Abena Oppong-Asare MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Mar 2025 · European Union: UK Membership · Hansard source

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  I would, but we are running out of time and I want to give my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley an opportunity to respond. Since 2021, the Turing scheme has helped tens of thousands of UK students develop new skills, gain international experience and boost their employability, in the EU and beyond. Separately to Turing, the UK operates a number of bilateral youth mobility schemes, both with European countries such as Iceland, and with global partners such as India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We are also committed to resetting the relationship with the EU to improve British people’s security, safety and prosperity. However, we do not have plans for a youth mobility agreement. We will of course listen to sensible proposals, but we have been clear that there will be no return to freedom of movement, the customs union or the single market. We are looking to maximise the benefits of the EU relationship. It is a whole of Government commitment, which echoes what my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) said in urging the Government to think creatively. My right hon. Friend the Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds), the Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, is leading that charge through regular engagement with his EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, most recently at a meeting at the Parliamentary Partnership Assembly in Brussels on 17 March. The Foreign Secretary attended the EU Foreign Affairs Council, where he and EU high representatives for foreign affairs agreed to work towards a security partnership and committed to six-monthly foreign policy dialogues. The Chancellor also recently attended the Eurogroup, where she outlined that the reset in relations is about doing what is best in the interests of our shared economies. That work is supported by much greater co-operation between the UK and the EU. Since we came into government, we have had over 70 direct engagements between UK Ministers and their EU counterparts. I hope that reassures Members that the relationship and the work that Ministers are doing with the EU is really strong and that we are very focused on strengthening that relationship in the best interests of this country. In May, we will welcome EU leaders to the UK for the first UK-EU summit, which we believe will provide an opportunity to make further progress on areas that will deliver benefits to British people, guided by our mutual benefit in finding collaborative solutions to our common problems. This is not a zero-sum game; it is a win-win for both sides, with people across the UK and the EU benefiting. It is about turning the page, reforming alliances and forging new relationships with our European friends. I want to be very clear that the Government will be open-minded and pragmatic about proposals that would improve British people’s security, safety and prosperity, while keeping clear the red lines that we will not compromise on. In this time of change, the Government are stepping up to build alliances in a bid to make people safer and more prosperous. That is the core of our national interest.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the work she did to support constituents during the heavy snowfall, and I thank Barnsley council and other responders for their work. This responsibility lies with local authorities, but I know that my colleagues in the Cabinet Office, the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are keen for authorities to receive as much support as possible. MHCLG will be in close contact with local resilience forums to see what support they need.

• 7 Jan 2025 · National Resilience and Preparedness · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) for giving us the opportunity to debate this important issue. I also thank you, Sir Roger, for chairing today’s debate. Happy new year, everybody. I also thank the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon), for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke), for West Dorset (Edward Morello) and for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) for their important interventions. The Government’s first responsibility is to keep this country safe, which is why national resilience has been at the top of the agenda since we came into government. As the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth rightly said, the covid and Grenfell inquiries have shown that we inherited a challenging situation. Let me explain the situation that we face. We are dealing with huge underinvestment, and the impact of covid-19 on our public services has been well documented. We know that there was underinvestment before the pandemic, and our public services are massively stretched. That is particularly true in the NHS, where key workers feel the burden and have been asked to go above and beyond. Society is less resilient than it was before the pandemic and, as the hon. Gentleman pointed out, our resilience has been eroded at a time when wider threats, including those from nation states, are increasing and global trends are making the risk landscape more volatile. Therefore, since coming into office, we have taken immediate steps to strengthen national resilience by establishing a dedicated sub-committee of the National Security Council on resilience. As the hon. Member will know, the sub-committee is chaired by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. We are also looking at how we can improve our approach to national risk assessment, including greater external challenge, and we are designing a national exercising programme with guidance to improve exercising at all levels and help those on the frontline identify people who are vulnerable, which was a common theme from the covid-19 module 1 report. The Government have also adopted the 2023 biological security strategy in full, and we are committed to ensuring that we have the capabilities we need to protect the public from a spectrum of biological threats. The hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth mentioned the particular need to look at the threats we face on a daily basis and ensure that we have a robust strategy, and we are looking at how we can strengthen those capabilities. The new floods resilience taskforce, of which I am a member, is doing vital work to finally speed up and improve the delivery of flooding schemes and stop communities going underwater. I know that that is an important issue to the hon. Member, whose constituents have suffered from flooding and its consequences across Devon. In the year ahead, we are looking to build on that work, starting with the Government’s response to the covid-19 inquiry module 1 report this month—I hope that that answers the hon. Member’s question. We are also continuing our review of resilience announced by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in July last year. The review is a focused exercise, designed to rapidly identify what is working well and should be kept, what needs to be changed and what needs to be stopped. We are also considering a wide range of evidence, lessons learned, risk and organisational knowledge. A particular focus for me has been to ensure that all relevant voices are heard. A common theme from both the covid-19 module 1 inquiry and the Grenfell inquiry is that certain voices were not engaged, so we need to move away from having conversations in echo chambers and group thinking. I am undertaking a programme of engagement with stakeholders across the public, private and voluntary sectors, including the devolved Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For example, just before Christmas, I held meetings with senior leaders from charities and representative organisations that support people at risk, who are so often disproportionately affected during emergencies. I also chaired a discussion in the autumn with 20 business leaders, where I emphasised the importance of Government and industry partnership. This month, I will invite Members of both Houses to attend parliamentary drop-in sessions. I will hold two sessions where I will answer questions about the review and discuss its progress. There will also be an opportunity for Members to put on record anything that they think the Government should be looking at, so this debate has been particularly timely given the issues that have been raised. I will also meet members of the National Preparedness Commission to gather views on where our approach to resilience could be bolstered. Finally, I want to assure all hon. Members present that this work will be closely linked to our consideration of the covid inquiry module 1 report and the Grenfell inquiry final report, which the Government will respond to within the deadlines. The hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth has raised important issues today, particularly on the future pandemic, food security and hybrid threats. The UK Government are aware of the risk around food security. We currently source around 60% of food domestically, so it is important for us to look into that. We are also addressing hybrid threats. I found the information mentioned by the hon. Member, particularly relating to his researcher’s findings when he went to Finland, really insightful and useful, so I will look into that. I also share the hon. Member’s view on a whole-society approach. It is important not only to look at resilience at a Government level, but to get to a point where the whole of society plays a role in that. That is why, particularly through the resilience review, we are looking at how we can work collaboratively across Departments, and also why, through the work that I have been doing, particularly at a grassroots level, we are ensuring that we hear people’s concerns about what we can do to strengthen resilience and making sure that everyone is part of that conversation. I hope that the hon. Member feels reassured that we are taking this seriously, particularly as we are conducting a review into national resilience. I look forward to working in partnership with him and other hon. Members here throughout the resilience review and making sure that we feed this properly into Government delivery, so that wider society benefits. Question put and agreed to .

• 10 Dec 2024 · Storm Darragh · Hansard source

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  There is already a long-standing relationship between central Government and responders, underpinned by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government already works with local resilience forums on preparing for, and acting during, responses to emergencies, and provides a direct line of communication for them to central Government. The Met Office is our statutory responder under the Civil Contingencies Act, which strengthens its role at the heart of UK resilience. I recognise the contribution of resilience forums, and in particular the role that they played during the storm.

• 10 Dec 2024 · Storm Darragh · Hansard source

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  We do not have authority over what West Sussex county council does, but we have been advising councils, which are under a lot of pressure, on how they could look at their flood resilience. This issue is really important, but it has not always been championed. Hopefully, we can have that conversation and encourage people to play a role.

• 14 Nov 2024 · Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for championing the women in his constituency. On that note, I would like to champion the females who work hard in my constituency to ensure that it is well represented. As my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea and others have said, diversity is important across the community. If we do not ensure that the House of Lords bishops look like us, how will we ensure that we can advocate effectively for constituents?

• 24 Oct 2024 · Flood Risk: Resilience Framework · Hansard source

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  In the aftermath of the flooding experienced at the end of September, and as the final figure of flooded properties is confirmed, discussions are ongoing between the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business and Trade about the activation of the flood recovery framework, which is a core package of business and community recovery support. There are stringent criteria for activation of the scheme by Ministers and the current estimates of localised impacts and a relatively low number of properties flooded in September are below the threshold for activation. However, the Flood Re insurance scheme, a joint initiative between the UK Government and the insurance industry, is available to a wide range of eligible households in flood risk areas.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Black History Month · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that, and I am glad she took the cautious path by not saying that Ghanaian jollof rice is not the best—she knows it is. I echo her points and I will be paying tribute to those MPs later in my speech. The stories we will hear this afternoon are our stories. We have come a long way since the 1980s, when we first celebrated Black History Month. We celebrate the trail- blazers today. I have mentioned the first black Mother of the House, the first black Minister and Cabinet Minister, Paul Boateng, and Baroness Lawrence. I must also mention Baroness Amos in the other place, who became the first black woman to serve in Cabinet. She is from my area, the borough of Bexley, and inspires me every day. Of course, no one political party has a monopoly on trailblazers; I know that Opposition Members will want to mention the black trailblazers from their own parties and political traditions. Since the general election in July, we can celebrate the most diverse Parliament in our history, making this House look and sound far closer to the diverse communities we represent. Such representation matters. If the nation’s children look at our Parliament and do not see women and men who look and sound like them, then they will assume that Parliament is not of them or for them; they will assume that the rulers are one thing and the ruled something else. I do not need to tell the House how damaging that is to democracy, or how populists thrive and democracies die. It is not about ticking boxes; it is about ballot boxes. I said we have come a long way—and we have—but the path of progress does not run straight and true. Progress can be reversed and set back. Social media provides a new platform for old hatreds. The scourge of racism is given new life through social media—each one of us faces it every day online. In our communities too, racism is real, and the struggle against it is real. It is not just overt racism; it is also the damaging effect of racism in our institutions. It is the routine micro-aggressions that black MPs and black staff face every day, and the hateful language in parts of our media. It is when the successful black business executive is mistaken for the cleaner, when the qualified jobseeker is blocked because of their surname, or when the political candidate is told, “This seat is not for the likes of you.” That is why this Government are committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity as part of our mission-led Government, and why we strive for opportunity for all in education, work, public life, and in every community and part of the UK. I believe that the Government’s wide-ranging legislative programme will start to address many of the injustices that scar our society. The Bill on equality in race and disability will introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for employers with over 250 employees. We will reform the Mental Health Act 1983. Currently, black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be detained under that Act, and over seven times more likely to be subject to a community treatment order. We must urgently address this issue. We will also tackle the abhorrent maternal health gap. In England, the risk of maternal death is nearly three times as high for black women and twice as high for Asian women as it is for white women. It is a grave injustice that there are such stark inequalities in maternal outcomes, and this Government are committed to closing the maternal mortality gap. In so many other areas, the Government are making changes that will improve lives. Earlier in my speech, I mentioned the Windrush generation; we have been calling for justice for those treated so terribly by previous Governments, including the full implementation of the recommendations of the Wendy Williams review. I have called for that in the House multiple times, and I am pleased that today, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has announced that the Government will fulfil their manifesto commitments in full. We will appoint a Windrush commissioner to oversee compensation and act as a trusted voice; we will establish a new Windrush unit in the Home Office to drive things forward; and we are injecting £1.5 million into a programme of grant funding for organisations to support people’s applications for compensation. This will speed up and clarify processes that have been shamefully slow and difficult. We will continue to listen to the voices of Windrush, honour their contribution to this country and seek redress for the scandal that has engulfed so many of them. At last —after too long—the Windrush generation will see some measure of justice. I am proud to open this debate, but I am not satisfied with where we are. We have a long way to go. Yes, I am interested in black history, but I am also interested in black futures. That is why we need lasting change, real reform, solid progress, and a never-ending quest for justice.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Black History Month · Hansard source

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  I completely agree. I mentioned how in the past different communities have come together alongside the African-Caribbean community, for example to fight the blackshirts, the National Front, and the British National party. These are the shoulders on which many of us stand. Alongside Bernie Grant and my fellow Ghanaian —and great friend—Lord Paul Boateng, they lit the path for so many of us to walk down. I do not want the House to think I am only going to mention those of Ghanaian descent, even though we make the best jollof rice—do not let my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) tell you any different. But there is one more Ghanaian person I must mention, as I always do in this month: Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, the co-ordinator of special projects for the Greater London Council, who organised the first recognition of this month in 1987. In the 1970s, he had seen the Americans celebrate black history and believed that Britain should do something similar.

• 25 Jul 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the question; I know that the issue is close to his heart, as it is to mine. The publication of the report will mark an important milestone for the Grenfell community, and Parliament will have the opportunity to provide the full and proper scrutiny that the issues deserve. As my hon. Friend said, it is important that bereaved families are also part of that process, and we will work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that all those residents are part of it. The Government will do everything possible to drive the change to ensure that lessons are learned and that a tragedy such as the Grenfell Tower fire can never happen again.

• 25 Jul 2024 · National Resilience · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Member for his question. As I said, it is important that, as a Government, we work strongly together across the UK. As the Prime Minister mentioned on day one, he will be working with his devolved Government counterparts, and he has announced a Council of the Nations and Regions. That will include our working across all civil service departments to make sure that we learn from the lessons of the past.