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Tag: 2021

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Statement on Covid-19

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 27 January 2021.

    When we look at the toll of this pandemic it must be measured not only in the tragic loss of life that we have endured with over 100,000 deaths and once again I offer my condolences to the families and friends of everybody who has lost loved ones – but I’m afraid we must also remember not just the damage to the economy, but the lost weeks and months of education and the real risk of damage to the prospects of our young people.

    And so I share very much the frustration of pupils and teachers who today want nothing more than to get back to the classroom.

    And I understand the stress and the anxieties of parents coping heroically with the pressures of homeschooling.

    And I know that everybody across the country wants us to get schools open as fast as possible

    And I can assure you that is the ambition of this Government.

    But I also know, we all know, that with 37,000 people in hospital suffering from covid and the infection rates still forbiddingly high you, we all, must be cautious and we all want only to open schools when we can be sure that this will not cause another huge surge in the disease.

    Because the problem is not that schools are unsafe teachers and headteachers have worked heroically to make sure that they are safe, that they are covid secure. The problem is that by definition, schools bring many households together

    And that contributes to the spread of the virus within the community, and drives up the R.

    And so it follows that if we are to get schools open – and keep them open – which is what we all want then we need to be clear about certain things.

    We need to be sure the vaccine roll-out is continuing to be successful as it is and most important, we need to see the impact of our vaccines on those graphs of mortality, we need to see that they really are saving lives and preventing people from becoming seriously ill.

    Now we are confident that will happen and vaccines will have that effect but to be responsible we must see the proof. And our current estimates say that the proof will only become visible in the middle of February.

    And since we need to give schools two weeks’ notice to re-open it is sensible now to serve notice that we will not be able to re-open schools immediately after half-term on 22nd February.

    But if we continue to make the progress that we want to see, and that we believe we can see, then we hope to begin opening schools on Monday 8th March. And to help parents and teachers with this extended period of remote learning

    We will extend the arrangements for providing free school meals for those eligible children not in school including food parcels and the national voucher scheme – until those pupils have returned to the classroom.

    And as we did this financial year, we will provide a catch-up programme over the next financial year, with a further £300 million of new money to schools for tutoring, and we will work with the education sector to develop, wherever appropriate, specific initiatives for summer schools as well as a Covid Premium for catch-up and to support pupils to catch up. We will work with parents, teachers and schools to develop a long-term plan to make sure all pupils have the chance to make up their learning over the course of this Parliament, so we tackle that issue of differential learning and kids who may have fallen behind through no fault of their own

    And so with every jab that goes in we are becoming more confident that we will reach our target of offering a first dose to everyone in the top four priority groups by the middle of February.

    And at that moment we will be able to review our progress, judge the state of the pandemic, and the effectiveness of the vaccine, and then in the week beginning 22nd February we will set out our plan not just for re-opening our schools but gradually to re-open our economy and our society and to get our lives back to as close to normal as possible.

    Now this will be a timetable that is inevitably going to be subject to adjustment

    But I believe it will provide clarity and certainty about the way ahead, a roadmap that we can take together and use as a country to defeat the virus and begin steadily to reclaim our lives.

  • Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Green Homes Grant Scheme

    Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Green Homes Grant Scheme

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 26 January 2021.

    This scheme has descended into an absolute fiasco. The Government needs to urgently sort out this mess and crucially make sure small businesses are paid what they are owed.

    Far from creating green jobs, the Government’s approach means workers in the renewable energy industry are actually being let go – worsening the economic crisis.

    This is yet another example of Ministers cutting corners and outsourcing to companies that just aren’t up to the task. They must come clean about the details of this contract so taxpayers know exactly what their money has been spent on.

    Instead of a piecemeal, short-term, fragmented approach, we need a proper, long-term, comprehensive plan to transform our housing stock.

  • John Healey – 2021 Comments on the Armed Forces Bill

    John Healey – 2021 Comments on the Armed Forces Bill

    The comments made by John Healey, the Shadow Defence Secretary, on 26 January 2021.

    The Armed Forces Bill is important legislation to renew our country’s commitment to the men and women of our Armed Forces, veterans and their families.

    As it stands, this bill is a missed opportunity. It does not put the Armed Forces Covenant properly into law to ensure Forces personnel and veterans suffer no disadvantage in access to services, nor will it put right the long-term failings in the military justice system. Labour will work constructively and cross-party to get the best for our Forces from this legislation.

  • Keir Starmer – 2021 Statement on Coronavirus Deaths Reaching 100,000

    Keir Starmer – 2021 Statement on Coronavirus Deaths Reaching 100,000

    The statement made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 26 January 2021.

    This is a national tragedy and a terrible reminder of all that we have lost as a country. We must never become numb to these numbers or treat them as just statistics. Every death is a loved one, a friend, a neighbour, a partner or a colleague. It is an empty chair at the dinner table.

    To all those that are mourning, we must promise to learn the lessons of what went wrong and build a more resilient country. That day will come and we will get there together. But for now we must remember those that we have lost and be vigilant in the national effort to stay at home, protect our NHS and vaccinate Britain.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2021 Comments on IMF Data Showing UK Growth

    Anneliese Dodds – 2021 Comments on IMF Data Showing UK Growth

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 26 January 2021.

    The UK had the worst recession of any major economy when the crisis hit – and now we know it had the weakest growth of any major economy through 2020 as well. Given these awful figures, the Chancellor should be supporting families through this crisis. Instead, he’s hitting them with a triple hammer blow to their pockets of pay freezes, council tax hikes and social security cuts. This economically illiterate approach will harm our recovery and lead to long-term scarring.

  • Priti Patel – 2021 Statement on Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy

    Priti Patel – 2021 Statement on Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy

    The statement made by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, in the House of Commons on 25 January 2021.

    Last week, on 22 January, the Government published the tackling child sexual abuse strategy. As the first strategy of its kind, it sets out an ambitious blueprint for preventing and tackling all forms of child sexual abuse—whether these crimes take place within the family, in the community or online. In the past, a culture of denial emboldened offenders committing these heinous crimes. This must never happen again.

    The strategy builds on previous work across Government to tackle child sexual abuse. It recognises the scale of the problem, its hidden nature, and the way it continues to evolve, outlining a fresh approach focused on the relentless pursuit of offenders and better protection for victims and survivors.

    The recently published paper on group-based child sexual exploitation highlighted that the data collected on offender and victim characteristics is inadequate, and that there is a need to improve the quality and extent of data collected in relation to the modus operandi of offending. The strategy therefore commits to working with local authorities to understand and respond to threats within their communities, and to collecting higher quality data on offenders so that the Government can build a fuller picture on the characteristics of perpetrators and help tackle the abuse that has blighted many towns and cities in England.

    In addition, the strategy outlines the immediate steps we will take to tackle all forms of offending, including:

    Investing in the UK’s world-leading child abuse image database to identify and catch more offenders quicker, including new tools to speed-up police investigations;

    Committing to a review of Sarah’s law to make it easier for parents and carers to ask the police if someone has a criminal record for child sexual offences;

    Supporting local areas to improve their response to exploitation through funding for the Home Office-funded prevention programme;

    Preventing abuse by raising awareness through communications and engagement with parents and the wider public, as well as providing professionals with skills and resources to intervene early;

    Providing victims and survivors with the support they need to rebuild their lives, ensuring their rights are protected in the criminal justice system and investing to improve support services and embed best practice;

    Working with partners overseas to strengthen child protection systems in countries where children are particularly at risk, and clamping down on individuals who travel abroad to rape and abuse children.

    Using new legislation and enhanced technology to stop offenders in their tracks, including introducing the ground-breaking Online Safety Bill and GCHQ collaborating with the tech industry to identify and develop solutions to crack down on large-scale online child sexual abuse.

    Protecting children and the most vulnerable in our society is one of the Government’s most fundamental and important roles. This strategy underlines my unwavering determination to crack down on perpetrators, place victims and survivors at the heart of our approach and restore confidence in the criminal justice system’s ability to tackle these repulsive crimes.

    The tackling child sexual abuse strategy is available on gov.uk. A copy of the strategy will also be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

  • Ian Lavery – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    Ian Lavery – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    The speech made by Ian Lavery, the Labour MP for Wansbeck, in the House of Commons on 25 January 2021.

    Is it not totally mind-blowing, in fact utterly grotesque, that during this pandemic the world’s 10 richest men have boosted their wealth by over £400 billion—half a trillion dollars—and here we are debating the upcoming Conservative attacks on working men and women, the bedrock of this nation, many of whom have paid a huge price during this pandemic? How many of these people will face a slash to their wages—a cut in their wages, terms and conditions—as a result of new legislation introduced by this Government?

    It is crystal clear that key members of this Cabinet see coronavirus and Brexit as a perfect storm for tearing apart workers’ rights. Brexit gave this Government the opportunity they have long craved to set a bonfire under workers’ rights, and of course the mayhem caused by the virus has only served to fan those flames.

    The appointment of the right hon. Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) to his current position of Secretary of State fired the starting pistol; it gave the green light to the ideological attack on Britain’s workers. He has a very well documented and ideological view on the working people of this country. In 2012 a group of newly elected Conservative MPs published “Britannia Unchained”, a book that unashamedly claimed:

    “The British are among the worst idlers in the world.”

    They boomed:

    “We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor.”

    They boomed it loud and clear from the rooftops, including the right hon. Members for Witham (Priti Patel), for Esher and Walton (Dominic Raab), for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss), and of course for Spelthorne, who are now key members of the Cabinet. We need to look very carefully at what they have to say.

    We have massive issues with regard to fire and rehire, which has been mentioned before, and I will also mention Heathrow, Barnoldswick, and the GMB action at British Gas. I ask the Secretary of State whether it is not time that British Gas got back around the table with the GMB, and time to stop scoffing at the loyal workforce and outlaw this heinous practice of fire and rehire. We need to ensure that constructive dialogue takes place with the trade unions and the workers in order to make progress.

  • Harriet Harman – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    Harriet Harman – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    The speech made by Harriet Harman, the Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, in the House of Commons on 25 January 2021.

    I join the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) in paying tribute to all those who have worked through this covid crisis, and particularly to those in essential services.

    I support the motion, and I agree with everything said from the Labour Front Bench: we must have no watering down of hard-won employment rights. However, a new employment Bill is also an opportunity for new rights, which are sorely needed by families in today’s world of work. The structure of our current rights was based on the notion of the employed male breadwinner, supported by the wife at home looking after their children. Even if she worked, her primary responsibility was to the children, and she would be supported by her own mother, who would most likely be retired. However, most women now work—many are self-employed rather than employed—and grandmothers, who used to be able to be relied on to step in, are still working.

    We have introduced important rights, such as the right to request flexible work, paternity leave and parental leave, but there are glaring omissions, which should be addressed in any future Bill. A man or a woman employee is entitled to paid sick leave, but what if the child is sick? Parents cannot leave a sick child at home on their own. We should back our working parents when their child is sick. Instead, we leave them in the lurch. One parent—usually the mother—has to ring the employer and beg for time off, often to be told she has to take it as holiday or unpaid leave, which is especially hard for low-income families.

    In a future employment Bill, we therefore need to give a parent of a primary school-age or younger child who cannot go to school or nursery when they are sick the right to paid leave. Other countries do that. That also needs to extend to grandparents, in case that is who is best placed to take the time off when the child is sick. Many parents rely hugely on grandparents, especially in the first year of a baby’s life, so we should factor them into parental leave too. Currently, the mother and the father can share 50 weeks’ leave between them. We should make it so that that could be split between, say, the mother, the father and one of the grandparents. The point is to give families the choice.

    The Government mentioned having more employment rights for families in their manifesto. That is encouraging, and there will be strong support for that from the Labour Benches, but also from the Government Benches and, above all, from the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes). I welcome the Secretary of State to his new job. If he wants to do some good and make a difference, I look forward to him agreeing across parties to make progress on this.

  • James Cartlidge – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    James Cartlidge – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    The speech made by James Cartlidge, the Conservative MP for South Suffolk, in the House of Commons on 25 January 2021.

    May I begin by associating myself with the remarks of the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Andy McDonald), about those workers who continue to go to their physical workplace during the pandemic? We should all pay tribute to them and share that noble sentiment. I also congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on his promotion to the Cabinet—it is well deserved. I know he will champion business in these challenging times and, in particular, the principles and practice of free enterprise.

    We may not be moving the amendment, but I am particularly proud that it contains two words that we did not hear at all from the Opposition: job creation. Let us be clear: no matter what anyone says, there is broad consensus now across the House and the country about keeping the fundamental employment rights we have. Employers are familiar with them, employees understand them and the country generally supports them. However, it would be quite extraordinary, facing the economic pressures that we do, if a Conservative Government did not look at what supply-side reform, including deregulation and cutting red tape, could be brought forward so that we can strengthen our recovery as we eventually come out of lockdown, and there are two key reasons why they should do that.

    The first is obviously the strength of the challenge. I am very proud that, as the Secretary of State said, we had the lowest unemployment since I was born in 1974 before we went into the pandemic. However, covid and the action that we have had to take have created inevitable economic pressure, and the impact on jobs will be seismic. In that context, the Government should use every lever at their disposal to strengthen the recovery as we move out of lockdown. That must include looking at what areas can be deregulated, while keeping fundamental employment rights in place.

    The second reason is that we have to understand one of the most important assets of our economy. One of the key strengths of UK plc is that we have a flexible labour market. The World Economic Forum and others have recognised that. It is a key factor in why huge multinationals like to invest in the UK, and inward investment will be a crucial part of our recovery. It would therefore be deeply unwise if we were now to send a message to the rest of the world that we were going to unwind our flexible labour market.

    This is about the message we send. If we had a four-day week—it seems that the Labour party is still considering that—there are many who would support it, but the message that that would send is that we were not going to be pro-business or to drive a strong recovery. Instead, the message we should send is that we will look at every single action we can take across Government, in every Department, to prioritise jobs, jobs, jobs and to achieve the two outcomes we must achieve above all else: reducing the risk of long-term scarring from covid to the economy and, most important of all, maximising those two great words—job creation.

  • Drew Hendry – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    Drew Hendry – 2021 Speech on Employment Rights

    The speech made by Drew Hendry, the SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, in the House of Commons on 25 January 2021.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, a very happy Burns night to you, the staff and everyone else. Could I also welcome the Secretary of State to his place this evening?

    Workers deserve our thanks, our respect and our appreciation. Scotland should not have to protect hard-fought workers’ rights from the Tories and their Brexit chaos. By reneging on their promise to protect EU-derived workers’ rights, the UK Government would again prove that it is impossible to trust anything the Tories say, especially on Brexit. The SNP is clear that it rejects any regression of workers’ protections. However, the Scottish Government’s ability to tackle unfair working practices and to fully protect workers’ rights remains limited. As employment law is reserved to Westminster, the UK Government must take action.

    Madam Deputy Speaker,

    “using threats of firing and rehiring is unacceptable as a negotiating tactic”.—[Official Report, 13 January 2021; Vol. 687, c. 293.]

    These are not my words, but the words of the Prime Minister earlier this month, so why is nothing being done to stop this? While the SNP would support any legislation seeking to ban fire and rehire practices, the Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands)—the Employment (Dismissal and Re-employment) Bill—is available now to do just that, and the Tories and Labour could help us change the law within weeks by backing his Bill.

    When my hon. Friend introduced his Bill in June 2020 to ban fire and rehire practices, he wrote to the current leader of the Labour party and the then Tory Business Secretary—incidentally, with nearly 100 MPs co-signing the letter—urging them both to back his Bill. Given that the Labour leader called on the UK Government to

    “Introduce legislation to end fire and re-hire”—

    adding:

    “If you do that, you will have our full support”—

    surely now Labour must get behind the Bill introduced by my hon. Friend. To quote Burns,

    “A mind that is conscious of its integrity scorns to say more than it means to perform.”

    To my hon. Friend’s great credit, he has in fact submitted two Bills to Parliament over recent months seeking to outlaw the practice, which have been backed by all major trade unions, including Unite, the British Airline Pilots Association and GMB Scotland. The current Bill extends workers’ rights currently under the Employment Rights Act 1996 to prevent employers from forcing workers to sign up to wage cuts and inferior conditions under threat of dismissal. The simple amendment he proposes to existing employment legislation would benefit millions of people overnight, supporting responsible employers, while making it clear to those with less scruples that these sorts of actions are not permitted in any country across the UK.

    The SNP has called time and again for the UK Government either to get behind my hon. Friend’s employment Bill or to bring in their own legislation to give millions of workers at Centrica and elsewhere the same protections enjoyed across Europe. We should all be willing to put party differences aside and work together in the interests of workers. The UK Government have a duty to act swiftly and decisively to ban fire and rehire practices. Until this happens, more employers will be encouraged to follow suit. Companies such as British Airways, Tesco and Centrica are the tip of the iceberg, and workers across these isles face unprecedented attacks on their wages and conditions via despicable tactics such as fire and rehire.

    As I have said, my hon. Friend has led the charge to ban fire and rehire tactics and ensure that workers are not the victims of bosses looking to cut costs. We will of course listen to the warm words today, but the fact is that the Tories and Labour could help us change the law within weeks by backing the Bill. Let them now commit to action to support that Bill.

    Turning to other matters, I think we have all been shocked by the details of the UK Government’s shabby and heartless treatment of their own Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency workforce that have emerged over the weekend. That sets a worrying precedent for the coming months and years in relation to workers’ rights.

    We have heard from the Secretary of State tonight that he will not be following up the package of deregulatory measures following the UK’s exit from the EU. He said that he would not be ending the 48-hour week, and that he would not be tweaking the rules around rest breaks at work, overtime pay or other changes. But, of course, we have heard Tory Ministers make countless empty promises to protect EU-derived workers’ protections, and now that we have left the EU there are few who do not believe that they are going to renege on that promise.

    Even if we believed that the Tories were intent on protecting workers’ rights—admittedly, that is a big ask—surely they would simply maintain those that were already enshrined in EU law, rather than ploughing ahead with a review and selecting what they want to discover. Despite initially dismissing the reports of watering down rights, the Tory Business Secretary confirmed last week that

    “we wanted to look at a whole range of issues relating to our EU membership and examine what we wanted to keep.”

    Of course, we can easily read that as the Government keeping the bare minimum that they can get away with.

    With each day that passes, the damage being inflicted by the Tories’ Brexit deal on businesses and jobs becomes clearer; they have earned zero trust. As with fishing, they have shown that they will break any promise and sell out any group of workers, no matter the cost. As the STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said:

    “We are alarmed, if unsurprised, by reports of early attempts to downgrade workers’ rights through amending the commitment to the EU Working Time Directive. We will vigorously oppose any attempt to dilute existing rights and are pleased that the Scottish Government, in line with its commitment to Fair Work, supports us in this.”

    The SNP and the Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with trade unions to challenge the UK Government to avoid a race to the bottom when it comes to pay and conditions. As I have said, people in Scotland can see that the Scottish Government’s ability to tackle unfair working practices and fully protect workers’ rights remains limited while employment law is reserved to Westminster, even though they are doing all they can to embed fair work practices across Scotland. In July 2020, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture issued a refreshed joint statement with the STUC, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Institute of Directors and the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, outlining the sheer commitment to fair work practices in Scotland across the public, private and third sectors.

    The Scottish Government also published their fair work action plan last year to drive forward the ambition for fair work to be the norm in workplaces across Scotland. Through their flagship fair work first policy, they are rewarding and encouraging employers to adopt fair work practices by attaching fair work criteria to grants and other funding, as well as to the contracts awarded by and across the public sector. This includes: asking employers to commit to paying the real living wage, not the pretendy one that we hear about in the Commons so often; no inappropriate use of zero-hours contracts; and the provision of channels for an effective voice, such as trade union recognition.

    Fair work first criteria will be incorporated into the policies and practices of the Scottish National Investment Bank, and are embedded across the enterprise and skills agencies, including the new South of Scotland Enterprise agency. If an anti-worker ideology continues at Westminster, it is vital that powers over employment are devolved to Scotland to allow our Parliament to get on with the crucial job of supporting employment and helping businesses to thrive.

    By breaking the promise to protect EU-derived workers’ rights, the UK Government will again be proving that it is impossible to trust anything that the Tories say, especially on Brexit. We in the SNP are clear that we reject any regression of workers’ protections. The Scottish Government now need the powers to tackle unfair working practices and to protect workers’ rights. Employment law should no longer be reserved to Westminster. In the meantime, fire and rehire is an abomination. The UK Government and Members of all parties must now support my hon. Friend’s simple but effective Bill to outlaw it.

    Scotland has not voted for a Tory Government since 1955. Unlike other parties, the SNP wants to put workers’ rights, and all other powers to create a fairer Scotland, in Scotland’s hands—not in the hands of Tory Governments we never vote for. Twenty opinion polls in a row have shown that the people of Scotland back that proposition. They must, and will, have their democratic right to choose a better future with independence.