Prime Ministers Questions December 13 2023

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00 >>Mike Cain (Bedford) (Con) As the last Prime Minister's question before

00:19 recess, I know that the whole House will want to join me in wishing you and all the House

00:23 staff a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I know that Members will also want to

00:28 join me in sending our warmest wishes to our armed forces, both at home and stationed overseas,

00:34 our emergency services and all those who will be working over Christmas too. Finally, I

00:40 know that everyone will want to join me in wishing Mark Drakeford all the best as he

00:43 moves on from his many, many years of devoted public service. This morning I had meetings

00:49 with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall

00:53 have further such meetings later today.

00:55 >>Mike Cain Can I concur with the Prime Minister's comments

00:58 about our armed forces, Christmas and Mark Drakeford? My constituent, Fred Bates, is

01:06 74, has liver cancer and is a victim of the contaminated blood products scandal. The Prime

01:12 Minister had a chance to do right by Fred last week, but failed to do so and lost the

01:18 vote in this House. After half a century, Fred wishes to know when he and fellow survivors

01:25 will be compensated and get justice.

01:28 >>The Prime Minister This was an appalling tragedy, and my thoughts

01:36 remain with all those concerned. I absolutely understand the strength of feeling on this.

01:41 It was this Government who previously set up the inquiry, which I participated in, and

01:44 we fully understand the need for action. The Government have crucially already accepted

01:49 the moral case for compensation and acknowledged that justice does need to be delivered for

01:54 the victims. My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office will update the House

01:58 on our next steps on the infected blood inquiry shortly.

02:02 >>Rex Smith The tax cuts in the autumn statement were

02:07 extremely welcome, but in order to go further and to get the tax burden as low as it possibly

02:16 can be, accurate and robust economic modelling is required. The Office of Budget Responsibility

02:23 has been habitually wrong, and we had the spectacle last week of the head of the OBR

02:29 saying that his latest forecast might be £30 billion out. Will my right hon. Friend commit

02:34 to finding a better system of financial modelling so that we can get taxes lower?

02:39 >>The Prime Minister As my hon. Friend knows, the OBR has brought

02:44 greater transparency and independence to the forecast in which Government policy is based.

02:49 He is right, and it is required to produce an assessment of its accuracy of its fiscal

02:54 and economic forecasts at least once a year. Crucially, as he acknowledged, thanks to our

02:58 management of the economy and the fact that we have halved inflation and controlled borrowing,

03:03 we now have delivered the largest tax cuts in a generation, and they will benefit families

03:08 up and down the country from January.

03:11 >>Keir Starmer (North East Fife) (Lab) Yesterday, we heard of the tragic death of a young man

03:22 on the Bibby Stockholm. I know that the whole House will want to send our deepest condolences

03:27 to his family and friends. We must never let this happen again. I would also like to mark

03:34 the retirement of my colleague and friend Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales.

03:41 Mark committed his life to public service and lives his values every day. Quietly and

03:47 patiently, Mark has been a titan of Labour and Welsh politics, and we thank him for his

03:53 service and wish him well.

03:57 >>Mr Speaker Christmas is a time of peace on earth and goodwill to all. Has anyone told

04:04 the Tory party?

04:05 >>Mr Osborne (Wycombe) Christmas is also a time for families, and under the Conservatives

04:21 we have a record number of them. At the beginning of the year, I set out some priorities that

04:33 this Government would deliver for the British people. Over the course of this year, we have

04:38 inflation halved, the economy growing, debt falling, action on the longest waiters, the

04:47 boats down by a third and, crucially, as we heard from my hon. Friend, tax cuts coming

04:51 to help working families in the new year.

04:53 >>Jeremy Corbyn He can spin it all he likes, but the whole

04:58 country can see that, yet again, the Tory party is in meltdown and everyone else is

05:03 paying the price. He has kicked the can down the road, but in the last week his MPs have

05:15 said of him, "He's not capable enough. He's inexperienced. He's arrogant. He's

05:21 a really bad politician."

05:23 They are shouting, "This is what they said." Who was it who said he was a really bad politician?

05:29 Hands up. They are shouting, "What about inexperienced? Who was that?" Now there

05:40 have got to be some hands for this. He has got to go. Apparently, he is holding a Christmas

05:48 party next week.

05:50 >>Mr Speaker Order. It is Christmas. You might not want the Christmas present that I could

06:00 give you, so please, here is a hammer.

06:03 >>Jeremy Corbyn Apparently, he is holding a Christmas party

06:06 next week. How is the invite list looking?

06:13 >>The Prime Minister I thank the hon. Gentleman for all the comments.

06:22 I would say to him that he should hear what they have to say about him.

06:29 >>Jeremy Corbyn Right. Do you want to be the first one?

06:40 Because it is Christmas and I am going to hear it. My constituents are going to have

06:43 a Christmas like everyone else. They want to know whether Christmas is going to be affected,

06:47 so I want less of it from all sides.

06:49 >>Keir Starmer They have obviously found the donkey for their

06:52 nativity. The search of three wise men may take a little longer, but while they fight

06:59 amongst themselves, there is a country out here that is not being governed, where more

07:04 than 100,000 people are paying hundreds more a month on their mortgages, energy bills going

07:10 back up in January, the economy shrinking again, NHS waiting lists at an all-time high.

07:17 Does he not think the Government would be better off fixing the messes they have already

07:22 made, rather than scrambling to create new ones?

07:26 >>Jeremy Corbyn He talks about governing and spent the first

07:30 two questions talking about political tittle-tattle. What a joke. Let us get on to the substance.

07:39 He mentioned the things. What is the news that we have just heard in the last week?

07:43 Well, what is the most important thing? The most important thing is education, because

07:47 that is how we spread opportunity in our country. What have we learned? Where are the schools

07:51 performing best in the United Kingdom? In England, thanks to the reforms of this Conservative

07:56 Government, they are rising up the league tables, giving our kids the start they need,

08:00 and where are they plummeting down? In Labour-run Wales.

08:05 >>The Prime Minister He talks about children. Nearly 140,000 children

08:13 are going to be homeless this Christmas. That is more than ever before. That is a shocking

08:20 state of affairs, and it should shame this Government. Instead of more social housing,

08:25 house building is set to collapse. Instead of banning no-fault evictions, thousands of

08:30 families are at risk of homelessness. Rather than indulging his Back Benchers swanning

08:36 around in their factions and their star chambers, pretending to be members of the mafia, when

08:41 is he going to get a grip and focus on the country?

08:44 >>The Prime Minister Let us just look at the facts. Rough sleeping

08:52 in this country is down by 35% since its peak, thanks to the efforts of this Government.

08:58 There are hundreds of thousands of fewer children in poverty today, thanks to this Government.

09:04 When it comes to home building, again, what are we doing? We just had the data this last

09:09 week. In the last year, an almost record number of new homes were delivered—more than in

09:16 any year of the last Labour Government.

09:20 >>Jeremy Corbyn 140,000 children are homeless this Christmas,

09:25 and they are utterly tone deaf. The rise in homelessness shows how these Tory crises merge

09:32 and grow and damage the country. Families such as the Braidys in Wiltshire, both parents

09:38 working full-time with two young children, forced out of their home of 15 years by a

09:44 no-fault eviction, now living in their van; or 11-year-old Liam Walker, homeless this

09:52 Christmas. He wrote a letter to Santa saying, "Please can I have a forever home? I don't

09:59 want any new toys, I just want all my old toys out of storage. I just want us to be

10:06 happy again." Is there anything that could shame this Government into putting the country

10:12 first? It is surely this little boy.

10:16 >>Jeremy Corbyn If he really cared about building homes—[Interruption.]

10:21 No, no, no. If he really cared about building homes, when there was an opportunity in this

10:29 House to back our plans to reform defective EU laws and unlock 100,000 new homes, what

10:39 did he do? He went in front of the cameras and said one thing, and came in here and blocked

10:45 it. That is a typical, shameless opportunity.

10:52 >>Alison Thewells (Brighton, Pavilion) (Con)

10:57 Is that really his Christmas message to Liam? Cocooned in his party management breakfast,

11:04 he just can't see the country—

11:06 >>Mr Speaker Order. Order. Mr Trevelyan, please. It is Christmas. I want a little bit of silence.

11:13 I am going to get it one way or another, and that goes to each side.

11:17 >>Keir Starmer (Bolton West) (Lab) Cocooned in his party management breakfast, he just

11:21 can't see the country in front of him and what they have done. I will finish by thanking

11:26 hard-working families across Britain who kept our country going. It has been an impossibly

11:32 difficult year for so many. I want to pay special tribute to our key workers, particularly

11:37 those in emergency services and those serving abroad in our forces, who, even at this time

11:44 of year, are doing the vital work of protecting their country. I wish everyone, including

11:51 the Members opposite, a very happy and peaceful new year. Will the Prime Minister join me?

11:57 >>The Prime Minister I think that Mr Speaker missed that I paid

12:03 tribute to our emergency workers at the beginning of the session. I think it is important, because

12:09 he talked about working families. Of course I want to make sure that we support working

12:14 families, and that is what we are actually delivering. All he has to offer them is borrowing

12:20 £28 billion a year, which all it will do is push up their mortgage rates and push up

12:26 their taxes. Meanwhile, what have we done? We have delivered tax cuts for millions of

12:30 working families, boosted the national living wage, recruited 50,000 more nurses and 20,000

12:38 more police officers, improved our schools, cut the cost of net zero for those working

12:43 families, cut the boat crossings by a third and halved inflation. That is the difference.

12:49 [Music]

12:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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