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Tag: 2021

  • Gillian Keegan – 2021 Comments on Suicide Prevention

    Gillian Keegan – 2021 Comments on Suicide Prevention

    The comments made by Gillian Keegan, the Minister for Mental Health, on 26 November 2021.

    I know the last 18 months have been really challenging and many more people have been asking for help with their mental health.

    I want to be clear: we are here to support anyone struggling – and if you need help, I encourage you to reach out.

    The entire suicide prevention voluntary sector has played a crucial role in providing people with the help and support they need throughout the pandemic and I encourage them to apply for this funding so we can continue to support our communities.

  • Robin Walker – 2021 Comments on Pupil Absence

    Robin Walker – 2021 Comments on Pupil Absence

    The comments made by Robin Walker, the Schools Minister, on 26 November 2021.

    It has been fantastic to see how through a combination of data, proactivity and a focus on children’s wellbeing, a school like the London Academy has driven up attendance and reduced persistent absence. Every lesson that we can prevent a child from missing is another building block to their life chances, development and wellbeing.

    My department is channelling all its efforts to provide support and guidance to help schools, local authorities and multi-academy trusts take action to increase attendance, and I ask that everyone working with children does everything in their power to help break down any barriers to them attending school.

    I recognise that Covid is still with us and causing some unavoidable absence – but this is all the more reason that we must all take action to address every avoidable reason for a child not being in school.

  • Kwasi Kwarteng – 2021 Statement on Innovation Loans

    Kwasi Kwarteng – 2021 Statement on Innovation Loans

    The statement made by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 22 November 2021.

    Innovation is central to tackling the largest challenges the world faces, from climate change to global pandemics. The UK must be in the vanguard of the response to these challenges. That is why the Government have placed innovation at the heart of our Plan for Growth including through our Innovation Strategy.

    The UK has a long and illustrious history of world-leading innovation, from the industrial revolution to the vaccine development of the past year. Now we have left the EU, we can move even more quickly to respond to emerging challenges and global opportunities, and cement the UK’s position as a world leader in science, research and innovation. That is why the Government committed to public R&D spending reaching £22 billion in 2026-27. This represents the fastest ever sustained uplift in R&D funding, increasing R&D funding to £20 billion per annum by the end of the SR period, £5 billion more than 2021-22.

    Following a successful extended pilot with businesses including those in clean growth tech, Innovate UK will deliver a new programme of £150 million in flexible, affordable and patient innovation loans over the next three years. Innovation loans will help SMEs to take their late-stage R&D, including in support of net zero, to commercial success so that they can grow and scale through innovation.

  • Priti Patel – 2021 Statement on Channel Crossings in Small Boats

    Priti Patel – 2021 Statement on Channel Crossings in Small Boats

    The statement made by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, in the House of Commons on 22 November 2021.

    The number of people coming into our country illegally on small boats is unacceptable. It is the result of a global migration crisis. Just last week, I met my counterparts in the US, who are grappling with similar diplomatic, legal, legislative and operational issues. It is fair to say that in all my dialogues with counterparts and Interior Ministers, including the Polish Interior Minister this morning, similar feedback is taking place across the board.

    We would be in a much worse position if it were not for the work already untaken by the Government. We have ensured that the National Crime Agency has the resourcing it needs to tackle and go after the people-smuggling gangs, resulting in 94 ongoing investigations, 46 arrests and eight convictions this year. We have also: reached two new deals with France, putting more police officers on French beaches and introducing new groundbreaking technology to better detect migrants; set up a joint intelligence cell with France to target migrant interceptions on French beaches; introduced new and tougher criminal offences for those attempting to enter the UK illegally; laid statutory instruments to stop asylum claims being made at sea; and agreed returns deals with India and Albania—and had discussions just last week with Pakistan—to take back more foreign national offenders and failed asylum seekers, with more returns deals imminent.

    All these measures form part of the new plan for immigration, which I launched in this House in February this year. The remaining components of that plan are currently making their way through Parliament in the Nationality and Borders Bill, and I look forward to working with all colleagues to ensure that it receives Royal Assent as soon as possible. The Bill introduces a range of measures, including but not limited to: a one-stop appeals process; the ability for asylum claims to be heard offshore in a third country; the ability to declare those who arrive in the UK having passed through safe countries where they could have claimed asylum inadmissible to our asylum system, meaning no recourse to public funds and limited family reunion rights; visa penalties for countries refusing to take back their nationals; quicker returns of foreign national offenders; and a new age verification to prevent adult asylum seekers from posing as children.

    If any hon. or right hon. Members have concrete proposals that are not already featured in the new plan for immigration, I would be happy to meet to discuss them. My door is always open, particularly to those from the Opposition Benches because of course they attack the new plan for immigration. They have not supported it and they voted against it, not because they are genuinely frustrated at the number of illegal migrants entering our country, as those on this side of the House and the British public are, but because they will always stand up for unlimited migration and free movement. They have always said that and always will do. That is why they have voted against the new plan to tackle crossings, with the right hon. Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds) opposing the development of operational solutions to turn back the boats. He even refuses to say if his ambition is to reduce the number of illegal migrants coming here. Can he do so today?

    Those on the Government Benches will continue to confront this difficult and complex issue, no matter how controversial or complex others may deem it to be. We will find legislative and operational solutions, and we will treat this with the same grit and determination with which we have treated all the other challenges our country has faced, including leaving the European Union and delivering a points-based immigration system. Let me restate, as I did in February and have done repeatedly, that this will take time. The only solution to this problem is wholesale reform of our asylum system, which the new plan delivers.

  • Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Bulb Going into Administration

    Ed Miliband – 2021 Comments on Bulb Going into Administration

    The comments made by Ed Miliband, the Shadow Business Secretary, on 23 November 2021.

    The collapse of energy suppliers is a direct consequence of a decade of Conservative inaction in government which has left us exposed and vulnerable as a country. Families hit by a cost of living crisis will be deeply worried about what this collapse means for them, as will the workers at Bulb.

    The Business Secretary has buried his head in the sand for too long. The Government was warned by Ofgem over a year ago about ‘systemic risk to the energy supply sector as a whole.’

    Instead of action we’ve had complacency from Ministers and they are making the cost of living crisis worse by raising national insurance and refusing to cut VAT on energy bills.

    Labour will scrutinise the special administration regime to ensure it protects bill-payers and secures value for money for taxpayers. But alongside those measures, the Government should now remove VAT from domestic gas and electricity bills for six months, so that families have some respite during the winter, and roll out a national home insulation plan to reduce energy bills by £400 and cut emissions.

  • Keir Starmer – 2021 Comments on Boris Johnson’s Social Care Plans

    Keir Starmer – 2021 Comments on Boris Johnson’s Social Care Plans

    The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 24 November 2021.

    Another broken promise from the Prime Minister means families across the country still face the catastrophic prospect of selling their home, while paying more in taxes to protect the mansions and estates of the wealthiest.

    It’s a working-class dementia tax.

  • Jess Phillips – 2021 Comments on ONS Figures on Domestic Abuse

    Jess Phillips – 2021 Comments on ONS Figures on Domestic Abuse

    The comments made by Jess Phillips, the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, on 24 November 2021.

    Staggeringly, this Government has overseen yet another rise in the number of victims experiencing domestic abuse. Police recorded cases have doubled in the last five years and yet prosecutions for this crime continue to plummet. We are seeing women and girls being failed at every step of their journey by this Government.

    These figures are a damning indictment of the inaction by this Conservative Government which show that while the number of victims rise, fewer perpetrators are being brought to justice.

    The Government must stop making excuses and immediately implement the measures in Labour’s Violence Against Women and Girls Green Paper including making misogyny a hate crime, increasing the minimum sentence for rape and stalking, and introduce a new law on street harassment – as well as implementing the urgent recommendations of the recent HMICFRS inspection.

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2021 Comments on Deaths of People Crossing English Channel

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2021 Comments on Deaths of People Crossing English Channel

    The comments made by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, on 24 November 2021.

    This is a sobering day for the UK Government, France and the wider international community. Lives have been lost in the most terrible of circumstances.

    This tragedy reminds of the risks to life in the perilous English Channel crossing. Our thoughts are with those lost and their loved ones left behind.

    This is the most poignant of wake-up calls to the UK Government which must act to take the matter seriously and prevent people continuing to risk their lives in these dangerous waters.

  • Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on Football Governance

    Jo Stevens – 2021 Comments on Football Governance

    The comments made by Jo Stevens, the Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 24 November 2021.

    We’re pleased that the report supports Labour’s longstanding call for an independent regulator. Now there’s consensus on this, the Government has got to get on with it immediately.

    Overall, the Crouch review recommendations are welcome, but we still need to see more focus on fans’ voices in the governance reforms.

    No one wants to see another Bury or Wigan because of government delay.

    Fans have waited eleven long years for reform and deserve so much better.

  • Angela Rayner – 2021 Comments on Randox

    Angela Rayner – 2021 Comments on Randox

    The comments made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, on 25 November 2021.

    The Randox corruption scandal could be the tip of the Conservative corruption iceberg. Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been handed to Conservative donors and companies with links to Conservative Ministers and we need to know what role paid lobbying, secret meeting and cosy WhatsApp chats played in these contracts.

    Ministers are launching another cover-up so we need a full independent investigation to get to the bottom of this racket.

    Public money must be treated with respect, not handed out in backhand deals that line the pockets of Conservative donors.

    While the corrupt Conservatives really do think there’s one rule for them and another rule for the rest of us Labour will clean up our politics. Labour will ban MPs from taking second jobs as consultants and advisers when they should be serving their constituents, ban Ministers from taking on lobbying gigs after they leave office for at least five years and establish an Office for Value for Money, to make sure that every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely.