The comments made by Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, on 17 October 2022.
The Prime Minister is not under a desk, as the hon. Lady suggests. I can assure the House that, with regret, she is not here for a very good reason. Neither has she taken this decision to win the hon. Lady’s gratitude; she has done it out of a sense of duty, because she knows what is in the national interest.
The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, in the House of Commons on 17 October 2022.
I thank the right hon. Lady for answering the question put to the Prime Minister; I guess that under this Tory Government everybody gets to be Prime Minister for 15 minutes.
The country is in an economic crisis made in Downing Street. Because they have lost all credibility, Government borrowing costs have soared, mortgage rates have ballooned, markets need reassuring, and there is long-term damage that cannot be undone. Once you have crashed the car at 100 mph, you have damaged it for good and will be paying much more on your insurance for years to come. It is working people who will pay, left wondering if they can afford to stay in their homes—if their hopes of owning a home have not already been crushed.
Now, it is time for leaders to lead, but where is the Prime Minister? She is hiding away, dodging questions, scared of her own shadow; the lady’s not for turning—ha! Now, it is time to be honest about the mistakes they have made, but what does the Prime Minister say? She says, “My vision is right, my mission remains, I sacked my Chancellor but I can’t tell you why.” Now is a time for consistent messaging. But what do we get? A Prime Minister saying, “Absolutely no spending reductions,” a Chancellor saying that there will be cuts, a Prime Minister saying that she is in charge, and a Chancellor who thinks that he is the chief executive officer and the Prime Minister is just the chair. How can Britain get the stability it needs when all the Government offers is grotesque chaos? How can Britain get the stability it needs when instead of leadership we have this utter vacuum? How can Britain get the stability it needs when the Prime Minister has no mandate from her party and no mandate from the country?
Penny Mordaunt
Let me start by saying that I am quietly confident that the Leader of the Opposition will not have his 15 minutes of fame. With regard to questions raised on economic policy, I will defer to the Chancellor. Hon. Members will want time to question him fully and hear the detail, and I do not wish to eat into that time. Our constituents will want to hear about the issues facing them—their bills, mortgages and benefits, and their businesses—so I had wondered what else the Leader of the Opposition wished to discuss in an urgent question that would delay such an important statement.
In his urgent question, the Leader of the Opposition paints a contrast, so let me paint one, too. The decision taken by our Prime Minister would have been a very tough one politically and personally, yet she took it, and she did so because it was manifestly in the national interest that she did. She did not hesitate to do so because her focus is on the wellbeing of every one of our citizens. It was the right thing to do, and whether you agree with it or not, it took courage to do it.
In contrast, what the right hon. and learned Gentleman has done today, at this most serious moment, took no courage or judgment or regard to the national interest. Three years ago, when this Parliament was paralysed by Brexit, a general election would have been in the national interest, and he blocked one. Today, when the country needs some stability and urgent legislation to put through cost-of-living measures, and while we are in the middle of an economic war levelled at every school and hospital in the country, he calls for one and for weeks of disruption and delay.
We will take no lectures from the right hon. and learned Gentleman on working in the national interest. I could point to his frustration of our leaving the EU and his campaigning for a second referendum. I could point to his support for the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) and his positions on NATO, his arguments against our leaving lockdown, or his support for our involvement with the EU vaccines agency, all of which were against the national interest. Nor will we take any lectures on consistency of policy or messaging. He has abandoned every single one of his pledges made during the Labour leadership contest—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. I think the country wants to hear what is being said and, if I cannot hear, they cannot hear. Can we please listen to the Leader of the House? I am sure that she is coming to the end now.
Penny Mordaunt
I am, Mr Speaker.
Mr Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)
Are you coming to the subject now?
Mr Speaker
Order. Mr Perkins, if you want to go and get a cup of tea, I am more than happy to pay for it.
Penny Mordaunt
That is why, even on our toughest and most disappointing days, I will always be proud to sit on the Government side of the House. We will put the national interest first. Now, let us get on and hear from the Chancellor.
The statement made by Penny Mordaunt, the Leader of the House of Commons, in the House on 17 October 2022 following a urgent Parliamentary question from Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition.
Keir Starmer (Holborn and St Pancras) (Lab)
(Urgent Question): To ask the Prime Minister to make a statement on the replacement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the current economic situation.
The Leader of the House of Commons (Penny Mordaunt)
With apologies to the Leader of the Opposition and the House, the Prime Minister is detained on urgent business—[Interruption.]—and they will have to make do—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. I must hear the answer to why the Prime Minister is not here.
Penny Mordaunt
I afraid you will have to make do with me, Mr Speaker.
The Prime Minister has taken the decision to appoint my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Jeremy Hunt), one of the longest serving and most experienced parliamentarians, as her Chancellor. Their overriding priority is to restore financial stability in the face of volatile global conditions. We will take whatever tough decisions are necessary, and have made changes to the growth plan, which the Chancellor is waiting to update the House on as soon as this urgent question finishes.
The statement made by Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, in the House on 13 October 2022.
This Saturday marks the first anniversary of the death of our friend and colleague Sir David Amess, who was murdered in his Southend West constituency. David was an extremely diligent constituency Member of Parliament who died carrying out his democratic duties, which made his death all the more shocking. May I express, on behalf of the whole House, our sympathy with his family, friends and colleagues on this sad anniversary? David was a long-serving Member who was respected and liked on all sides of the House. We will not forget him.
At this time, we also remember our colleague James Brokenshire, a dedicated, respected parliamentarian, and hold his family and friends in our thoughts this week.
The comments made by Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP, on Twitter on 14 October 2022.
Remainer Jeremy Hunt is the new Chancellor, joining forces with our Remainer PM.
This Conservative party has no authority, no decency and has failed our country.
The statement made by Liz Truss, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.
I am making this statement to bring to the House’s attention the following machinery of Government changes.
Responsibility for Union and devolution policy will move to the Cabinet Office under the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in his role as Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. This will allow the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to lead the UK Government’s engagement with the devolved Administrations and drive forward cross-Government efforts to deliver tangible improvements for people across the UK, working closely with the territorial Offices.
The Brexit Opportunities Unit will move from the Cabinet Office to sit under the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This will bring together work to tackle EU red tape, seize post-Brexit opportunities and efforts to ensure the regulatory and business environment enables the UK to attract investment and boost growth.
Both machinery of Government changes will take effect immediately.
The speech made by David Urquhart, the Lord Bishop of Birmingham, in the House of Lords on 10 October 2022.
My Lords, I have been immensely grateful for the stimulation and companionship I have found in your Lordships’ House as a Member for the last 12 years, not least in the last three or four speeches this afternoon on this immensely complex subject. It is worth turning up, if only to feel the embarrassment of my colleagues when one of their number is called “mature” and “sensible”—where better to hear it than here, in public and on the record?—and to be with the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, with whom I share a long business background, although not necessarily in the same sector. I am particularly grateful to have been Convenor of this Bench for some years and to have been able to relate to the usual channels in the House informally. I am very grateful to those here who have accepted my presence at certain moments, whether they were to do with Brexit, the pandemic and the hybrid House, or even the late Queen’s funeral.
This is an opportunity just to say thank you to the officers of the House for the remarkable support that we received from them—in recent weeks, as it happened, day and night. I wish my successor as convenor of these Benches, my right reverend friend the Lord Bishop of St Albans, every success and the same wonderful co-operation and fulfilment.
For me the context of this deliberation on the economy and of many other debates in this House has been the vibrant and exciting life of the West Midlands, especially Birmingham, where we have recently enjoyed a financially as well as a socially and culturally successful Commonwealth Games. The first of my asks today is to ask the Government to be generous in supporting the legacy of this remarkable effort, and to do so much quicker than was mentioned earlier in this Chamber in response to a Question on the Olympic Games.
None the less, the numbers provided by economic science, checked, as they should be, by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and, if you like, a charitable organisation called Full Fact, are either swinging out of control—consumer prices have already been mentioned in detail—or simply depressing: the fact of the depression of real earnings.
The theoretical or political points that arise—they will be made many times this afternoon—are puzzling and confusing to people in the regions who run their own economic life, I dare to say, with intelligence and wisdom, if not always rationally, but knowing the cost of food, housing, heating, clothing and holidays and how much money they have available to bring them into their charge.
I was glad to see the governing party described by the Prime Minister, after the Chancellor’s Statement, as one of “aspiration, enterprise and growth”. I like that phrase because it describes exactly what I have been trying to do in the Church for the last 40 years. The Prime Minister is quoted as saying:
“We believe in making it easier for our wealth creators, doers and makers to get things done”
to reset the economy and not manage decline. Again, those are very agreeable aims for the Church. However, will the Government answer the difficult questions faced by all of us: wealth created for whom, in an unequal society, doers with what skills in a competitive world market, and makers of what that people will buy at the right price?
I hope that Ministers in the years ahead, as well as in the months and even weeks ahead, will think clearly about how to articulate the principles behind these numbers and behind the very important points which have been made already this afternoon—clear principles in a complex scene. This is my last chance to mention two or three that matter to me: transparent measurements of success and failure, because we are allowed to fail but need to measure them transparently; a bigger picture of worldwide interdependence—we have mentioned the war but I mean the whole oikumene of the world—and longer-term cycles to achieve real change. These can be framed in a way to strengthen and be supported by local households, businesses and local authorities: discipline, development, distribution and devolution.
I see that I have overrun my time but I will finish by saying that this last point, devolution of power and influence, is very close to my heart. The new investment zones are welcome, as are the infrastructure projects listed, which in our own region are led by Andy Street, the West Midlands mayor. We will do well, but I ask the Government to go further and to make local influence part of an equal partnership, putting responsibility and resources where they belong in the local regions.
As a former Member of this House, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, would remind us, to make a better world for all we need both market and state, but neither of those can provide the values on which they are to be built. Perhaps we should return to the prophet Micah as we continue this debate and remember that we are all called to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.
The statement made by Sam Tarry, the Labour MP for Ilford South, on 11 October 2022.
I am utterly crestfallen by the result in the Ilford South selection last night. Not for myself, but for the good people of Ilford who deserve better than to have been at the centre of a manufactured political circus.
I am extremely concerned about the result, which does not reflect the feeling my campaigners met on the ground talking day in day out to members, or the extensive meticulous data we gathered on the campaign.
I am taking some time to consider what’s next, but in order to be assured of the integrity of the result I am asking the party to share with me the full information of who cast electronic votes, by what method, and when they were cast, which I understand is available in the ‘anonyvoter’ system.
In the meantime, I will continue to represent the people of Ilford South the way I have done for the past three years – with integrity, generosity and inclusivity. Thank you to my amazing team of volunteers on the ground who are the best of Ilford.
Sam.
The comments made by Sam Tarry, the Labour MP for Ilford South, on 10 October 2022.
I’m incredibly disappointed in this result, mostly for all my committed volunteers and the wonderful people of Ilford South. I intend to issue a further statement tomorrow on the process and outcome.
The tribute made by Leslie Griffiths, Baron Griffiths of Burry Port, in the House of Lords on 10 September 2022.
My Lords, it is a privilege to take part in this debate. We all know the troubles that the late Queen lived through. I have a list of them but, in obedience to the Chief Whip, I will jump straight to my conclusion for the sake of brevity. She navigated such difficult waters with the skill of a diplomat and as a stateswoman of the first order. She exhibited all the qualities that we heard so brilliantly set out in last evening’s speech by our new King. She must have willed herself to stay alive long enough to ensure the transfer of power just last Monday from one Prime Minister to another, which leads me to conclude that little became her in this life like the leaving of it.
The president of the Methodist Conference, with whom I have spoken, highlights what for him were her qualities of excellence: her resilience and her patent faith. In his name as well as my own, I hope noble Lords will allow me to pay tribute to our late Queen on behalf of the people called Methodist.
She was patron of the Boys’ Brigade. I was its president for several years, until recently. Members of the brigade, young men and women, were frequently called to do duty as marshals and stewards at royal garden parties at Buckingham Palace or Holyroodhouse. Her messages to the brigade were always bright, encouraging and supportive. She graciously allowed us to hold our special occasions in premises we could never otherwise have dreamed of, including St James’s Palace, where we saw so many noble Lords looking resplendent this morning.
She invited me and a small party of young people to Balmoral at the time of her Diamond Jubilee, just a few days after her appearance with James Bond at the opening of the Olympic Games. We giggled and chortled as we recalled that incident. Her manner in putting our young people, who had been totally overwhelmed on arriving at Balmoral, at their ease was simply wonderful. She had a natural touch.
A song we love to sing in the Boys’ Brigade has a chorus that runs like this. I am terribly tempted to sing it, but I believe I may be out of order.
Noble Lords
No!
Lord Griffiths of Burry Port (Lab)
I feel there is a consensus:
“We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”—[Applause.]
I paused precisely for that.
It is not difficult to pluck from that Boys’ Brigade song the words “steadfast and sure”, the brigade’s motto, because they describe our late patron’s character to a tee. On behalf of the leadership of the Boys’ Brigade, and in my own name, I pay tribute to our late patron for her faithfulness shown in the small tasks of everyday life as well as the grand ones that we have heard others talk about today.
Finally, I am so glad to be paying my tribute today rather than yesterday, because it allowed me, as it has all of us, to witness the remarkable, powerful, revealing, brilliant and moving address which King Charles III made last evening on television. He displayed all the qualities we so readily attribute to his late mother. I end by echoing a remark by Christopher Wren: if you want to define the late Queen’s legacy, look no further; you will see it in her son.