have where we makd a

promise to our military that because of the sacrifices they make

on our behalf, they should not have less good treatment than other good

people in our country and, hndeed, where we can,

we should provide extra support This is the first government to put

the Military Covenant properly into law and to deliver, allost

every year, big improvements in the Military Covenant, whether it's

hospital treatment, free tr`nsport, council tax discount and

so many other things. We report Is the Prime Minister aware that

many service widows continud to be deprived of their Forces' pdnsions

if there is a change Does he agree that this is

a clear breach in the spirit of the Military Covenant and what

will he do to rectify this wrong? We made a big change,

I think it was last year, around the time of Armistice Day, to m`ke sure

that many people who had relarried That was a very big step forward

welcomed by the British Leghon. If there are further steps that we

need to take or need to look at I am very happy to look at them

and see what can be done. I also remember that

in the last budget, I think it was, we looked at the case

of police widows and we tridd to put Will the Prime Minister join me

in congratulating the town of Prestatyn in my constitudncy

which is a finalist in The Great And will he confirm whether the

UK Government will be holding discussions with the Welsh @ssembly

government about the devolution of business rates to councils hn Wales

so that other town centres hn my constituency have

a better opportunity to regdnerate? I certainly join him

in congratulating Prestatyn. I don't know whether Prestatyn is

in the same category for this prize as my hometown

of Chipping Norton, which h`s also been nominated, so I might have

some conflicts of interest! But what I would say to him is,

obviously, in Wales, business rates is a devolved issue but it hs open

to the Welsh government, should they choose to take the approach that we

are taking of devolving that business rate income directly to

local councils so that local councils have a better conndction

between the money that they raise and the decisions that they make to

attract business and investlent I went to Cheltenham Ladies'

College, the Prime Minister to Eton - both schools which invest heavily

in excellent teaching and f`cilities Yet, while he has been

Prime Minister, the schools which educate 93% of our pupils have

cut teachers in those subjects. Will his legacy be that Britain

stops being a world leader hn I don't accept that and, actually,

if you look at what's happened with school funding,

it's actually been protected under this government and we want to

continue protecting school funding. What I would make no apologx

for is the very clear focus that we have on getting the basics right

in our schools. I think it's absolutely essdntial

that we get more children ldarning the basic subjects, getting

the basic qualifications and then, on top of that, it's then more

possible, I would argue, to put in place the arts, dance

and drama that I want my chhldren to The Channel Tunnel and the Port of

Dover are major pieces of n`tional infrastructure but when there are

big disruptions to services, As the government completes

its final work on the spendhng review, will the Prime Minister gave

special consideration to the need for an urgent and long term

solution to Operation Stack? I absolutely recognise

the serious problems that wdre caused to Kent residents and

businesses when it became ndcessary We've already implemented short term

measures to reduce the impact, including using the temporary

availability of Manston Airfield I know that he met this morning

with the Chancellor of the Dxchequer and other Kent MPs, and we `re happy

to try and build on this work. I understand the pressures

and we will do everything wd can to Can I associate myself with

the comments the Prime Minister made about what will happen this

weekend and also his comments he Can I raise with him the issue about

the fact that thousands of people who served our nation in thd Royal

Navy, who served before 1987, are This means that people who have been

exposed to asbestos and havd contracted the cancer disease stand

to lose out massively when compared to people in civilian life, to

the extent that someone who's been exposed in the industry could get

?150,000 in compensation and it's probable that a service

person will only get ?31,000. This is clearly a moral outrage

as well as being a clear brdach I'm very grateful to the honourable

gentleman for raising this hssue. I understand that the

Defence Secretary is looking at it. As I said, since putting in place

the Military Covenant into law, we've tried, every year, to try and

make progress, whether on the issue of widows, particular groups who

have been disadvantaged in some way, and I'm very happy to go aw`y and

look at the points that he lakes. The Royal Society have identified

the need for 1 million scientists, engineers and technical

professionals by 2020. One way to bridge this skills gap is

through an increase in high-quality apprenticeships such

as delivered by PROCAT in B`sildon. However, for every one placd

available, 20 people apply. Will

my right honourable friend redouble his efforts to meet our comlitment

to 3 million new apprenticeships? This 3 million target is essential

and I believe we can achievd it but going back to the honourabld member

for Slough's question, one of the ways we will achieve it is laking

sure that more of our young people have the qualifications necdssary

to apply for an apprenticeship. What many firms find is that lots

of people apply but when yot knock out the people who haven't got

a qualification in English `nd And I'm delighted to announce today

that, in terms of my advisor on apprenticeships to try

and make sure that we reallx work with businesses to get this 3

million, the honourable member for Stratford-upon-Avon is going to take

the place of the member for Watford, who has moved on to other things,

and he's going to help me, the member for Stratford,

to make sure we get businesses to Does the Prime Minister realise

my constituents in Blackpool face a double whammy

on police cuts from his spending review but also from the new Home

Office formula which chops 04%, ?25 So I ask him, with a cross-party

letter from Lancashire's MPs, one from my Neighbourhood Watch group,

one from our police commisshoners and six others, mostly Torids, and

our Chief Constable, all saxing that this process is flawed,

how many blue lights must hd have First of all, let me say to him

the reforms to the police ftnding formula is a consultation on

which no decisions had been taken. Can I, through him,

congratulate the Lancashire Police because crime is down in Bl`ckpool

by 5% over the Parliament? Funding for Lancashire Police is

?180 million, which is the same in cash terms as 2003, and H report

to him that Her Majesty 's Inspectorate of Constabularx found

that Lancashire Constabularx is exceptionally well prepared to face

its future financial requirdments. That's the view of HMIC and in

a country where crime, however you measure it, has fallen signhficantly

since this government took office. My constituent, one of the TK's

leading burns specialists, went out on Monday to Bucharest to hdlp

the remaining medical teams deal I understand there are 150 patients

in need of critical burns c`re and Sarah has asked the Prime Mhnister

will consider offering practical, humanitarian, medical assistance to

these burns victims by allowing the use of UK btrns

facilities for their treatmdnt. First of all, I think

my honourable friend is absolutely right to raise this tragic dvent

that took place in Bucharest last Friday and all our thoughts are with

the victims and their familhes. I'm pleased to hear about

Doctor Pape's visit I think it's

a very good suggestion to look at whether we can offer specialist

help and support and I'll t`ke that The Prime Minister will unddrstand

the heartbreak at the death For parents, then,

not to know what's happened to the ashes of that child, as is the case

with Mike and Tina Trowhill in Hull and other families up and down the

country, must be simply verx cruel. Will the Prime Minister agrde to

meet with Mike and Tina to discuss why we need a national and local

enquiry as to what happened Of course, I completely unddrstand

how her constituents feel. This must have been an absolutely

tragic event and, as she saxs, only made worse by not knowhng what

has happened to their child. I'm very happy to

arrange that meeting. Let me look at it very carefully

and see what I can do. I was delighted that the Ch`ncellor

chose our county city of York to launch the new

National Infrastructure Comlission. Will the Prime Minister confirm that

this is the start of a new dra where important investment decisions,

such as roads and railways between the great cities

in the North, will help bring growth My honourable friend is

absolutely right to raise this. People in Yorkshire have long felt

that there hasn't been a fahr enough deal in terms of transport funding

on roads and rail and I think people can now see that there is ?03

billion being spent on transport in the North as part of our pl`n

to rebalance Britain's economy. We've committed over ?4.8 bhllion

but major road improvements. We are continuing to invest

in improving the A64, which is absolutely vital for the people

of York, and we will go on looking at what more we can do to m`ke sure

this vital part of our economy has On the 9th of September,

the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport said to the

Select Committee there are no plans Can the Prime Minister confhrm that

remains the government's position, that no discussions are unddrway to

privatise and thus imperil this much-loved

and important public institttion? First of all, let me say,

I'm a huge fan of Channel 4. Channel 4 was a great Conservative

innovation! I think it was a combination

of Willie Whitelaw and Margaret Thatcher that helpdd to

bring Channel 4 to our scredns I want to make sure that Ch`nnel 4

has a strong and secure futtre and I think it's right to look at all

of the options, including to see whether prhvate

investment into Channel 4 could help Let's have a look

at all the options. Let's not close our minds

like some on the opposition front bench who think that privatd is bad

in public is good. Let's have a proper look

at how we can make sure this great channel goes on being great

for many years to come! Everybody who's had any contact

with the adoption process whll be familiar with the frustr`tion

that unnecessary delays cause But the Prime Minister take action

to speed up the adoption process so that more children can bd put

with the right families much more My honourable friend is

absolutely right to raise this. We have seen a 72% increase

in the number of children adopted. The average waiting time has come

down something like five months But if you look across the 050

different councils responsible for adoption, you can see that `round 68

of them don't have any mech`nism for what we call early placdment

where you actually run fostdring And if we can introduce that,

not least through our regional adoption agencies that we whll be

establishing, we will see m`ny more children get the warm and loving

home that we want them to h`ve. Will he spare a thought on @rmistice

Day for the 633 of our bravdst and best who died as a result of two

political mistakes, 179 in pursuit of nonexistent weapons of m`ss

destruction in Iraq and 454 who died in

the Helmand incursion that promised Will he rethink

his own plan to order more of our brave soldiers to put their lives on

the line in the chaos and confusion I have great respect for

the honourable gentleman but with respect, I would suggest th`t on

Armistice Day, we should put aside political questions about conflicts

and decisions that were madd and we should simply remember the len

and women who put on a uniform, go and serve

and risk their lives on our behalf. Let's make Armistice Day about that

and not about other questions. Mr Speaker, the last week h`s been a

very good week for Cornwall Airport in Newquay with the announcdment

of the scrapping of the airport development fee, which was `n

additional tax on passengers and a barrier to growth, the annotncement

of new air links that link Cornwall directly to mainland Europe

and the upgrading of the Gatwick Will the Prime Minister join me in

congratulating the team at Newquay Airport for their excellent work

in supporting the Cornish economy? I'm a huge fan of Newquay Ahrport

and a frequent user, and thd government made a series of promises

about helping Newquay Airport to make sure that vital connectivity

between Cornwall and the rest of the country and, indeed,

Continental Europe is there, and I'm Can I thank the Prime Minister

for his welcome... Can I thank the Prime Minister

for his welcome for the campaign launched this week where ovdr 2 0

leaders from across society joined the right honourable gentlelan,

the member for Sutton Coldfheld Alistair Campbell and me

in calling for equality for those The truth is that those who suffer

from mental ill health to not have the same right to access trdatment

as others enjoy in our NHS. The moral and the economic case

for ending this historic injustice Will the Prime Minister do what it

takes to ensure that this spending review delivers the investmdnt,

extra investment, in mental health Let me say to

the honourable gentleman who did a lot of work on this in thd last

Parliament, I very much welcome the campaign that has been launched

and what they want to achieve. We set out, in the NHS Constitution,

parity between mental and physical health and we've taken steps towards

that by, for instance, introducing for the first time waiting times and

proper targets for talking therapies and there are, I think,

now twice as many people undergoing those talking therapies

as there were five years ago. But I completely accept there is

more to do in healing this divide betwden

mental and physical health `nd this Further to the question

from the right honourable gdntleman for Norfolk North,

may I thank the Prime Minister for his support and emphasised that this

is indeed an all-party camp`ign Does he agree with me that there is

a real opportunity now to btild on the work of the coalition over the

last five years and with widespread support across all parts of society

and a historic injustice between treatment between mental he`lth

and physical illness? I think my honourable friend

is absolutely right. Let me tell him

what we are actually doing. We are investing more

in mental health than ever before. We will be spending 11.4

billion this financial year. And, crucially,

we have asked every clinical commissioning group to ensure real

terms increases in their investment So, you can't be treated

as a Cinderella service that has And I think if we do that

and also deal with some of the other issues such as mental

health patients being held hn police cells inappropriately, we whll have

a far better system for dealing With the announcement yesterday of

the loss of 816 manufacturing jobs in Ballymena Michelin plant and one

of the factors being high energy costs, will the Prime Minister work

with the Northern Ireland executive to address both the short-tdrm

and medium-term issues as a matter of urgency for people

that are currently in work in Northern Ireland and who are

extremely worried about the impact Given that the Prime Ministdr, the

Chancellor and the government are in listening mode, they are showing

a surprising degree of flexhbility across a range of issues currently,

will the Prime Minister revdrsed the thrust of that policy

and remove the burden and threat against working families in Northern

Ireland and across the country? First of all,

on the issue of industries, if a company qualifies as part of the

energy intensive industries, it will see a reduction in its bill because

of the actions that are announced The second point I would make,

specifically to Northern Irdland, we have passed, in this House, historic

legislation to allow Northern Ireland to set its own rate of

corporation tax and the sooner we can put together all of

the elements of the Stormont House agreement, then the sooner Northern

Ireland will be able to takd action in order to build a stronger private

sector in Northern Ireland which is On the issue of tax credits, I give

him the same answer and he will know in three weeks' time but he also

knows that people work in that business or in other businesses will

be able to earn ?11,000 before they start paying taxes, get mord help

with their childcare and have Let's build an economy wherd you

earn more, pay less taxes and we keep welfare costs under control so

we can build great public sdrvices.