27/01/2016 Prime Minister's Questions

of every government department making sure that all consultations

are made at that time and we make due allowance for any difficulties

that may come forward. It is right our whole country should

stand together to remember the darkest hour of our country. Last

year, I said we would build a national memorial in London to show

the importance Britain places on sharing the memory of the Holocaust.

This will be built in Victoria Tower Gardens and will stand beside

Parliament as a permanent statement of our values and will be somewhere

for children to visit for generations to come. I am grateful

to all those who have made this possible. This morning I had

meetings with ministerial colleagues and others and in addition to my

duties in this house I shall have further such meetings later today. I

echo the Prime Minister's sentiments regarding Holocaust Memorial Day. We

must never forget. The North Sea or an industry on which many people in

my constituency are dependent for their livelihoods is facing very

serious challenges at the current time. The government has taken steps

to address the situation, but more is required if the industry is to

survive and thrive. Will my right honourable friend assuming that he

recognises the seriousness of the situation and he will do all he can

to get the industry through these very difficult times? My honourable

friend is right to raise this, I recognise the seriousness of the

situation. The oil price decline is the longest in 20 years and this

causes difficulties for the North Sea and we can see the effects in

the east of England, in Scotland, particularly Aberdeen. I am

determined we build a bridge to the future for all those involved in the

North Sea. We will help the world-class sector export expertise.

We announced 1.3 billion of support last year and we are implementing a

review and I will be going to Aberdeen tomorrow where we will be

saying more about what we can do to help this vital industry at this

vital time. Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you, Mr Speaker. On behalf of the

opposition, could I welcome the remarks the Prime Minister has just

made about Holocaust Memorial Day. It is the 71st anniversary of the

liberation of Auschwitz and we have to remember the deepest, darkest

days of inhumanity that happened then and genocides that have

happened since and educate another generation to avoid those for all

time in the future. I thank the Prime Minister for what he said.

Independent experts have suggested that Google is paying an effective

tax rate on its UK profits of around 3%. Does the Prime Minister dispute

that figure? Let's be clear what we are talking about. We are talking

about tax that should have been collected under a Labour government,

raised by a Conservative government. I do dispute the figures he gives.

It is quite rightly that this is done independently by HMRC, but I am

absolutely clear that no government has done more than this one to crack

down on tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance. No government, and

certainly not the last Labour government. Mr Speaker, my question

actually was if the Prime Minister thinks an effective tax rate of 3%

is right or wrong? He did not answer it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer

described this arrangement as a major success, while the Prime

Minister's official spokesperson only called it a step forward. The

Mayor of London described the payment is quite derisory. What

exactly is the government's position on this 3% rate of taxation? We have

put in place a diverted profits tax which means this company and others

will pay more tax in future. More tax in future than they ever paid

under Labour were the tax rate for Google was 0%. That is what it

means. Let me tell him what we have done. We have changed the tax law so

many times that we have raised an extra 100 billion from business in

the last parliament. When I came to power banks did not pay tax on all

their profits, allowed under Labour, stopped under the Tories. Companies

could cut their tax bill, allowed under Labour, stopped under the

Tories. Companies could figure accounting rules, allowed under

Labour and stopped under the Tories. We have done more on tax evasion and

tax avoidance and Labour ever did. They are running to catch up, but

they have not got a leg to stand on. Mr Speaker, it was under a Labour

government that the inquiry began into Google and in addition as a

percentage of GDP corporation tax receipts are lower under this

government than they were under previous governments. I have got a

question here, Mr Speaker, from a gentleman called Jeff. You might

well laugh, but Jeff actually speaks for millions of people when he says

to me... Can you ask the Prime Minister is as a working man of over

30 years whether there is a scheme that I can join that pays the same

rate of tax as Google and other large corporations? What does the

Prime Minister say to Jeff? What I say to Jeff is that his taxes are

coming down under this government and Google's taxes are going up

under this government. Let me say something, something he just said

was factually inaccurate. He says corporation tax receipts have gone

down, they have gone up by 20% under this government because we have got

a strong economy with businesses making money, employing people and

paying taxes into the exchequer. If like me he is genuinely angry about

what happened to Google under Labour, maybe he should start by

calling Tony Blair. You can get him and JP Morgan. Call Gordon Brown,

you can get him at a Californian bond dealer. Alistair Darling is at

Morgan Stanley. There is other people to blame for Google not

paying their taxes. We are the ones who got them to pay. The problem is,

Mr Speaker, that the Prime Minister is responsible for government and

therefore is responsible for tax collection. Mr Speaker, Google made

profits of ?6 billion in the UK between 2005 and 2015 and is paying

130 million pounds in tax for the whole of that decade. Millions of

people this week I'm filling in their tax returns to get them in by

the 31st. They have to send the form back, they do not get the option of

25 meetings with 17 ministers to decide what their rate of tax is.

Many people going to their HMRC offices or returning them online

this week will say this, why is there one rule for big multinational

companies and another for ordinary, small businesses and self-employed

workers? All those people filling in their tax returns will be paying

lower taxes under this government. I have to say, he can if he wants

criticise HMRC, but their work is investigated by the National Audit

Office and when they did that they've found the settlements they

reached with companies are fair. That is how it works. The Shadow

Chancellor is pointing. The idea that those two right honourable

gentleman would stand up to anyone in this regard is laughable. This

week they met with the unions and they gave them flying pickets. They

met with the Argentinians and they gave them the Falkland islands. They

met with a bunch of migrants in Calais and said they could come to

Britain. They never stand up for the hard-working British people and

British taxpayers. Mr Speaker, we have had no answers on Google, we

have had no answers on Jeff, can I raise with him another unfair tax

policy that does it affect many people in this country? This

morning, the Court of Appeal ruled that the bedroom tax is

discriminatory because of its impact... I do not know why members

opposite find this funny because it is not for those who have to pay it.

The ruling is because of its impact on vulnerable people, including

victims of domestic violence and disabled children. Will the Prime

Minister now read the judgment and finally abandon this cruel and

unjust policy which has now been ruled to be illegal? We always look

very carefully at judgment on these occasions, but our fundamental

position is that it is unfair to subsidise their rooms in the social

sector if you do not subsidise them in the private sector where people

are paying housing benefit. That is a basic issue of fairness. It is

interesting that the first played he makes is something that could cost

as much as ?2.5 billion in the next Parliament. Who will pay for that?

Jeff will pay for it. People handing in their tax returns will pay for

it. Why is it he wants to see more welfare, higher taxes, more

borrowing, all the things that got us into the mess in the first place?

We have not had any answers on Google or the bedroom tax. I ask the

Prime Minister this, shortly before coming into the chamber I became

aware of the final report of the United Nations panel of experts on

Yemen which has been sent to the government and it makes disturbing

reading. It says, I quote, it has documented that coalition forces

have conducted air strikes, targeting civilians and civilian

objects in violation of international humanitarian law,

including cabs for internally displaced persons, civilian

residential areas, medical facilities, schools and mosques.

This is a disturbing report. Will the Prime Minister launched

immediately and inquiry and a full review into the arms export licences

to Saudi Arabia and suspend those arms sales until that review has

been concluded? We have the strictest rules for arms exports of

almost any country anywhere in the world. We are not a member of the

Saudi led coalition. We are not involved in their operations,

British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes. I will look

at this report as I looked at all other reports, but arms exports are

carefully controlled and we are backing the legitimate government of

the Yemen not least because terrorist attacks planned in the

Yemen would have a direct effect on people in our country. I refuse to

run a foreign policy by press release, which is what he wants, I

want one in the interests of the British people.

The explosion of spurious legal claims against British troops

including those pursued by a law firm who has contributed tens of

thousands of pounds to the Shadow Defence Secretary, undermine the

ability of our Armed Forces to do their job. Will the Prime Minister

join me in repudiating the disdain this shows that our brave service

women and men? I absolutely agree with my honourable friend. We hold

our service personnel to the highest standards, and that is right, but it

is quite clear there is now an industry trying to profit by

spurious claims. I am determined to do everything we can to close this

bogus industry down and we should start by making clear we will take

action against any legal firm we fight to abuse the system to pursue

is fabricated claims. That is absolutely not acceptable. May I

begin by associating the Scottish national party with the comments of

the Prime Minister in reference to the Holocaust Memorial Day, and I

commend governments across the UK for supporting the Holocaust

commemoration trust. Does the prime ministers agreed that there is no

justification for discrimination or and fairness towards women in the

private sector, public sector or by government? Let me welcome what the

right honourable gentleman says about the Holocaust educational

trust. I remember as a new constituency MP meeting them and

seeing the work they were doing in my constituency. They work hard

around the clock. This day is particularly important for them. I

would urge colleagues who haven't visited Auschwitz, it is something

you will never forget, no matter what you have read or films you have

seen or books you have read, there is nothing like seeing for yourself.

In terms of wanting to end discrimination against women in the

public sector, private sector, and in politics, absolutely. I welcome

what the Prime Minister has to say on both accounts. He is aware of the

state pension inequality which is impacting on many women and that

this parliament voted unanimously for the government to immediately

introduce transitional arrangements for those women negatively affected

by pension equalisation. What is the Prime Minister going to do to

respect the decision of this parliament and help those women who

are affected, those born in the 1950s, who should have had proper

notice to plan their finances and retirement? First of all, the

equalisation of the retirement age came about on the basis of equality,

which was a judgment by the European court that we put in place in the

90s. When this government decided, rightly in my view, to raise the

retirement age, we made the decision that nobody should suffer a greater

than 18 month increase in their retirement age, and that is the

decision this else took. In terms of ending discrimination in the system,

I would say that the introduction of the single tier pension, at ?165 a

week, is one of the best ways we can end discrimination because so many

who are retiring will get much more under this pension which, under this

government, is triple lock protected, so they will get

inflation earnings or 2.5% and never again a derisory increase. Our

prisons could still beat centres of radicalisation. We'll be Prime

Minister look at all measures including those from the all-party

report on preventing young people, troubled young people, from falling

into the jaws of these dangerous, screwed up, predatory extremists? It

is very disturbing that, when people are in our care, when the state is

looking after them, that, on occasion, they have been radicalised

because of what they have erred in prison, either from other prisoners

or perhaps, on occasion, from visiting imams. We need to sort the

situation out. The Justice Secretary has put in place a review. I will

look carefully at her report. We must look at making sure that

prisoners and the radicalise rather than made worse. Since the

Chancellor took control of the public purse, he has utterly failed

to get the deficit under control, and to date this year he has

borrowed over ?74 billion to plug the gap or, to use the vernacular

that his party is bond, for a hypothetical independent Scotland, a

monumental black hole in his books. Is he now likely to reach the target

by the year of something in the region of ?9 billion? Will the Prime

Minister finally concede... SHOUTING

I don't wish to be an guide to the honourable lady, but I think we have

got the gist. SHOUTING

That was a polite way of saying that the honourable lady had concluded. I

would say that the Chancellor and the economic strategy this

government has pursued as cut the deficit in half from the record

level we inherited and soon it will be down by two thirds. We are

meeting what we want to see in terms of debt falling as a share of GDP.

What a contrast with a situation which Scotland would be facing if

Scotland had voted for independence in just six weeks' time. We have

actually seen a collapse of 94% of oil revenues. Because we have the

broad shoulders of the UK, that collapsed in the oil price and the

taxation won't affect people in Scotland but, at Scotland dream

independent, it would be a very dark day indeed. -- had Scotland been

independent. I recently helped a mental health -- mental health forum

where I broad service users and commissioners together to explore

how we could improve mental health services. And I welcome the Prime

Minister's Wiese and announcement on increased funding for mental health

services? -- recent announcement. His commitments are a clear

indication of our desire to have a revolution in mental health services

in Britain, and he has delivered some commitments on that. I am

grateful to what my honourable friend says. There is further to go

by this government is investing more in mental health, we have introduced

waiting times. Young people suffering episodes of psychosis

should be seen within two weeks. There is funding, parity of esteem,

waiting time, but there also needs to be a bigger culture change, not

just in the NHS but across the public and private sectors so mental

health commissions are given the attention they deserve. From this

April, a woman who works full-time stands to lose thousands of pounds

in tax credits if she becomes pregnant with her first child. When

will this prime ministers stop attacking working people? Forwarding

like that, we are making sure that this year they can earn ?11,000

without paying any income tax. If they are on low wages, the minimum

wage, they get a 7% pay increase because of the national living wage.

For the first time, there will be 30 hours of free childcare for those

people. That is what we are doing for hard-working people. Do we need

to look at reforming welfare? Yes, we do. If the honourable gentleman

read the report into why his party lost the election, not the one that

they published, the secret one that we read over the weekend, it is by

endlessly arguing for higher and higher welfare the British public

rightly concluded that, under Labour, there would be higher taxes.

I warmly welcome the Prime Minister's words on creating a

national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Tonight in Harrow,

representatives of the whole community will come together to

listen to be people who survived the Holocaust, because that is the only

way we can really preserve their memory. My right honourable friend

is rightly alluded to the wonderful work of the Holocaust educational

trust in allowing literally thousands of young people to visit

Auschwitz and see for themselves first-hand. Will he commit the

government to continue funding the Holocaust educational trust so that

many thousands more can see the horrors of the Holocaust? I

certainly can make that commitment. We have funded it by over ?10

million since I became Prime Minister. It does excellent work. I

think there is a real need now, as tragically the remaining Holocaust

survivors are coming to the end of their lives, many of them are now

speaking up in the most moving and powerful way. I will be sending some

time today with some of them, recording their test dummies, which

must be part of our memorial -- testimonies, we must capture that

for generations to come. In 2013, the energy and climate change select

committee recommended extending the retention of business rates to

include new build nuclear power stations. The centre for nuclear

excellence is in my constituency and the new build is a vital for our

economic prosperity. Given the government cuts to Cumbrian

councils, does the Prime Minister agree that, if we are to truly build

a northern powerhouse, our local authorities must retain all from

nuclear new-build? We are committed to the new nuclear industry. We are

obviously making good progress with Hinkley Point but we need to see

another big station go ahead. I will look carefully at what she says

about business rate retention and business rates more broadly, but the

most important thing is to have an energy infrastructure that allows

for the delivery of new nuclear power stations. That is the position

on this side of the house. A closed question. This government is

committed to regenerating coastal towns and ensuring that everybody,

regardless of where they live, as access to high quality public

services and the best opportunities. On this question, Ian Paisley. I beg

your pardon, Mr Vickers first. I thank the Prime Minister for his

reply and I recognised the initiatives that the government has

taken. He will know that many coastal towns like Cleethorpes

suffer from poor educational standards. We have many high

performing academies who are trying to reverse that and to ensure that

our young people have access to sports, arts and culture at the

highest level. The council are currently preparing a report with

the private sector. Will he commit the government to work with the

council to deliver regeneration to Cleethorpes? Nobody could silence

the voice of the number! I think my honourable friend is right and I am

happy to look at that proposal with him. We have to make sure we tackle

both failing schools and coastal schools, and there are some in

coastal areas. One of the issues is making sure we get talented teachers

and leaders into those schools, and that is what the national leaders of

education service is all about. Wratten Island is the only inhabited

coastal village town in my constituency. No British Prime

Minister has ever had the privilege to visit. I hope that the Prime

Minister will make a plan to visit, which has considerable economic

needs. I am the first British by Minister to visit many parts of the

country. The first to go to Shetland! I fear that, if I were to

visit, many people might like me to stay there. But I will bear it in

mind. Rugby is the fastest growing town in the West Midlands with work

underway to provide 6200 much-needed new homes at the Rugby radio site,

but my constituents are keen to ensure that public services keep

pace with developers and particularly to seek more services

at the local hospital. Does the prime ministers agreed with the NHS

chief executive that district hospitals such as this play an

excellent role in the NHS? I am a believer in district general

hospitals and I know what a strong support of Saint Crossed he is. I

know there is a dedicated outpatient facility there. We are going to

achieve these very aggressive house-building targets that we put

forward, there will be more houses built in most our constituencies. As

far as we can, we will try to welcome that, that is important, and

to make sure that the infrastructure is provided. Not everybody is as

satisfied as the Chancellor with what, for Google, is loose change to

cover their tax liabilities. On Monday, the honourable member for

ABBA valley called on the government to make companies publish their tax

returns. In that way, we can all see how they make the journey from their

tax profits to their tax bill. Does the Prime Minister agree? I want to

wonder whether the right honourable lady whether raised this issue when

she sat in the Labour cabinet, when Google were paying no tax. What we

have is a situation where we make the rules in this house and where

HMAC ether to enforce them. That is the system that we need to make

work. -- H MRC. As cancer survival rates continue to improve, and given

that this is cancer talk week, will my right honourable friend join me

in welcoming a new state cancer information centre due to enter at

Royal Bolton hospital, and praise the commitment of Midland cancer

care, Bolton hospice, and the local cancer commissioning group, who are

all making this happening is to mark --? Everybody in this house knows a

family member who has been touched by cancer. The good news is that

cancer survival rates are improving. We need to make sure they improve

across all cancers, not just the best-known ones. What he says is

that this is not just an issue for the NHS but all of those because IT

bodies which also want to campaign and act on helping cancer sufferers.

--. In 2014I wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to join the

Scottish Government and Highland Council in taking forward a city

deal for Inverness. Highland Council have submitted a detailed plan on

the region for young people. Will be Prime Minister committed to giving

this the green light in the coming weeks? We are committed to examining

the city deal with Inverness, as we have made good progress with

Aberdeen. I think these bring together the best of what the

Scottish Government can put on the table but also the best of what the

UK Government can put on the table because, without wanting to be too

political, the two governments working together can do even more.

Could I thank the Prime Minister for meeting the deposed mould even Prime

Minister -- president on Saturday? Will he work towards an

international consensus on targeted sanctions so that the regime of the

Maldives may reconsider their appalling human rights record and

their record on democracy? It was an honour to meet with the former

president, who I think did an excellent job for his country in

cutting out corruption and turning that country around. He suffered

terribly by being in prison and it is good that he is able to get out

to seek medical treatment, but we want to see a change in behaviour

from the government of the Maldives, to make sure political prisoners are

set free, and we are prepared to consider targeted action against

individuals if progress isn't made. Let's hope that diplomatic efforts

will lead to the changes we want to see, but Britain, and our allies,

including Sri Lanka and India, watching situation carefully. 46% of

five-year-old children in Bradford suffer from dental decay compared

with 28% across England, and less than half the children living in

Bradford district has seen a dentist in the last two years. Given the

cost of treating toothpick care -- tooth decay, they exceed the cost of

prevention, would the Prime Minister look at dental provision in the

area? If you take a view across the country, before 2010, we had huge

queues around the block when a new NHS dentist turned up was there were

not enough. They may not and shake their heads, but that is what

happened. Some of us can remember. We have seen a big increase in NHS

dentistry, but I will look carefully at the situation in Bradford. As my

right honourable friend knows, a task force is set to deliver its

report on a resilient railway to Devon and Cornwall. Would the Prime

Minister be prepared to meet with me and a number of colleagues to make

sure that Network Rail and the task force is enough for two studies, the

electrification of the line and the reduction in journey time is

necessary to do this? I had an excellent meeting with the south

coast -- south-west peninsula task force and I will make sure that I

continue to liaise closely with them. We need to find an answer and

we need to find the funding. We can't have happen what happened in

the past, where a problem on our Railways led to the peninsula being

cut off. Would be Prime Minister join me in congratulating my

constituents, Dominic and Rebecca from Mitcham, on the birth of their

daughter, Alice. Like every parents, they want their daughter to have

better opportunities than they had but, with average London house

prices increasing by ?40,000 in 2013 alone, and the average house in

London being now worth over half ?1 million, does he understand their

fears and Alice will never have the chance they had to buy her own home

in the area she was born in? I want to help Alice and many like her get

on the housing ladder, which is why we are introducing shared ownership,

which brings housing in reach of many more people. It is why we have

helped by London, which is twice as generous as the rest of the country.

It is why we selling off the most expensive council houses and

rebuilding more affordable homes. -- help to buy London. These are all

under the guidance and drive of Zac Goldsmith, who will make an

excellent... SHOUTING

That is the best chance of a home, to have a Conservative mayor and a

Conservative government working hand in glove. Someone experiencing a

mental health crisis who goes in desperation to A needs prompt

specialist help. Can I welcome my right honourable friend's

recognition of psychiatric liaison? Does he agree that 20 47 psychiatric

liaison in A is an important step towards self-esteem? We are seeing

more mental health and psychiatric liaison in our A We need

overtime to see it in all. So often people are arriving not in the right

setting, where they should be looking after. Whether it is getting

people with mental health conditions out of police cells or making sure

they are treated properly in prison or, crucially, when they arrived in

A, make sure they get this treatment is very much part of our

plan. I commend the Prime Minister for his remarks about Holocaust

Memorial Day. In honouring the memory of those murdered by the

Nazis, we provide the best candidate to extremism and anti-Semitism

anti-Semitism in our age. The biggest challenge Europe today is

the predicted 3 million refugees who will flood into Europe. Does he

agree that the only way to challenge a crisis of that magnitude is by

starting working with our European colleagues at the heart of a united

Europe? Would you take this opportunity to welcome in and

provide a home for the 3000 unaccompanied children, as

recommended by save the children? Where I agree with the right

honourable gentleman is the importance of taking action to help

with this crisis. No country in Europe has been more generous than

Britain in funding refugees, whether they are in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon

or Jordan. Where I don't agree with the right honourable gentleman is

thinking that the right answer is for Britain to opt into the EU

relocation and resettlement schemes. Let me tell him as for why. We said

we will resettle 20,000 people in our country. We promised 1000 by

Christmas. Because of the hard work of the honourable member for

Watford, we achieved that. If you add up all that Europe has done

under its relocation scheme and its recent resettlement scheme, they

have done less than we have done in the UK. Yes, we should take part in

European schemes when it is in our interests, helped to secure the

external European border, but we are out of the Schengen agreement, we

keep our own borders and, under this government, that is how it will

stay.