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  • Daniel Kawczynski – 2021 Statement on His Personal Conduct

    Daniel Kawczynski – 2021 Statement on His Personal Conduct

    The statement made by Daniel Kawczynski, the Conservative MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, in the House of Commons on 14 June 2021.

    With your permission, Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal statement to the House. The matter I am referring to occurred on 27 April 2020. I had been trying to get online to an important Committee meeting. After many attempts throughout the day, I was still not connected and had to leave the meeting. I did not swear or raise my voice, but my behaviour led to two complaints. I have reflected on my behaviour. I accept that it constituted bullying and, as such, was entirely inexcusable. The circumstances were stressful for the staff assisting the Committee and for me. I apologised to them before, and I apologise to them again, and to the House, unreservedly. I will never repeat such behaviour.

  • Lindsay Hoyle – 2021 Statement on Government Avoiding Parliament

    Lindsay Hoyle – 2021 Statement on Government Avoiding Parliament

    The statement made by Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, on 14 June 2021.

    Before I call the Health Secretary to make his statement, I want to repeat the point I made earlier. It is entirely unacceptable that the Government did not make today’s announcement to the House first. It was disrespectful to the House and to our constituents. The Government clearly planned that the media would be told information today not far from this Chamber, and that this House would have to wait until tomorrow. I want to say very clearly to the Government that this is not how this House should be treated.

    The Government’s own ministerial code says:

    “When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of Government policy should be made in the first instance, in Parliament.”

    The Prime Minister polices the ministerial code. He wrote the foreword to it. He must now lead from the top and follow the guidance in it. The House can be assured that I will be pursuing this matter with him.

    I do not find it acceptable at all. Members of this House are elected to serve their constituents here, not via Sky or the BBC. Questions should be answered here. The Prime Minister should be here. I am sorry if his dinner would have been affected. I was told that he would be in Brussels—I think the nearest Brussels tonight were the sprouts in the dinner being served. I say now, Prime Minister, you are on my watch, and I want you to treat this House correctly.

    I now call the unfortunate person who has had to pick up the pieces, the Secretary of State, Matt Hancock, to make the statement.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2021 Comments on Anniversary of Grenfell Tower Fire Tragedy

    Sadiq Khan – 2021 Comments on Anniversary of Grenfell Tower Fire Tragedy

    The comments made by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, on 14 June 2021.

    London will never forget the tragic events of 14 June 2017, when 72 people lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower fire. Four years on from this national tragedy, my thoughts remain with bereaved families, survivors and residents as they remember their loved ones.

    There are many whose lives will never be the same after Grenfell. We owe it to the people who died, to the survivors and the entire community to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

    While dealing with their own grief and recovery, the Grenfell community have been unwavering in their dignity and strength, continuing to campaign and fight for justice and public safety. As Mayor of this city, I stand with them and I will continue to be relentless in holding those responsible to account, doing everything in my power to ensure all Londoners feel safe in their homes.

  • Angela Rayner – 2021 Comments on Serco’s Profit Forecast

    Angela Rayner – 2021 Comments on Serco’s Profit Forecast

    The comments made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, on 14 June 2021.

    Under the Conservatives, taxpayers’ money has been handed out to line the pockets of big outsourcing companies in return for failure after failure.

    The public will be able to compare the failed Test and Trace – run for private profit, with the vaccine roll out – run by our NHS in the public interest, and ask why Serco and other outsourcing companies are being rewarded for their failure.

    Labour will insource our public services so they are run for the public, not private profit.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in Downing Street on 14 June 2021.

    When we set out on our roadmap to freedom a few months ago, we were determined to make progress that was cautious but irreversible. And step by step – thanks to the enormous efforts of the British people and the spectacular vaccine roll-out we now have one of the most open economies and societies in this part of the world.

    And as we have always known and as the February roadmap explicitly predicted – this opening up has inevitably been accompanied by more infection and more hospitalisation. Because we must be clear that we cannot simply eliminate Covid – we must learn to live with it. And with every day that goes by we are better protected by the vaccines and we are better able to live with the disease.

    Vaccination greatly reduces transmission and two doses provide a very high degree of protection against serious illness and death. But there are still millions of younger adults who have not been vaccinated and sadly a proportion of the elderly and vulnerable may still succumb even if they have had two jabs.

    And that is why we are so concerned by the Delta variant that is now spreading faster than the third wave predicted in the February roadmap. We’re seeing cases growing by about 64 per cent per week, and in the worst affected areas, it’s doubling every week. And the average number of people being admitted to hospital in England has increased by 50 per cent week on week, and by 61 per cent in the North West, which may be the shape of things to come. Because we know the remorseless logic of exponential growth and even if the link between infection and hospitalisation has been weakened it has not been severed.

    And even if the link between hospitalisation and death has also been weakened, I’m afraid numbers in intensive care, in ICU are also rising. And so we have faced a very difficult choice. We can simply keep going with all of step 4 on June 21st even though there is a real possibility that the virus will outrun the vaccines and that thousands more deaths would ensue that could otherwise have been avoided.

    Or else we can give our NHS a few more crucial weeks to get those remaining jabs into the arms of those who need them. And since today I cannot say that we have met all four tests for proceeding with step four, I do think it is sensible to wait just a little longer.

    By Monday 19th July we will aim to have double jabbed around two thirds of the adult population including everyone over 50, all the vulnerable, all the frontline health and care workers and everyone over 40 who received their first dose by mid-May. And to do this we will now accelerate the 2nd jabs for those over 40 – just as we did for the vulnerable groups – so they get maximum protection as fast as possible.

    And we will bring forward our target to give every adult in this country a first dose by 19th July that is including young people over the age of 18 with 23 and 24 year olds invited to book jabs from tomorrow – so we reduce the risk of transmission among groups that mix the most. And to give the NHS that extra time we will hold off step 4 openings until July 19th except for weddings that can still go ahead with more than 30 guests provided social distancing remains in place and the same will apply to wakes. And we will continue the pilot events – such as Euro2020 and some theatrical performances. We will monitor the position every day and if after 2 weeks we have concluded that the risk has diminished then we reserve the possibility of proceeding to Step 4 and full opening sooner.

    As things stand – and on the basis of the evidence I can see right now – I am confident we will not need any more than 4 weeks and we won’t need to go beyond July 19th. It is unmistakably clear the vaccines are working and the sheer scale of the vaccine roll-out has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves.

    But now is the time to ease off the accelerator because by being cautious now we have the chance – in the next four weeks – to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people. And once the adults of this country have been overwhelmingly vaccinated, which is what we can achieve in a short space of time, we will be in a far stronger position to keep hospitalisations down, to live with this disease, and to complete our cautious but irreversible roadmap to freedom.

  • Angela Rayner – 2021 Comments on the Committee on Standards in Public Life Review

    Angela Rayner – 2021 Comments on the Committee on Standards in Public Life Review

    The comments made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, on 14 June 2021.

    The current system regulating lobbying and standards in our public life is completely unfit for purpose, so we welcome this report and its key recommendation that significant reform is needed.

    Ministers should be banned from lobbying after they leave office for a period of up to five years, and Labour supports this recommendation. However, the Prime Minister should not be the ultimate arbiter of the Ministerial Code, allowing him to mark his own homework and let Ministers get away with breaking the rules.

    The toothless ACOBA system has failed to address the revolving door between big business and Whitehall and requires urgent reform, and we need to ban MPs who are supposed to be serving their constituents, lining their own pockets by taking on lobbying gigs.

    Labour will clean up our politics after the Tories have polluted it with their cronyism and sleaze, starting with a single Ethics and Integrity Commission that will have the powers to oversee and enforce anti-corruption and ethics laws and regulations which are currently spread across a range of bodies – a system that is clearly not working.

  • Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Covid Roadmap Delay

    Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Covid Roadmap Delay

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 14 June 2021.

    It would be wrong for businesses to suffer because of the Government’s poor handling of our borders and failure to contain the new variant.

    There is a cloud of deep anxiety and uncertainty hanging over many businesses worrying about their futures and whether economic support will be removed whilst they are still unable to trade or profit. It’s right we remain guided by the science in the decisions that are made today, but the price of any delay to the roadmap must not be paid by businesses.

    Night clubs and live music venues, many restaurants and bars, the events, arts and wedding industries are still seriously affected by restrictions, but they have repeatedly been left in the dark about economic support.

    Economic measures must remain in step with public health restrictions. The Government must treat businesses with respect and provide the detail and clarity they are crying out for today.

  • Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on Those Booing the England Football Team

    Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on Those Booing the England Football Team

    The comments made by Jo Stevens, the Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 14 June 2021.

    It beggars belief that a day after the excellent win against Croatia, senior government ministers are still trying to provoke a fight with the England football team.

    Ministers should get on with their jobs and get behind the home nations.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement at the G7 Summit

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement at the G7 Summit

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, at the G7 Summit in Cornwall on 13 June 2021.

    This Summit was the first gathering of G7 leaders – in fact the first gathering of pretty much any leaders – in almost two years.

    And I know the world was looking to us to reject some of the selfishness and nationalist approaches that have marred the initial global response to the pandemic, and to channel all our diplomatic, economic and scientific might into defeating covid for good.

    And I do hope we have lived up to some of the most optimistic of hopes and predictions

    I should say I am sorry to hear that, owing to their pre-existing commitments, the England football team are not able to watch this press conference live in the way I’m sure they’d like to.

    But I hope that, following their resounding victory, they will be able to catch up on the triumphs of the G7 later on.

    A week ago I asked my fellow leaders to help in preparing and providing the doses we need to help vaccinate the whole world by the end of 2022.

    I’m very pleased to announce that this weekend leaders have pledged over 1 billion doses – either directly or through funding to COVAX – that includes 100 million from the UK, to the world’s poorest countries – which is another big step towards vaccinating the world.

    And that’s in addition to everything scientists and governments and the pharmaceutical industry have done so far to roll out one of the largest vaccination programmes in history.

    And here I want to mention, in particular, the role the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine – the world’s most popular vaccine, developed 250 miles from where I’m standing today- by scientists who have rightly been given honours by the Queen this weekend.

    Today over half a billion people are safe because of the development and production of that vaccine, funded – I may add – by the UK Government. And that number is rising every day.

    It is popular, of course, because it is being sold at cost to the world and it was designed for ease of use in mind.

    And because of that act of generosity by AstraZeneca who, just to reiterate, are making zero profit on the production of that vaccine, millions more vaccines have been rolled out to the poorest countries in the world. In fact 96% of the vaccines delivered by the COVAX distribution scheme have been Oxford-AZ.

    But this weekend our discussions went far beyond defeating the pandemic.

    We looked towards the great global recovery our countries have committed to lead, and we were clear that we all need to build back better in a way that delivers for all our people and for the people of the world.

    And that means preventing a pandemic like this from ever happening again, apart from anything else by establishing a global pandemic radar which will spot new diseases before they get the chance to spread.

    It means ensuring that our future prosperity benefits all the citizens of our countries and indeed all the citizens of the world.

    At the G7 Summit this weekend, my fellow leaders helped the Global Partnership for Education – an organisation working to make sure that every child in the world is given the chance of a proper education – reach half of its five-year fundraising goal, including a £430m donation from the UK.

    It’s an international disgrace that some children in the world are denied the chance to learn and reach their full potential, and I’m very very pleased that the G7 came together to support that cause.

    Because educating all children, particularly girls, is one of the easiest ways to lift countries out of poverty and help them rebound from the coronavirus crisis. With just one additional year of school a girl’s future earnings can increase by 20%.

    I’m proud that G7 countries have agreed to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more reading by the end of primary school in the next five years, and the money we have raised this week is a fantastic start.

    But of course the world cannot have a prosperous future if we don’t work together to tackle climate change.

    Later this year the UK will host the COP26 Summit, which will galvanise global action on fighting climate change and create a healthy planet for our children and grandchildren.

    G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions, and we were clear this weekend that action has to start with us.

    Carbis Bay is one of the most beautiful places in the world as you can see and it was a fitting setting for the first ever net zero G7 Summit.

    And while it’s fantastic that every one of the G7 countries has pledged to wipe out our contributions to climate change, we need to make sure we’re achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time.

    And what unites the countries gathered here this weekend – not just the G7 but Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea who have joined us (I should say in India’s case joined us virtually) not just our resolve to tackle climate change, but also our democratic values.

    It’s not good enough for us to just rest on our laurels and talk about how important those values are. And this isn’t about imposing our values on the rest of the world. What we as the G7 need to do is demonstrate the benefits of democracy and freedom and human rights to rest of the world.

    And we can partly achieve that by the greatest feat in medical history – vaccinating the world.

    We can do that by working together to stop the devastation that coronavirus has produced from ever occurring again.

    And we can do that by showing the value of giving every girl in the world access to 12 years of quality education.

    And we can also do that by coming together as the G7 and helping the world’s poorest countries to develop themselves in a way that is clean and green and sustainable

    I want to thank finally, the police, everyone who helped organised this summit and all the people not just of Carbis bay (who certainly helped us put the carbs into Carbis Bay), but all the wonderful people of Cornwall for their hospitality. It’s been a fantastic summit and I know that all the other delegations would want to express their thanks as well.

  • Dominic Raab – 2021 Comments on Climate Change

    Dominic Raab – 2021 Comments on Climate Change

    The comments made by Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, on 13 June 2021.

    Tackling climate change is one of the greatest threats of our time as without action, it could push more than 100 million people below the poverty line as soon as 2030.This joint UK, US and German action will enable quicker responses to extreme weather and climate-linked disasters in countries bearing the brunt of climate change.