Lucy Powell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising the important matter of freedom of religion or belief, as he does every week in business questions. I will ensure that Ministers keep the House updated on the overseas development aid budget and its distribution.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  As the right hon. Gentleman says, we will be debating some of those issues later today. He is absolutely right that we need to strike a balance between meeting our energy needs, achieving energy security and getting bills down—for which developing solar is absolutely key—while at the same time maintaining our agricultural land and food security. I am sure we will be debating those issues later.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  We have boosted flood protection funding considerably after years of under-investment and cuts by the previous Government, and we have a flood taskforce in place. We have already made a number of statements on flooding, but I will ensure that the House is kept updated on all our plans for enhancing flood defences.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes a really good point. I am delighted to congratulate all those who were elected to Harrogate town council, even if many of them are not Labour—I imagine they probably were not. We are bringing forward the English devolution Bill, when many of those issues will be debated and discussed. There is a real keen interest in the Bill and the issues therein, so I will make sure he gets a ministerial response.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I absolutely join my hon. Friend, the proud Stokey that he is, in congratulating Stoke-on-Trent on its centenary, and I too thank Jane Ashworth and Lyn Sharpe for their great leadership. I love visiting Stoke, and I look forward to the city flourishing over its next hundred years.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am sorry to hear of that shocking incident and that LightSpeed has misrepresented my hon. Friend so badly to her constituents. She is absolutely right to raise the matter on the Floor of the House, and I am sure that it will get the attention it deserves.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am really sorry to hear about the homelessness charity in the hon. Lady’s constituency and the challenges it is facing. She is absolutely right: the short-term funding cycles we have seen for local government are part of the challenge for charities like the one she mentions. We are committed to three-year funding cycles for local government and have boosted local government finances in every part of the country to help to deal with the situations she describes.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am sorry to hear that the hon. Member and his constituent have not received a reply to their correspondence. If he would supply me with the details of that correspondence at the end of this session, I will ensure that he gets a speedy reply.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is a fantastic campaigner for services in his constituency. I am sorry to hear that the SNP Government are proposing to cut the Scottish fire and rescue service. They have had a very good settlement in the Budget recently, so there really is no excuse. I implore him to continue campaigning for this vital service.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue. That tragedy needs to be remembered, and she has made sure that we are remembering it today. I am pleased to hear about the new memorial being unveiled.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  The ministerial code is clear: “When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.” That is an important principle by which this Government stand. Already in this Session there have been 146 oral statements in just 133 sitting days—more than one per day, and more than the previous Government made in the entirety of their last Session. They have included six important statements from the Prime Minister and more than 20 from the Foreign Office, as well as statements on very important issues such as today’s statement on infected blood. The Government and I take our obligations to Parliament very seriously, and the Prime Minister and I remind Cabinet colleagues of that regularly. There are also other ways by which the Government keep the House updated, including written ministerial statements—of which there have been 633 so far in this Session—responses and appearances before Select Committees, and thousands of responses to parliamentary questions. Although the Government remain committed to making the most important announcements on the Floor of the House, we need to balance that with other demands on the House’s time, especially when there is great interest in the other business of the day. On occasion, developments and announcements will happen when the House is not sitting, or will emerge later in the sitting day. That is why it is not always possible to make every announcement to the House first. It is also important that Members have enough time to read and digest any relevant documents, and that they are given advance notice in order to be able to question a Minister effectively and seek answers. However, as you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, I take this aspect of the ministerial code incredibly seriously, and I will continue to work with Mr Speaker and colleagues across the House to ensure that Parliament is respected, Members are informed, the Government are scrutinised effectively, and announcements are made to this House first.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that question, but I have to disagree with her analysis. The Secretary of State for Health and his Ministers have made eight oral statements to the House so far this Session, nearly all of which have been taken by the Secretary of State himself, and they have lasted for a long time. They have been answering many written parliamentary questions, laying written ministerial statements and appearing before Select Committees. The Prime Minister himself has made six oral statements to this House, and has appeared before the Liaison Committee twice already in this Session, far outstripping his predecessors’ record. So we are accountable, although of course we can always do better and improve, which is what we seek to do. We are so busy as a Government in getting on with delivering the change that people have voted for, but we are doing our best to inform the House.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I absolutely can rule that out. As I said, an agreement on the very important UK-US trade deal was emerging, and events were fast-moving; the timing was changing throughout the day. The deal was not agreed until the announcement was made. We were trying to balance those factors throughout the day. It was made clear to the House earlier in the day that there would be a statement once it could happen, and the Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security came to this House as soon as possible. We were mindful of the fact that there were many people in the Gallery for the Backbench Business debate on brain tumours, which the hon. Gentleman talked about. We were trying to not disrupt the business of the House that day, but sometimes big global events happen, and the people in charge of those big global events are not considering the sitting hours, or the wellbeing of Members of Parliament. The timing was not the Prime Minister’s, either.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a good point about the balance of business in a day. We are bringing forward a number of key pieces of legislation, and hon. Members from across the House want ample time to scrutinise that legislation. Obviously, statements and urgent questions can eat into the time for doing that; a balance needs to be struck. The Modernisation Committee is looking at these issues—at how we can best use parliamentary time to ensure that the Government are adequately scrutinised and held accountable, including by Back Benchers, every sitting day.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that. As a member of the Modernisation Committee, he knows that I am determined to ensure that this House of Commons, and Parliament, becomes and remains the crucible of national debate once again—if, indeed, it ever was enough of a crucible—and that is one of the agendas we are delivering. I want to ensure that all Members across the House—particularly, those from the smaller parties who, in our new multi-party House of Commons, perhaps do not have the access that others do—have ample opportunity to scrutinise Government legislation and make the most of this House of Commons. I want to proceed on the basis of cross-party agreement, so that every Member of this House feels they are able to scrutinise and hold to account the Government of the day.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes the very important point that we should all hold ourselves to high standards of accountability and transparency, and perhaps the Scottish nationalist party should do that as the Scottish Government.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I think my hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I do not need to add to it.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State for Education made absolutely clear to the House, then and on a subsequent occasion, her fury that elements of the announcement were leaked moments before she stood at the Dispatch Box to make a very important announcement to this House. The announcement had hitherto been kept completely under wraps, and no one had sight of it. She has spoken to Mr Speaker about that. I will ensure that any findings from that investigation are reported to the hon. Lady.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for raising this urgent question, and I welcome the opportunity to emphasise that I take these matters very seriously. We have made a number of very big announcements to the House, often responding to world events in real time. I recognise—and I hope she will respect this—that there are judgments to be made and, at times, a balance to be struck, and I have the best interests of the House in mind. Although the hon. Lady did not say so, there have been many times in this parliamentary Session when statements have been made to this House long before the media or anybody else were aware of them—for example, on prison capacity, increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, the response to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report into the women’s state pension age, and many others. On many of those occasions, the criticism that I received was that Members did not have enough time to properly consider the details of the statements before having the opportunity to question the Minister. Hard copies of the immigration White Paper, which is a lengthy and detailed document, were made available in the Table Office at 9.30 that morning to allow Members ample time to read and consider it before questioning the Home Secretary on the Floor of the House in a session that lasted an hour and 25 minutes. The hon. Lady raised last Thursday’s statement on the US trade deal, and I think we can all recognise that that did not happen exactly as we would have liked. International events are often outside our control, and they do not take account of UK parliamentary sitting hours. The Trade Minister made an oral statement to the House as soon as he was able to do so, and I was trying to get the balance right. We wanted to make a statement when the maximum number of Members were here; otherwise, it would not have been made for several days, because it was a Thursday and the House was rising. We are doing a lot. We are getting on with delivering on a huge number of policies, and we have signed unprecedented trade deals with other countries. The US trade deal, which is delivering lower tariffs for steel and car manufacturing, is absolutely critical, as is the India trade deal, which is delivering for Scottish distilleries and for Scotland. We are always trying to get the balance right, and I want to emphasise my commitment to making sure that when announcements can be made to this House first, they absolutely are.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  Ministers are subject to the ministerial code, and the Prime Minister judges Ministers by their adherence to it. As I said, the independent adviser on the ministerial code has a new power, given to him by the Prime Minister, to instigate inquiries relating to the ministerial code. I reiterate that the ministerial code says: “When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.” There are many ways in which that can be done, other than through oral statements on the Floor of the House.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  I gently remind the right hon. Gentleman that the ministerial code says that “when Parliament is in session”, announcements will be made to this House first. I also remind him that announcements can be made via written ministerial statements and other things as well. There is a balance to be struck, and we try to do that in the best interests of the House. The right hon. Gentleman describes this as business question bingo. I will give him bingo: I am not going to take a lecture from him on these matters. This Government have done twice as many oral statements as his Government did in the same number of sitting days. We are ensuring that there is proper time to scrutinise Government bills—something that they did not do. We are answering significantly more written parliamentary questions than his Government ever did. I have to remind the House that the right hon. Gentleman’s Government illegally prorogued Parliament when they could not get their own way—something that he went out and defended to his constituents. The Conservatives had a Prime Minister who was found guilty of misleading this House—something that the right hon. Gentleman also defended. When an MP broke the standards rules, the Conservatives tried to change them. They had to be dragged here time and again. This Government respects Parliament. We stand up for the rights of Parliament. His Government traduced them.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  First, I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his very kind remarks. He is a very attentive Member in raising matters with me at business questions where the Government are falling short of our commitment to transparency and openness on ministerial questions, correspondence and so on, which I follow up for him. As I said in my opening remarks, we endeavour to make these important announcements to the House first when the House is in session. Obviously, the right hon. Gentleman will appreciate that at times those announcements are not made because the House is not in session or we want to give Members ample time to fully consider the detailed documentation sitting alongside them. I reassure him, however, that I speak to my Cabinet colleagues about this very regularly, as does the Prime Minister, and I speak to Mr Speaker about it as well, and we will continue to raise our game to ensure that big, important statements are brought to the House.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  The right hon. and learned Member will know that the independent adviser on the ministerial code appointed by the previous Government was reappointed by this Government, and that the independent adviser’s powers were strengthened to be able to initiate inquiries. Those inquiries do not now need to be initiated by the Prime Minister. We are raising standards when it comes to Members of Parliament, and Ministers as well. We are holding ourselves accountable to much higher standards than happened under the previous Government. I would just reiterate for the House that the ministerial code says: “When Parliament is in session, the most important announcements of government policy should be made in the first instance in Parliament.” There are times when Parliament is not in session, and announcements are brought to the House at other times.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  As I have made clear, we take the ministerial code, and respect for this House and Parliament, incredibly seriously. We have driven up standards in that regard—standards that were, as I have said, woefully not upheld by the previous Government, who disregarded Parliament time after time. Can things improve? Can we do better? Of course we can, and we do our very best to. I remind the House that many times, when statements have been made to this House first, I have got the criticism from many colleagues that they were not able to consider the issues properly before questioning the Minister. We need to get that right, too. We are doing our very best, and we will continue to drive up standards.

• 14 May 2025 · Ministerial Code: Compliance · Hansard source

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  As I have said, I am determined to ensure that the House of Commons becomes and remains the crucible of national debate, and has the highest standards and the best behaviour and culture. We have been looking at some of those issues on the Modernisation Committee. We must also ensure that independent Members like the hon. Gentleman and the smaller parties have their voice heard in this House. I think this House has shown itself at times to have all those things. I have taken steps to raise standards by taking action on MPs’ second jobs, and to ensure that those who misbehave are not on the estate and have action taken against them. I will continue to do that. I hope that he, the smaller parties and other parties across the House will join us in taking steps to ensure that we have the best behaviour and the highest standards, and that this House can hold the Government to account and be the crucible of national debate that we all want it to be.