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  • >>Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con): If he will list his official engagements

  • for Wednesday 16 September.

  • >>The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron): I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and

  • others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

  • >>Gordon Henderson: Seventy-five years ago, Spitfires and Hurricanes were flying over

  • Sittingbourne and Sheppey in the battle of Britain, defending our country from Hitler’s

  • aggression. It is particularly appropriate that the Royal Air Force protected the Isle

  • of Sheppey, because it is the birthplace of British aviation, something of which we islanders

  • are immensely proud. Will the Prime Minister join me in paying tribute to those courageous

  • RAF airmen who helped to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today?

  • >>The Prime Minister: I certainly join my hon. Friend in doing that. There was a very

  • moving service in St Paul’s yesterday, where many of us were able to pay tribute to those

  • brave pilots, to the ground crews and to all those involved in what was not just an important

  • moment in British history, but a vital moment in world history as Britain stood alone as

  • the only thing that could stop Hitler and Nazism. It is a reminder of how proud we should

  • be of our armed forces then, today and always.

  • >>Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab): I want to thank all those who took part in an

  • enormous democratic exercise in this country, which concluded with me being elected as leader

  • of the Labour party and Leader of the Opposition. We can be very proud of the numbers of people

  • who engaged and took part in all those debates.

  • I have taken part in many events around the country and had conversations with many people

  • about what they thought of this place, our Parliament, our democracy and our conduct

  • within this place. Many told me that they thought Prime Minister’s question time was

  • too theatrical, that Parliament was out of touch and too theatrical, and that they wanted

  • things done differently, but above all they wanted their voice to be heard in Parliament.

  • So I thought, in my first Prime Minister’s Question Time, I would do it in a slightly

  • different way. I am sure the Prime Minister will absolutely welcome this, as he welcomed

  • the idea in 2005, but something seems to have happened to his memory during that period.

  • So I sent out an email to thousands of people and asked them what questions they would like

  • to put to the Prime Minister and I received 40,000 replies.

  • There is not time to ask 40,000 questions todayour rules limit us to sixso I would

  • like to start with the first one, which is about housing. Two-and-a-half thousand people

  • emailed me about the housing crisis in this country. I ask one from a woman called Marie,

  • who says, “What does the government intend to do about the chronic lack of affordable

  • housing and the extortionate rents charged by some private sector landlords in this country?”

  • >>The Prime Minister: First of all, let me congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his

  • resounding victory in the Labour leadership election. I welcome him to the Front Bench,

  • and to these exchanges. I am sure that there will be many strong disagreements between

  • us during our exchanges, but when we can work together in the national interest we should

  • do so, and I wish the right hon. Gentleman well in his job.

  • If we are able to change Prime Minister’s Question Time and make it a more genuine exercise

  • in asking questions and answering questions, no one will be more delighted than me. Last

  • week, when we discussed a substantial issue with substantial questions and proper answers,

  • I felt that that was good for our House and good for our democracy, and so I welcomed

  • it.

  • Let me now answer, very directly, Marie’s question. We do need to see more affordable

  • housing in our country. We delivered 260,000 affordable housing units during the last Parliament,

  • and we built more council houses in our country than had been managed in the previous 13 years,

  • but I recognise that much more needs to be done. That means carrying on with our reform

  • of the planning system, and it means encouraging the building industry to come up with innovative

  • schemes like the starter homes scheme, but, above all, it means continuing to support

  • the aspirations of people to be able to afford their own homes, which is where schemes such

  • as Help to Buy come in. But I say this to the right hon. Gentleman: we will not get

  • Britain building unless we keep our economy going.

  • >>Jeremy Corbyn: I thank the Prime Minister for that answer, and I thank him for his commitment

  • that we are going to try and do Prime Minister’s Question Time in a more adult way than we

  • have done it in the past.

  • The effects of Government policy on housing are obviously enormous, and the decision to

  • cut, for example, 1% of the rent levels in councils and in housing associations without

  • thinking about the funding issues that those authorities face is a serious one. I have

  • a question from Steven, who works for a housing association. He says that the cut in rents

  • will mean that the company that he works for will lose 150 jobs by next March because of

  • the loss of funding for that housing association to carry on with its repairs. Down the line,

  • that will mean worse conditions, worse maintenance, fewer people working there, and a greater

  • problem for people living in those properties. Does the Prime Minister not think it is time

  • to reconsider the question of the funding of the administration of housing, as well

  • as, of course, the massive gap of 100,000 units a year between what is needed and what

  • is being built?

  • >>The Prime Minister: What I would say to Steven, and to all those who are working in

  • housing associations and doing a good job, is that for years in our country there was

  • something of a merry-go-round. Rents went up, housing benefit went up, and so taxes

  • had to go up to pay for that. I think it was right in the Budget to cut the rents that

  • social tenants pay, not least because people who are working and not on housing benefit

  • will see a further increase in their take-home pay, and will be able to afford more things

  • in life.

  • I think it is vital, though, that we reform housing associations and make sure that they

  • are more efficient. They are a part of the public sector that has not been through efficiencies

  • and has not improved its performance, and I think it is about time that it did.

  • >>Jeremy Corbyn: I thank the Prime Minister for that, but it leads me neatly on to what

  • happened yesterday, when the House sadly voted for proposals that will cost families who

  • are affected by the change in tax credits £1,300 per year. That is absolutely shameful.

  • I received more than 1,000 questions about tax credits. Paul, for example, asks this

  • very heartfelt question: “Why is the government taking tax credits away from families? We

  • need this money to survive and so our children don’t suffer. Paying rent and council tax

  • on a low income doesn’t leave you much. Tax credits play a vital role and more is

  • needed to stop us having to become reliant on food banks to survive.”

  • >>The Prime Minister: What we need is a country where work genuinely pays, and that is why

  • what our proposals do is reform welfare, but at the same time bring in a national living

  • wage which will mean that anyone on the lowest rate of pay will get a £20-a-week pay rise

  • next year. That is why the figures show that a family—[Interruption.] I thought that

  • this was the new Question Time. I am not sure that the message has fully hit home.

  • I do not want to blind the House with statistics, but I will give just two. First, after all

  • our changes, a family where one of whose members is on the minimum wage will be £2,400 better

  • off. Secondlyand I think this is really importantbetween 1998 and 2009, in-work

  • poverty went up by 20%, at the same time as in-work benefits rose from £6 billion to

  • £28 billion. The old way of doing things is not working, and we should not go back

  • to it. What we must do is tackle the causes of poverty: get people back to work, improve

  • our schools, improve childcare. Those are the ways in which we can create an economy

  • in which work pays and everyone is better off.

  • >>Jeremy Corbyn: The Institute for Fiscal Studies says there are 8 million people in

  • paid work eligible for benefits or tax credits. They are on average being compensated for

  • just 26% of their losses by the so-called national living wage that the Government have

  • introduced. So I ask a question from Claire, who says this: “How is changing the thresholds

  • of entitlement for tax credits going to help hard-working people or families? I work part-time;

  • my husband works full-time earning £25,000”—

  • they have five children—“This decrease in tax credits will see our income plummet.”

  • They ask a simple question: how is this fair?

  • >>The Prime Minister: The country has to live within its means and we were left an unaffordable

  • welfare system and a system where work did not pay. We see today the latest set of employment

  • statistics where the rate of employment in our country has yet again reached a record

  • highmore people in work, more people in full-time workand we are also seeing unemployment

  • fall in every region of the country except the south-east, and the sharpest falls are

  • in the north-west, the north-east and the west midlands. What we are doing is moving

  • from an economy with low wages, high tax and high welfare to an economy where we have higher

  • wages, lower taxes and less welfare. That is the right answer: an economy where work

  • pays, an economy where people can get on. Let us not go back to the days of unlimited

  • welfare. Labour’s position again today is to abolish the welfare cap; I say that a family

  • that chooses not to work should not be better off than one that chooses to work.

  • >>Jeremy Corbyn: Many people do not have that choice; many people live in a very difficult

  • situation and rely on the welfare state to survive. Surely all of us have a responsibility

  • to make sure that people can live properly and decently in modern Britain; that is surely

  • a decent, civil thing to do.

  • I received over 1,000 questions on the situation facing our mental health services and people

  • who suffer from mental health conditions. This is a very serious situation across the

  • whole country and I want to put to the Prime Minister a question that was put to me very

  • simply from Gail: “Do you think it is acceptable that the mental health services in this country

  • are on their knees at the present time?”

  • >>The Prime Minister: As I mentioned before the first question, there will be areas where

  • we can work together, and I believe this is one of them; we do need to do more to increase

  • mental health services in our country. We have made some important steps forward in

  • recent years. Mental health and physical health now have parity in the NHS constitution. We

  • have introduced for the first time waiting time targets for mental health services so

  • they are not seen as a Cinderella service, and of course we have made the commitment—a

  • commitment I hope the right hon. Gentleman will back, undoing previous Labour policyto

  • back the Stevens plan for an extra £8 billion into the NHS in this Parliament, which can

  • help to fund better mental health services, among other things. There are problems in

  • some mental health services and it is right that we make that commitment.

  • But I make this one point to the hon. Gentleman: we will not have a strong NHS unless we have

  • a strong economy, and if the Labour party is going to go down the route of unlimited

  • spending, unlimited borrowing and unlimited tax rates, printing money, they will wreck

  • the economic security of our country and the family security of every family in our country.

  • We will not be able to afford a strong NHS without a strong economy.

  • >>Jeremy Corbyn: May I take the Prime Minister back to the situation of mental health in

  • this country, which is very serious? I agree with him absolutely on parity of service,

  • and I hope the spending commitments are brought forward, rather than delayed to the end of

  • this Parliament, because the crisis is very serious. We know this from our constituents,

  • we know this from people we meet, we know this from the devastation that many faceand

  • indeed some have taken their own lives because of the devastation they face.

  • I ask a question from Angela, who is a mental health professional, so she knows exactly

  • what she is talking about. She says this: “Beds are unobtainable with the result that

  • people suffering serious mental health crises are either left without adequate care or alternatively

  • admitted to facilities many miles away from their homes, relatives and family support

  • systems. The situation is simply unacceptable.” What does the Prime Minister say to Angela

  • and people like her who work so hard in the mental health services, or people going through

  • a mental health crisis who may well be watching us today on Prime Minister’s Question Time

  • and want to know that we take their conditions seriously, and take seriously their need for

  • emergency beds and to be near their homes and support system, and that we as a society

  • take seriously their plight and are going to help them and care for them? What does

  • the Prime Minister say to Angela?

  • >>The Prime Minister: What I would say to Angela, and all those working in mental healthand

  • indeed all those suffering from mental health conditionsis that we need to do more as

  • a country to help tackle mental health. That is obviously about money into the health service,

  • which we will deliver, but it is also about changing the way the health service helps

  • those with mental health conditions. The right hon. Gentleman rightly talks about mental

  • health beds, and they are important, but frankly so is the service that people get when they

  • visit their GP. Many people going into their GP surgeries have mental health conditions,

  • but they are not treated for those conditions and do not get access to, for instance, the

  • cognitive behavioural therapies that are increasingly being made available. So my argument is, yes,

  • put in the resources, change the way the NHS works and change public attitudes to mental

  • healththat is vitalbut I say again that we will not be able to do any of those things

  • without the strong economy that we have built over these last five years.

  • >>Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): The Isle of Wight zoo is having difficulty

  • importing a tiger. She was cruelly treated in a circus and has now been kept in isolation

  • for nearly two years, despite Belgium being wholly free from rabies. Will my right hon.

  • Friend assist in breaking through this bureaucratic logjam?

  • >>The Prime Minister: I will certainly do anything I can to help my—[Interruption.]

  • >>Mr Speaker: Order. I want to hear about the tiger.

  • >>The Prime Minister: I want to hear about the tiger, and we will help those at the Department

  • for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsAnimal and Plant Health Agency, because they

  • are the ones who are working on this. I had a constituency case exactly like this, when

  • the Cotswold Wildlife Park wanted to bring in a rhino. I intervened, and I am delighted

  • to say that the Cotswold Wildlife Park named the rhino Nancy, in honour of my daughter.

  • Nancy has been breeding ever since she arrived in Burford, and I hope that the tiger will

  • be just as effective.

  • >>Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP): May I begin by congratulating the new leader of the Labour

  • party? We in the Scottish National party look forward to working with him to oppose Tory

  • austerity, and we hope that Labour MPs will join him and us in opposing Trident when the

  • time comes. [Hon. Members: “Oh!”] One year ago to the day, the Prime Minister made

  • a vow to the people of Scotland. Promises were made to deliver home rule and an arrangement

  • as near to federalism as possible. However, the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, now

  • says that the UK Government are

  • falling short on the delivery of the recommendations of the Smith Commission on Scottish devolution”.

  • When will the Prime Minister deliver on the promises that he made to the people of Scotland?

  • >>The Prime Minister: We have delivered on all the promises that we made—[Interruption.]

  • We said that we would introduce a Scotland Bill, and we introduced a Scotland Bill. We

  • said that there would be unprecedented devolution on taxes, and there has been unprecedented

  • devolution on taxes. We said that we would provide those welfare powers, and we have

  • given those welfare powers. The question now for the SNP is this: when are you going to

  • stop talking about processes and start telling us what taxes you are going to put up? What

  • welfare changes are you going to make? Or, when it comes to talking about the issues,

  • are you frit?

  • >>Angus Robertson: That is very interesting. Whatever happened to the new style of PMQs?

  • One of the architects of the vow says that it is not being fully delivered, as does the

  • Scottish Trades Union Congress. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Carers

  • Scotland and Enable Scotland all say that not enough welfare powers are being devolved.

  • Only 9% of people in Scotland believe that the vow has been delivered, and not one amendment

  • to the Scotland Bill has been accepted by the Government. Tory bluster and condescension

  • will not go down well in Scotland. So, for the second time, may I ask the Prime Minister

  • to tell us, in his new style of answering at Prime Minister’s questions, when he will

  • deliver on the promises that were made to the people of Scotland?

  • >>The Prime Minister: Of course this is going to take a bit of getting used to, but let

  • me try to answer the right hon. Gentleman very calmly. What I notice from his question

  • is that he has not given me one single example of where the vow was not delivered. If he

  • can point to a tax we promised to devolve but have not devolved, I would accept it.

  • If he can point to a welfare change we promised to devolve but did not devolve, I would accept

  • it. He has not done those things. All he is doing is continuing an argument about process,

  • because he does not want to talk about the substance. You give me a listsorry, he

  • should give me a listof the things that were promised and were not delivered, and

  • then we can have a very reasonable conversation. Until then, it is all bluster from the SNP.

  • >>Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con): The Prime Minister has a lot to be pleased with Corby forthat

  • is Corby, not Corbyn. Not only did Corby help him back into No. 10, but it gave to him and

  • the world the DVD case, which was designed and first produced in the town. This week,

  • we continue that entrepreneurial spirit, with our bid for a new enterprise zone being submitted.

  • Does he agree that areas that are taking significant housing growth should also benefit from new

  • jobs and new infrastructure?

  • >>The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is absolutely right; there is a lot that is very positive

  • happening in Corbywe got the claimant count down by 29% over the last year and long-term

  • youth unemployment is down. The point he makes about areas that take extra housing getting

  • the opportunity for more infrastructure is right. So, yes, ever since his election I

  • have been feeling a sense of Corbymania.

  • >>Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab): Public sector workers like nurses, health

  • workers, local government workers, teachers and public service workers have not had a

  • pay rise for five years, and they are being told by the Chancellor that they are going

  • to get 1% for the next five years. What is it with these hard-working, good tax-paying

  • people that means this Tory Government will not give them a decent rise?

  • >>The Prime Minister: First, what we have been most keen on is trying to protect the

  • services and the jobs, and it has a direct impact if you simply have larger pay rises.

  • But of course today inflation is 0% and there are pay increases in the public sector, and

  • what the hon. Gentleman completely fails to mention are the progression payments that,

  • for instance, in the health service, have delivered year-on-year pay increases for many

  • hard-working people in our NHS whom I want to see rewarded. But there is something else

  • we can do, which is to cut their taxes. By keeping public spending under control and

  • by growing our economy, we are able to say to everyone in our public sector, “You can

  • earn £11,000 before you start paying any income tax at all.” That has been, in effect,

  • a pay rise for 29 million working people.

  • >>Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): Following the Prime Minister’s visit to

  • Yorkshire last week, peace, love and harmony has broken out right across the county. Members

  • on both sides of the House have expressed their support for a “Greater Yorkshire

  • bid, encompassing north, east and west Yorkshire and Hull. Will he agree to meet me and other

  • Members to discuss the merits of the bid, and the central role we believe it can play

  • in the northern powerhouse and our economic security?

  • >>The Prime Minister: I will obviously take great care with my answer. I think it is excellent

  • that we have got these devolution proposals, and it is very good that a number of different

  • ideas have come forward from Yorkshire. The most important thing now is for people to

  • try to come together and get behind a plan for Yorkshire. But be in no doubt: this devolution

  • is coming, in terms of real powers and real ability to drive that economy as part of our

  • northern powerhouse.

  • >>Kate Hollern (Blackburn) (Lab): My constituent Enola Halleron-Clarke, who is 11 years old,

  • suffers from Morquio syndrome. This distressing disease stunts her growth and leads to abnormal

  • development of the bones, and at the moment there is no cure. Enola would like to be able

  • to use the drug Vimizim to help alleviate her condition, but the National Institute

  • for Health and Care Excellence has yet to decide whether the drug should be available

  • on the NHS. Will the Prime Minister do all he can to encourage NICE to come to a speedy

  • decision for Enola and people like her?

  • >>The Prime Minister: The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise the case about this illness

  • and this drug; other Members have raised it as well. She is right to say that NICE is

  • still looking at the matter. I will continue to do all I can to ensure that it reaches

  • a speedy decision. We also need to have a dialogue with the drug companies, because

  • of the vast prices that are being charged for some of these drugs. There are resource

  • implications, and we need to bring down those costs to make the drugs more available, more

  • quickly.

  • >>Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con): After a Care Quality Commission inspection

  • at Medway hospital, a two-day diversion of ambulances has been put in place, starting

  • this morning. Will the Prime Minister assure me that all will be done to turn things around

  • at our hospital so that my constituents can have a fully functioning A&E swiftly and urgently?

  • >>The Prime Minister: I well remember discussing that with my hon. Friend. Obviously, her hospital

  • has faced difficulties, and, instead of trying to push that under the carpet, we have decided

  • in these circumstances to send in a team to turn things around and improve the hospital’s

  • performance, but more work needs to be done. The pledge I can make is that we will continue

  • investing in that hospital and working on it to ensure that it can provide the service

  • that her constituents deserve.

  • >>Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab): At the general election, the Prime Minister promised

  • an extra £8 billion a year for the national health service. This week, the chief executive

  • of one of our leading hospitals in the country, Addenbrooke’s hospital, which serves my

  • constituents in Cambridge, resigned, not least because of the financial crisis that is engulfing

  • our health service, as indicated by the King’s Fund yesterday. How much more damage has to

  • be done to the NHS before the Prime Minister coughs up?

  • >>The Prime Minister: With the danger of introducing too much politics into this answer, I have

  • to say that at the general election our party stood on the proposal of £8 billion more

  • for the NHSeffectively, it was £10 billion more for the NHSand we have set out where

  • every penny piece of that is coming from. At that election, the Labour party did not

  • support an extra £8 billion for the NHS; it did not back the Stephens plan. The truth

  • is if we want proper reform for a seven-day NHS and the resources that go with a successful

  • NHS, it is the Conservative party that will deliver.

  • >>Julian Knight (Solihull) (Con): In a world in which we have a nuclear North Korea, a

  • rampant and aggressive Russia and the pure evil of the so-called Islamic State, will

  • the Prime Minister agree that, to protect our security and way of life, we simply must

  • have an independent nuclear deterrent?

  • >>The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In terms of defence, this is the most

  • important duty for a Government and for a Prime Minister. The cornerstone of our defence

  • will remain the 2% spending to which we are committed with the increased defence budget

  • in this Parliament, the membership of NATO and Britain’s own independent nuclear deterrent

  • as the ultimate insurance policy in what is a dangerous world. The fact that the Labour

  • party is turning away from those things is deeply regrettable. National security is the

  • most important thing a Government can deliver and we will never fall short.

  • >>Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP): The plaques at the entrance door to this Chamber

  • in memory of Airey Neave, Robert Bradford, Ian Gow and Sir Anthony Berryserving Members

  • of this House who were murdered by terrorists as they stood up for democracy and the British

  • way of lifeare a reminder of the savagery and brutality of terrorism, as are the gravestones

  • and the headstones in Northern Ireland and right across this land. The Opposition Leader

  • has appointed a shadow Chancellor who believes that terrorists should be honoured for their

  • bravery. Will the Prime Minister join all of us, from all parts of this House, in denouncing

  • that sentiment and standing with us on behalf of the innocent victims and for the bravery

  • of our armed forces who stood against the terrorists?

  • >>Hon. Members: Hear, hear!

  • >>The Prime Minister: From the reaction he has just heard, the right hon. Gentleman will

  • know that he has spoken for many in this House and, I think, the vast majority of people

  • in our country. Airey Neave is the first Member of Parliament I can remember, because he was

  • my Member of Parliament. Ian Gow was one of the first politicians I ever wrote a speech

  • for, and there never was a kinder or gentler public servant in this House. He was cruelly

  • murdered and his family had that life taken away. My view is simple: the terrorism we

  • faced was wrong. It was unjustifiable. The death and the killing was wrong. It was never

  • justified, and people who seek to justify it should be ashamed of themselves.

  • >>Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con): Schools in Poole are in the

  • bottom five and schools in Dorset are in the bottom 11 when it comes to local education

  • authorities and funding per pupil. I welcome this Government’s commitment to a fairer

  • funding formula. Does the Prime Minister recognise the importance of fairer funding for our schools

  • in Poole and Dorset, and the need for that to be implemented as quickly as possible to

  • ensure a world-class education for our children, including respect for our traditions, and

  • perhaps even learning the importance of our national anthem?

  • >>The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend makes a very important point. There are very strong

  • calls on all sides to ensure that we address fairness in funding. In the last Parliament

  • we allocated £390 million extra for fairer funding, and his own authorities, Dorset and

  • Poole, benefited from that, receiving £3.1 million and £3.2 million respectively. I

  • can tell him that that money is included in the baseline for schools funding in 2016 and

  • 2017. But I know that there is unfairness in the current system and I want us to do

  • everything we can to make the funding formula fairer.

  • >>Mrs Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Sunderland West) (Lab): Nissan in my constituency has

  • just reached the half-a-million production mark for its new Qashqai model, breaking all

  • UK records. I am sure that the Prime Minister, and indeed the whole House, will wish to join

  • me in congratulating Nissan on that great achievement. Nissan’s constructive unionised

  • workforce has helped achieve that fantastic outcome, so why is the Prime Minister attacking

  • workersrights when in many cases, as at Nissan, trade unions are an overwhelming force

  • for good?

  • >>The Prime Minister: First, let me agree with the hon. Lady that the achievements at

  • Nissan are absolutely remarkable. One of the great privileges of my job is being able to

  • go and meet people there and see what they are doing. I think that I am right in saying

  • that the north-east of England now produces more cars than the whole of Italy, which is

  • something that I think we can be proud of. Of course, with the new Hitachi factory we

  • will now be manufacturing trains in the north-east as well. Look, the Trade Union Bill is not

  • what she says it is; it is to make sure that we do not have strikes based on very low turnouts.

  • Let me give her one example. A couple of years ago we had school strikes that shut schools

  • right across our country. The ballot was two years out of date and only 27% of people had

  • turned up to vote in it. Working parents across the country had to keep their children at

  • home when they should have been getting the public service they paid for. That is what

  • our Bill is about, and I hope that it will have support across the House.

  • >>Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con): The bravery of all our servicemen and women is

  • beyond question, but does the Prime Minister agree that the bravest of the brave must be

  • those who faced the invisible bullets of Ebola in the recent crisis in west Africa? Will

  • he take the opportunity to join me, along with Members of both Houses, at the great

  • north door of Westminster Hall straight after Prime Minister’s questions to welcome back

  • 120 soldiers, sailors and airmen, together with aid workers, medical workers and others,

  • who did our bidding in west Africa?

  • >>The Prime Minister: I will be delighted to join my hon. Friend. One of the great privileges

  • of this job was being able recently to hold a reception at No. 10 for people who had served

  • in west Africa tackling Ebola. They are some of the bravest and most remarkable people

  • I have met, whether the nurses, the volunteers or members of Britain’s brave armed forces.

  • It really is remarkable what they have done. We are almost in a position to declare Sierra

  • Leone Ebola-free. Great work has been done by the people of Sierra Leone, but I think

  • that Britain was able to take on this task because we have good armed forces that are

  • properly funded, and having an aid budget at 0.7% of our GNP is something the whole

  • country can be proud of. That is exactly the sort of use of our aid budget, where we are

  • doing it with moral force and with our moral conscience but also keeping our country safe

  • at home. To those who sometimes wonder what are the uses of British troops, I say, “Get

  • a map out and have a look at Sierra Leone.”

  • >>Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab): The SSI steelworks

  • in Redcar are facing serious and imminent challenges. UK steel is of vital strategic

  • importance to the British economy. Will the Prime Minister urgently meet me, my hon. Friend

  • the Member for Redcar (Anna Turley) and the steelworkersunion community so that we

  • can look at more positive ways of supporting our industry in order to protect it in much

  • the same way that other European Governments do?

  • >>The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman is quite right to raise this, and everyone is

  • concerned about the steelworks in Redcar. Obviously, we have taken the action of voting

  • with others in Europe against Chinese dumping. We have also provided over £30 million of

  • support in respect of high energy users. Also, by setting out our national infrastructure

  • plan, we are giving steel producers a sense of the demand in our country in the months

  • and years to come. I will certainly consult my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State

  • for Business, Innovations and Skills about the best sort of meeting we can have in order

  • to make sure we do everything we can to keep steelmaking in Redcar.

  • >>Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con): Does the Prime Minister agree that this Government’s

  • commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence protects our national and economic future, while giving

  • our 21st century armed forces the moral and financial support they need to protect our

  • nation’s security?

  • >>The Prime Minister: We have had to make difficult decisions in the spending review

  • and we will have to make further difficult decisions, but on the decision to increase

  • our defence spending in a very dangerous and uncertain world, when we face threats in Europe

  • with the behaviour of Russia and the threat from ISIL in the middle east, combined with

  • all the other threats, including cyber, it is absolutely right to increase this spending

  • and to make sure that membership of NATO remains the cornerstone of our defence. National security

  • will always be the top priority of this Government.

>>Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con): If he will list his official engagements

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