Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces PMQs amid racist donor row

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak takes questions in parliament.

SENIOR Tory MPs have warned the PM against a May general election in tense private talks, The Sun can reveal.

The powerful 1922 Committee Executive, which represents Conservative backbenchers, met Rishi Sunak on Monday evening.

Read more:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/26641310/rishi-sunak-warned-off-may-general-election/

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Agree that we should all work together across all this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther AR to promote farming everywhere Mr Speaker The Honorable gentleman is absolutely right let’s encourage everyone to buy British and let’s make sure that we use as much of our land as possible for growing food

Not covering it in trees and Mr Speaker is particularly hypocritical for the Welsh government to tell Farmers they have to plant trees on their land when the world’s labor government are responsible for thousands of Acres of forest are chopping down8 50,000 tons of trees every year and they’re even

Putting some of them into the boiler which heats up the centers not that that probably requires many trees to add to the hot air in there we now come to questions to prime minister Abul KH question number one Prim Minister Mr Speaker the post office it Scandal is one of the greatest

Miscarriages of Justice in our nation’s history and I’m determined that the victims get the justice and redress that they deserve today we’re introducing legisl to quash convictions resulting from this Scandal the department for business and trade will be responsible for the new redress scheme and we’re widening access to the optional £75,000

Payment hundreds of innocent sub post Masters have fought long and hard for justice with this bill we will deliver it meetings of ministerial colleagues and others in addition to my duties in this house I shall have further such meetings later today AB Mr Speaker despite serious OB from the Archbishop of Canterbury three

Former home secretaries and three government Min advisers on anti-Semitism social cohesion and on political violence the leveling of sector is due to widen the definition of extremism tomorrow whilst on the benches opposite members padle far conspiracy theories about islamist and Muslims taking over Britain shouldn’t the prime minister’s

Priority be getting his own house in order and stepping extremism racism and islamophobia from within his conservative party and will the Prime Minister finally take islamophobia seriously and agree to that [Applause] definition M Mr Speaker discrimination has no place in our society and it’s important to distinguish it’s important to

Distinguish between strongly felt political debate on one hand an unacceptable acts of abuse intimidation and violence on the other I would urge him to wait for the details of the strategy it’s a sensitive matter but it’s one that we must tackle because there has been a rise in extremists who

Are trying to hijack our democracy that must be confronted and he talks about pedling conspiracy theories I would just point him in the direction of his previous labor candidate in Rochdale to thank you Mr Speaker I’m forces Personnel who served their country for 15 uh 15 years are eligible for the long

Service Good Conduct Medal and similar medals are in place for those who make a career of serving in the police the fire the ambulance service and the Coast Guard but as I learned on a recent visit to Bournemouth hospital where I met the dedicated staff there no such Accolade

Is in place for the NHS would the Prime Minister please support my campaign to see if this anomaly can be corrected so the nation can formly recognize those who devote much of their working lives in the NHS to helping others yeah my Minister my rable friend is right that our

Incredible NHS staff deserve our utmost thanks for their service and I’m pleased that many NHS organizations as he knows have their own schemes in place to do that we also of course recognize NHS staff are outstanding through our honor System and MPS are able to acknowledge their work through the NHS Parliament

Awards and nominations remain open for that and I would encourage colleagues to Avail themselves of it but I will make sure that he gets to meet the Secretary of State to discuss his specific proposals further we now can Del lead the opposition K thank you Mr Speaker can I welcome the

Legislation on the post office Scandal Mr Speaker this week we lost the formidable Tommy McAvoy he served his hometown of Renn and the labor government with loyalty and good humor and we sent our deepest sympathies to his wife Elena and their family we also learned that the right

Honorable member for Maiden head will be taking her well-deserved retirement she has served this house and her constituents with a real sense of Duty and her unwavering commitment to ending modern slavery is commended by all of us we thank her for her service is the prime minister proud be

Bankrolled by someone using racist and misogynist language when he says the member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington makes you want to hate all black women Mr Speaker the alleged comments were wrong they were racist and here has now as I said the comments were wrong they were racist he has rightly

Apologized for them and that remorse and that remorse should be accepted Mr Speaker there is no place for racism in Britain and the government that I lead is living proof of that Mr Speaker the man bankrolling the Prime Minister also said that the member for hatney North should be

Shot how low would he have to sink what racist woman hating threat of violence would he have to make before the Prime Minister plucked up the courage to hand back the 10 million that he’s taken from him well Mr Speaker as I said the gentleman apologized genuinely for his

Comments and that remorse should be accepted but he talks about language he he might want to reflect on the double standards of his Deputy leader of his Deputy leader calling her opponent’s scum Mr Speaker his shadow his shadow his shadow foreign secretary the shadow foreign secretary comparing conservatives to Nazis Mr Speaker and

The man that he wanted to make Chancellor the man that he wanted to make Chancellor talking about lynching a female Minister his silence on that speaks Volumes Mr Speaker the difference is he’s scared of his party I’ve changed my party Mr Speaker Mr Speaker I want see you both the Prime Minister and leave the opposition here two weeks ago the Prime Minister invited himself into everyone’s living room at 6:00 on a Friday evening no one asked

Him to give that speech he chose to do it he chose to anoint himself as the great healer and pose as some kind of unifier but when the man Bank rolling his election says the member for Hackney North should be shot he suddenly finds himself Tongue Tied shrinking in

Sophistry hoping he can deflect for long enough that we’ll all go away what does the pister think it was about the hundreds of millions of pounds of NHS contracts given to Frank Hester by his government that first attracted him to giving 10 million to the Tory party in the first place prime minister

Mr Speaker I’m absolutely not going to take any lectures from somebody from somebody and somebody who chose to represent an anti-semitic terrorist group his terer who chose to serve a leader who let anti-Semitism run rif in this labor party those are his actions those are his values and that’s how he should be Judged Mr Speaker the problem is he’s describing a labor party that no longer exists I’m describing I’m describing the man who is Bank foring their upcoming general [Applause] election K St they can shout all they two weeks ago he marched them out like FS to defend islamophobia and now the member

For Ashfield is warming up the opposition benches for them and yesterday yesterday he sent them out to play down racism and misogyny until he was forced to change course he won’t hand the money back he won’t comment on how convenient it is that a man handed huge and contracts by his government is

Now his party’s biggest donor you have to wonder what the point is of a prime minister who can’t lead and a party that can’t govern and Mr Speaker National Insurance contributions fund State pensions and the NHS so is the prime minister’s latest unfunded 46 billion pound promise to scrap National

Insurance going to be paid for by cuts to State pensions or cuts to the NHS Minister Mr Speaker Mr Speaker it’s I’m glad he’s brought up the budget it’s about time that he spoke about his plans because what have we heard Mr Speaker from the shadow Chief secretary the

Shadow Chief secretary to the treasury confirm Sor prime minister the shadow Chief secretary to the treasury has confirmed that the labor party will not be sticking to the conservative government spending plan so we now have a litany a Litany of unfunded promises on the NHS on Mental Health on Dentistry on breakfast clubs

And that doesn’t even include the 28 billion pound 2030 Eco pledge that he’s still committed to but what we all know Mr Speaker is that while we’re cutting taxes Labor’s unfunded promises mean higher taxes for working Britain no Mr Speaker the L party will not be sticking to his completely

Unfunded 46 billion from it and he thinks he could he can trick people into believing that but simply shaking the Tory Magic Money Tree will bring it into existence no no let let let’s be clear 80% of National Insurance is spent on Social Security and pensions 20% is

Spent on the NHS so is either cutting pensions or the NHS or he will have to raise other taxes or borrowing which is it prime minister Mr Speaker I know I know it’s not a strong point but if you actually listen to the chelor last week what he

Would have seen is NHS spending is going up Mr Speaker it’s going up it’s a plan that’s backed by the NHS CEO who says that we’re giving her what she needs and at the same time we are responsibly cutting taxes for millions of people in world an average worker benefiting from

A 900 tax cut Mr Speaker but what I’m hearing from him is he’s against our plans to cut National Insurance the highest tax burden since the Second World War I did listen to Chance said 46 billion pound of unfunded commitments they tried that under the last Administration and everybody else

Is paying the price when two weeks ago the Prime Minister promised to crack down on those spreading hate today he shrunk at the first challenge last week he promised fantasy tax cuts now he’s pretending it can all be paid for with no no impact on pensions or the NHS all

We need now Mr Speaker is an especially Hardy lettuce and it could be 2022 all over again is it any wonder that he’s too scared to call an election when the public can see that the only way to protect their country their pension and their NHS from The Madness of this Tory

Party is by voting labber M Mr Speaker Mr Speaker again oh no prime minister Mr Speaker he talks about pensions pensions are going up by around £900 in this year it’s this government that’s protected the triple lock for the last 10 years he talks about sporting working people it’s this government

That’s cutting taxes for every single person in work Mr Speaker it’s this government that’s investing in the NHS but all we have from him are all we have from him is a 28 billion un funded promise Mr Speaker I had a look at it I

Had a look at it it’s here it’s all here making Britain a clean energy superpower he’s still stuck to it Mr Speaker and if you look through it carefully there’s billions in spending he’s already committed to Scotland billions for Wales there’s actually money for North London

Too I noticed but the problem is the problem is the problem is none of it is funded so why doesn’t he come clean and tell him under his plans Britain people’s taxes are going up Mr Speaker yeah Mr Speaker millions of people around the UK and Europe have been

Inspired by the Brilliance of Six Nations rugby and Premier League clubs like Gloster rugby which were funded during the pandemic through loans authorized by the Prime Minister as then Chancellor have always been grateful being kept solvent but the Prime Minister will also know that the finances of some of these clubs are

Fragile and that the current loan repayment schemes could be crippling so will my right honorable friend ask the sports Minister and the treasury to try and find a solution through this so that taxpayer interests are protected and all of us can go on being inspired by Top Class rugby for years to

Come Mr Speaker friend is absolutely right that we stepped in with 150 million pound Financial Lifeline to ensure the survival of Premiership rugby league clubs during the pandemic and I am told that dcms is working with sport England as the agent to talk to borrowers with concerns about their loan

Agreements and any ones that do have concerns should contact sport England in the normal way but I can also proudly tell him that we are talking to the Rugby Football Union and the Premiership League to secure not just the future of Rugby Union but also his local glester

Rugby we come to Le of the S SMP Steven Flynn thank you Mr Speaker and I wish to begin by wishing Ramadan Mubarak to Muslims across these aisles Mr Speaker the conservative part party have accepted A10 million donation from an individual who has said that one of our parliamentary colleagues in this chamber

Should be shocked why is the prime minister of the United Kingdom putting money before morals prime minister Mr Speaker as I said the comments were wrong the gentleman in question has apologized for them and remorse should be accepted Steven Flynn this is complete rubbish the gentleman in question apologized for

Being rude he wasn’t rude he was racist he was odious and he was downright bloody dangerous now on Monday the number 10 said we’ve seen an unacceptable rise in extremist activity which is seeking to divide our society and hijack our Democratic institutions isn’t the extremis that we should all be worried about the

The views of those Tory donors that we’ve read about this week prime minister no Mr Speaker there has actually been a rise in extremist activity that is seeking to hijack our Democratic institutions it’s important it is important it is important that we have the tools to tackle this threat

That’s what the extremes and strategy will do and I would urge him to wait for the community secretary to release the deal detail willwin you Mr Speaker sub post Masters across the country will welcome the government’s announcement today on the introduction of legislation to overturn the convictions of those who

Were wrongly convicted but can my right onal friend reassure this house that that legislation will be passed as quickly as possible and we will support all sub postmasters right across our United Kingdom prime minister well Mr Speaker as I said I want to pay tribute to all postmasters who have campaigned

Tirelessly for justice including those who tragically won’t see the justice that they deserve today’s legislation marks an important step in finally clearing their names and across this house we owe it to them to progress this legislation as soon as possible before summer recess so that we can deliver the

Justice that they have fought for we’re continuing to work with our counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland as they develop their plans but regardless of where and how convictions are quashed redress will be paid to victims across the whole of our United Kingdom on exactly the same basis I did thank you

Mr Speaker the future of children’s cancer services and D canceres thank you Mr Speaker the the future of children’s cancer services in my consistency across Southwest London across Sur Sussex and Beyond will be decided by by NHS England tomorrow the existing service is World leading and has saved the lives of countless

Children many of us who engaged with the consultation process feel that a wrong decision is about to be made ignoring risk to Children’s Cancer Care by moving them to the evina if the evina is chosen tomorrow will the Prime Minister personally intervene and delay any final decision until he’s met with myself and

Conserved concerned MPS across the house so we can prevent these risks to our children’s cancer Services uh well Mr Speaker as The Honorable gentle gentleman knows decisions about clinical provision are rightly made by clinicians in local areas across the country uh more generally we’re investing in more oncologists Radiologists and Community

Diagnostic Centers which are contributing to cancer treatment being at record levels but I will of course ensure that he and colleagues uh get a meeting with the Secretary of State really change thank you Mr Speaker radical islamists pose a serious threat to our nation’s security and I agree

With my rable friend that we must urgently address this but reports that the government wishes to broaden the definition of extremism are concerning because in separating the definition of extremism from actual violence and harm we may criminalize people with a wide range of legitimate views and have a

Chilling effect on free speech so can my right honorable friend reassure me that instead of trying to police people thought and speech as those opposite clearly wish to do the government will instead Target the specific groups that Foster terrorism and those who fund them prime minister my mod friend makes a

Good point and that’s why the strategy that I would urge her to wait for will I think be one that she can support because it is our duty to make sure the government has the tools to tackle the threat that she rightly identifies and highlights and this is absolutely not

About silencing those with private and peaceful beliefs nor will it impact Free Speech which we on this side of the house will always strive to protect up thank you Mr Speaker children deserve the right to breathe clean air however many schools are in areas with high levels of air pollution sadique Khan the

Mayor of London has announced keep going J sad Khan the mayor of London has announced a pilot for 200 of London’s most impacted schools to access air quality filters so children can breathe clean air in their classroom excellent does the Prime Minister support this pilot and will he Implement similar measures across our

Country prime minister Mr Speaker I’m pleased that latest published figures show that air pollution has reduced significantly since 2010 and partly due to our targets partly due to our legally binding targets to reduce concentrations they will continue to reduce over the following years and on top of that we’ve

Also provided almost a billion pounds to help local authorities across the country Implement local plans to reduce NO2 and make sure that we can support those impacted by those plans rejected thank you Mr Speaker I understand the latest scheme that’s been considered is to pay migrants thousands of pounds to

Leave Britain prime minister let’s just leave the EC and Deport them for free so far over 40,000 Brits have signed my petition with a conservative post calling for us to leave the European convention on human rights with the prime Min the commit to leaving the ECR

Or at the very least have it in our Manifesto to have a referendum and let Britain decide Minister well Mr Speaker my honorable friend is absolutely right that we must do everything we can to secure our borders ensure that those who come here illegally do not have the

Ability to stay that’s why Rwanda scheme and legislation is so important and what I’ve said repeatedly and will happily say to her again is that I will not let a foreign Court block our ability to send people to Rwanda when the time comes there Roberts the National Theater production

NY which stars Michael Sheen celebrates at the end a transformational increase in life expectancy since the founding of the NHS but UCL findings indicate that austerity policy between 2010 and 2019 are responsible for a threeyear setback in life expectancy progress does he or the leader of the opposition for that matter Think Public

Services can withstand an extra 20 billion pounds of Cur prime minister yeah well Mr Mr Speaker first of all I’m pleased that the National Theater received significant funding from the chanc in the recent budget to support their fantastic work across the UK but I I am surprised to hear her raising the NHS

When it’s her party that’s propping up the Welsh La government in Wales which has absolutely the worst NHS performance of any part of the United Kingdom Mr Mitchell Mr Speaker may I thank my right honorable friend for meeting me six weeks ago to discuss the plight of victims of covid-19 vaccine damage and

May I ask him following that discussion and his very sympathetic response during the GB people’s Forum to Mr John Watt who himself is a victim of covid-19 vaccine damage whether the government will be supporting my covid-19 vaccine payments bill this Friday well Mr Speaker can I thank my

Honorable friend for raising the issue and the conversation that I had with him previously and extend my sympathies to all of those who have been affected by this I I will of course make sure that he can meet with the secretary of state to discuss his bill and as I committed

Him we are looking at the issue in some detail to make sure that the policies we’ve got are providing the support that they need to Mar thank you Mr Speaker the Prime Minister stood outside down in Street saying that he wanted to root out hate and extremism you imagine yet it

Shamefully took him more than 24 hours to finally say the remarks by the Tory’s biggest owner that looking at the right honorable member for Hackney North and Stoke new Newington makes you want to hate all black women were indeed racist in November the Prime Minister accepted a non-cash donation to the tune of

£5,000 from Frank Hester for the use of his helicopter so will he reimburse him yes or no minister no no Mr Speaker and I’m pleased that I’m pleased that I’m pleased that the gentleman is support in a party that represents one of the most diverse governments in this country’s

History led by this country’s first British Asian prime [Applause] minister thank you very much Mr Speaker uh later today I look forward to voting for a tax cut for thousands of my constituents a national insurance tax cut that will mean 900 off the tax bill for thousands of my constituents

After listening to the rhetoric from the leader of the opposition today does the Prime Minister expect that the main opposition party will vote against this afternoon’s tax well my right honorable my honorable friend raises an excellent question because whilst on this side of the house we believe in a country where hard work

Is rewarded and people can keep more of their hard own money which is why we’re cutting their taxes by an average of £900 each we hear consistently from the party the opposite not only do they disagree with that approach they continue to cling to unfunded spending

Promises that will put taxes up but also the shadow Chief secretary to the treasury we learned just yesterday described our plan to end the double taxation on work as morally aborus and that is a contrast between us and Them labor will put your taxes up and the conservatives will keep cutting

Them thank you thank you Mr Speaker many of us back benchers and know it seems the prime minister himself have taken to referring to the European Court of human rights as a foreign Court as if there’s something inherently wrong with things being foreign or people being foreign in

What way can a court that the UK has belonged to since 1953 which has an Irish president and a UK Justice with an LLB from dunde be considered foreign I think the house needs to hear the Prime Minister commit today to the UK’s continued membership of a court and a

Convention which protected our rights and freedoms for over 70 years [Applause] so Mr Speaker when it comes to the issue of tackling illegal migration when Parliament expresses a clear view on what it believes should happen supports that with legislation and that we believe we are acting in accordance with

All our International obligations I’ve been very clear that I will not let a foreign Court stop us from sending illegal migrants to Rwanda that is the right policy and in fact the only way to ensure security of our borders and end the unfairness of illegal migration Edward

Lee as a general election is not just a mere expression of opinion but a serious choice will my writable friend agree that there is only one potential party of government that has the will the inclination and the determination to stop Mass illegal and legal migration and that is a

Conservative party let’s unite our movement and do that well I uh I agree agree with my honorable friend entirely I agree with my honorable friend entirely and we know this because not only has the Ron gentleman opposite opposed the scheme he’s been clear that even when the scheme is implemented and working he

Would still scrap it Mr Speaker which tells you everything you need to know on this issue their values are simply not those of the British people there’s only one party that’s going to stop the boates it’s the conservative party all me thank you thank very much Mr Speaker under this conservative government’s

Watch T’s water have dumped over 72 billion liters of sewage into London’s Rivers all whilst racking up multi-billion pound debts and reports are now that they could go bust any day despite this the government is still refusing to publish their contingency plans for the collapse of our country’s

Biggest water firm so yes or no does the Prime Minister believe that Tim’s water will still exist by the end of the year here prime minister yeah well Mr Speaker it wouldn’t be right for me to comment on individual companies but what I can say is that our ambitious storm overflow

Reduction plan is backed by 60 billion pound of capital investment we now monitor every single storm overflow across England and have legislated to introduce unlimited penalties on water companies that breach their obligations the independent regulator and the environment agency have the powers they need to hold water companies wherever they are to account

Nat Al thank you Mr Speaker um later this year a new digital EU border system will come in and yet key changes that are required key details have still not been decided by the EU there are Urgent decisions that are needed on additional funding and preparation to keep over

Clear and Kent moving through with its traffic can my right orable friend the Prime Minister assure me that this issue is being taken seriously at the highest levels of government and that funding and support will be made available to keep DOA clear support the residents of

DOA andil and Kent and to secure our Vital cross Channel trade and tourism now my uh my friend’s right to raise this issue and I can assure her that it is being discussed at the highest levels of government between UK ministers and EU and French counterparts

To make sure that we have practical and constructive solutions that will ease the flow of traffic in the way that she describes and will benefit her local communi Rachel Mas thank you Mr Speaker 158 days and there’s no peace and no justice there is no food there is no

Clean water there’s no sanitation and no Medical Aid there are just no words left as disease is spreading and the death toll is rising not least amongst children victims of these atrocities it is evident that the prime minister’s plan is not working so will he change track

For the sake of these children and so many more and work to secure a bilateral immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas prime minister Mr Speaker I’ve said repeatedly that we are incredibly concerned about the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza too many civilians have lost their lives and nowhere near enough Aid is getting

Through and in contrast to what the honorable lady said actually the UK is playing a leading role in alleviating that suffering just recently increasing the amount of Aid this year to 100 million just today 150 tons of UK Aid is due to arrive in Gaza and a full field

Hospital flown from Manchester to the Middle East last week will also arrive in Gaza in the coming days staffed by UK and local Medics to provide life-saving care we are doing absolutely everything we can working with our allies to bring much needed Aid to the people of Gaza

Show them record thank you Mr Speaker will my right honorable friend join me in thanking the maternity team at the Royal cormal Hospital at trisk in myo and farmouth constituency for all their outstanding work they’ve done to improve maternity Services over the last few years their sheer hard work along with

The coming new women and children’s hospital mean that there are now no Midwifery vacancies in Cornwall which I think you’ll agree is a fantastic well can I thank my honorable friend for highlighting the Improvement in m services at the Royal cornall and she in particular is a tireless

Campaigner for reducing baby loss and I commend her for her recent work on the introduction of baby loss certificates and as she knows we are committed to a new women and children’s hospital for my unable friends local trust in 2030 as part of the new hospital program sure

Thank you Mr Speaker my constituents in summon and fr working together with the langport Transport Group submitted a robust strategic business case to the government in July 2022 for the reopening of a train station in the Summerton and Lort area a train station that would connect over 50,000 people to

The rail network boost the local economy and support local people to reduce their Reliance on their cars almost two years on they are still waiting for a response so does the Prime Minister support this project and can he provide confidence to my constituents that their hard work to

Drive this vital project forward has not been futile prime minister well m Mr Speaker conservatives in the southwest are rightly championing the reopen of local stations and actually recently cumpton and Wellington will be one of the places that receives funding as a result of our decision on hs2 but it’s

Because of that decision that we now have freed up billions of pounds of funding to invest in local transport across the country and it will be local leaders that will be put in charge of that many to prioritize their local needs final question mark Fran prime minister in the

1930s one of your less illustrious predecessors Neville Chamberlain so denuded the British armed forces of funding until it was too late that we failed to deter Adolf Hitler and 50 million people tragically died in the second world war Russia has invaded Ukraine China is threatening Taiwan British shipping is being attacked by

Houes in the Red Sea as the son of a dday veteran could you please assure me and the House of Commons we are not going to forget the lessons of history and make the same mistake againe Minister well can I thank my honorable friend for his tiess campaigning for our armed forces

And he’s right to Champion them and the role that they play and I agree with him wholeheartedly that sadly the world that we are living in is becoming both more challenging strategically and more dangerous and in response to those challenges we must invest more in our

Own forces that is exactly what we are doing with the largest uplift since the Cold War and recently topped up with billions of pounds to strengthen our nuclear Enterprise and rebuild stockpiles he rightly mentioned the threat posed by the houes and Russia and Ukraine and I know that he will be proud

Of the role that the United Kingdom is playing in both of those situations we are respected and valued by our allies but most importantly we on this side of the house will do whatever it takes to keep our country safe that completes prime minister’s questions e we now come to the Urgent question

Caroline Lucas thank you very much Mr Speaker to ask the Secretary of State for energy security and Net Zero to make a statement on the government plan to build new gas fired power stations thank you Mr Speaker the second review of electricity Market Arrangements consultation was launched

Yesterday and it sets out the choices uh that we need to make in delivering a fully decarbonized electricity system by 2035 this government has already reduced emissions from Power by 65% since 2010 and thus made the UK the first major economy in the world to Har emissions overall from less than 7% of

Electricity Supply in 2010 to nearly 50% today we have built record volumes of Renewables allowing us to remove move coal alt together by October this year our success in growing Renewables is we why is why we need flexible backup for when the wind does not blow and the sun does not

Shine our main source of flexible power today is unabated gas more than half of that 15 gaw of combined cycle gas turbines could retire by 20135 meanwhile electricity demand is set to increase as heat transport and Industry Electrify we must ensure that we have sufficient sources of flexibility in

Place to guarantee security of Supply we need up to 55 gaw of short duration flexibility and between 30 and 50 gaw of long duration flexibility our aim is for as much of this capacity as possible to be low carbon but Mr Speaker whilst lowc carbon Technologies scale up we will

Extend the life of our existing gas assets but a limited amount of new build gas capacity will also be required in the short term to replace expiring plants as the only mature technology capable of providing sustained flexible capacity we remain committed to delivering a fully decarbonized electricity Supply by 2035 subject to

Security of supply and we expect most new gas capacity to be built Net Zero ready this government has committed 20 billion pounds to CC us and is developing comprehensive support for hydrogen so in the future unabated gas plants will only run a limited number of hours per year so emissions will be

Entirely in line with our legally binding carbon budgets thank you Mr Speaker can I just start by saying that I am a bit tired of this government shunning any scrutiny of their climate record and instead relying on a past record because while the UK May indeed be the first major economy to

Cut its territorial emissions by half since 1990 we are not on track we are not on track to achieve our 2030 targets and if we factor in consumption emissions then the UK has only cut emissions by 23% so let’s have a little less complacency from the minister now

He will know this government’s uh new announcement for new gas fired uh Power stations does in fact contrary to what he claim claimed risk undermining our climate targets and leaving the country reliant on Imports of expensive gas members should have been given the opport Unity to question the minister on

Its implications for decarbonizing the UK’s Energy System by 2035 with 95% of the UK electricity being low carbon by 2030 so first why was this statement not made in Parliament why was it made instead in chattam house where members were not able to question the minister on the impact of this decision second

Will the minister explain how this proposal differs from the functioning of the existing capacity Market or will he admit that this is just the government’s latest attempt to stoke a culture war on climate third the climate change committee is clear that there should be no new unabated gas plants built after

2030 so what is the government’s timeline for developing these new gas fired power stations I asked him about this yesterday in the environmental audit committee I didn’t get a response I also asked him what’s being done to ensure that these gas plants are zero carbon by 2035 that wasn’t set out in

Either the Secretary of St speech yesterday or by the minister uh today uh the minister did tell the environmental audit committee that they will be required to be ccs and hydrogen ready that doesn’t actually amount to a meaningful plan so can he please give us more than just his uh thus far

Unevidenced words of assurance and will he explain what the government’s plan is to support the development of batteries and long-term storage Technologies and to drive Innovation so that we can get off volatile gas for good uh thank you uh Mr Speaker um I mean rather odd to be asked about uh

Being able to scrutinize this this was the launch of a consultation yesterday which will be going on for some time and The Honorable lady as she knows I was in front of the select committee yesterday so rather strange Mr Speaker um uh uh that she should highlight that um she’s

Confused as she often is because she’s so political she would appear to set politics always ahead of climate she struggles to recognize that the UNF C rules are about territorial emissions countries own the emissions in the territory where they take place her numbers on embedded emissions are wrong

Um but she doesn’t care about that she just carries on a kind of political diet tribe um on the the government which has done more than any other in any major economy on this Earth to decarbonize its economy and we have done it not as The Honorable lady would have a St reduced

To living in Ys but actually while growing the economy by 82% it’s people like The Honorable lady who make people on my side of the chamber at times think are we engaged in some form of Madness we’re not but she doesn’t half make it sound like it can these new gas plants

Be consistent with the government’s commitment to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 our published Net Zero scenarios I would invite her to read them um for the power sector to show that building new gas capacity is consistent with decarbonizing electric by 2035 and on from those scenarios we

Expect even with new gas capacity that rather than the 38% of electricity generation which in 2022 came from gas it will be down to 1% by 2035 or if we follow the uh scenario set out by the climate change committee perhaps 2% so we’re going to have that as a backup

It’s sensible insurance it’s about keeping the lights on while we carry on the remarkable transformation that this government has achieved moving from the appalling Legacy of the party opposite less than 7% electricity from Renewables to nearly 50% today so Jacob Le thank you um Mr Speaker this announcement on

Gas fired power stations is extremely welcome but at the moment a kilowatt hour of electricity in the UK costs 44 cents against 17 cents in the US and 8 cents in both China and India we have become fundamentally uncompetitive because of this green Obsession we want cheap electricity and we should have gas

And we should have coal and we should postpone Net Zero indefinitely because we are only 1% of global emissions we are making no difference and the US economy is going consistently faster than ours because of cheap energy this is a good first step against the Net Zero Obsession we need to go

Further Minister well I I would chide my right honorable friend with the science and the evidence which is emerging all the time there is uh a climate uh uh uh Challenge and a climate emergency that’s why we’re that’s why we’re looking to uh reduce our emissions but he’s quite

Right to also to challenge and say well we’re less than 1% of global emissions how does this make sense that’s why we hosted cop 26 that’s why we got the rest of the world to commit to following us that’s why we’re bringing in car B carbon border adjustment mechanism from

2027 precisely to ensure that we create econ an economically rational system which supports jobs in this country while meeting the the CH the climate challenge which does need to be met Shadow Minister Dr Alan whad yeah I’m a little puzzled uh frankly about what all this is about because the

Committee on climate change and all credible energy experts have said that we we will need a small residual of unabated gas on the system for the medium term and that this is consistent with a fully decarbonized power system no one disputes that and indeed it’s barely worth an

Announcement we should extend the lives of existing plants to meet that need and if new build plants are needed in the short term to replace some of those retiring gas fire power stations then provided they are capable of converting to hydrogen or carbon capture as the government says they must be then there

Is no disagreement but that’s not what the secretary of state was saying yesterday at the chattam house meeting however the government’s own analysis published yesterday shows that 24 gaw of existing gas capacity could be maintained via life extension and refurbishment and that 9 gaw of new capacity is already in the Baseline

Under existing capacity Market arrangements so that’s an uncontroversial position and Analysis again hardly something that seems making a huge fuss about but again that was not what the minister was talking about uh the secretary of state was talking about at the chattam house conference yesterday so given this analysis could

The minister Enlighten us with the number of new gas plants they are actually hoping to build given there is no mention of that in the 1500 pages of documents that were published yesterday and that’s a very important point in terms of what appears to be government’s intention to go beyond uh what is

Already in the analysis and apparently build a large number of new gas P power stations for the future now there’s a great deal in the review of electricity Market Arrangements public yesterday that would be worth discussing not least the government’s glaring failure to bring forward the low carbon flexible

Technologies such as long dist long duration storage that everyone knows we will need and it’s a shame that the minister has not properly addressed this so cander Minister give us Clarity on whether this is a meaningless announcement Within existing policy arrangements or an announcement that actually as has been said uh is an

Attempt to conjure a culture War out of climate and energy policy with announcements with no substance or value and indeed that shows they have no serious plan for energy in our country Minister thank you um Mr Speaker um The Honorable gentleman asked about uh the if there are new power plants then being

Hydrogen or ccus ready uh we will leg late to make that a requirement he asked about how many um around 5 gaw but it it’s so dependent on so many interrelated things the growth of the low carbon and flexible storage which we are a world leader in developing we both

Support in Innovation and and we and we uh support uh uh through the capacity Market which he referenced um why He suggests that none of this was clear um uh uh yesterday it was made absolutely crystal clear and what we are doing of course is we’re world leaders with the

20 billion pounds we announced for for carbon capture utilization and storage and he will remember because he’s been around a long time that in 2003 the then labor government said that carbon capture usage and storage was urgent there was no roots to 2050 without it and then the labor government proceeded

To do nothing about it well this government is getting on with it it’s putting its money where its mouth is it’s developing those Technologies like uh carbon capture and hydrogen in a way that the labor government failed to do so uh clearly as it did of course with

Renewables to boot so all they do is talk about climate the truth is the greatest climate risk to this country would be if Ed Miller Band destroys the market and starts to run some state-run quango which will wreck the Renewables growth which we’ve seen may

You um thank you thank you Mr Speaker I welcome this announcement and uh the the independent committee on climate change uh recognizes that we’re going to need unabated gas uh in the electricity uh market right up until 2035 and Beyond and more widely that even in 2050 25% of

Our energy needs will come from hydrocarbons so does the um right honorable um member agree with me that this is exactly the right way to maintain lower energy production costs while still meeting our Net Zero targets I do agree with my uh honorable friend so the point is to have a a wide

Range of backup capacity but not to use it very much with fossil fuels and to look to as I think um uh has long been the case that uh any new gas um uh generation should be um uh carbon capture ready and we look forward to it

Being hydrogen ready as well and we own very similar position to Germany and other countries who are looking exactly this I think both Germany and Ireland for instance as part of their growth of Renewables recognize the need for gas albe used less and less but having it

There to ensure the lights stay on and we have appropriate insurance in place IP spokesperson Dave du what a cluster it’s unbelievable that we are in this situation I want to quote directly from the Secretary of State’s letter to members today in which she said we’re taking steps to make sure the lights

Stay on that is your legacy of 14 years of the conservatives in charge of energy now uncomfortably I find myself in agreement with the member the right honorable member for Northeast Somerset because this is a significant departure and one which we should be alarmed about where’s your precious nuclear Basel load

Now or the governments rather where is the Exemplar of where ccus is working at this scale that the government is taking inspiration from and wouldn’t it have been an elegant solution to have unabated gas winding down at the same time as battery storage long duration pump storage was all winding up but we

Can’t have that because the government’s dragged its feet on both of those things what does the minister say to people who are getting infrastructure for transmission all throughout their communities and they’re being told to suck it up because this is what we need to do to get gas out of the system and

Now the same government is building new gas fire power stations most uh The Honorable gentleman who’s supposed to lead on this subject uh for his party um uh could should have listened to what I said earlier in 2022 it was 38% of generation from gas by the mid 2030s

It’ll be 1 or 2% why why are we having it there in order to balance the Renewables that we’re growing and that we’re growing particularly in Scotland supporting Scottish jobs and of course if you put generation in Scotland when the demand is in the South you have to provide the connecting infrastructure to

Do it we had to wire up the UK in order to become the rich and prosperous country that we are today in previous generations we need to do it again now we we’re making sure we’re working with local communities listening to their voices and making sure that they’re not

Misled by people who come up with such nonsense as The Honorable Gentleman Just did James wild thank you Mr Speaker can I commend my honorable friend for his refreshingly clear articulation of our strong record in this area both in the house today and on the media um yesterday and obviously security of

Supply must come first and how will these plans incentivize investment in what is backup gas fired power stations whilst minimizing the cost of consumers which is also very important well I thank my honorable friend and he and my friend um from suers absolutely right to focus on the

Economics we’ve got to get the economics of this right we’ve used the capacity Market in order kind of auction type mechanism to bring forward um the make sure that we’ve got the flexible capacity we’re incentivizing more and more of that to be low carbon as you can

See the batteries that are coming on scale we’ve got pumps uh Hydro storage potentially as well but we’re also we need Hy and carbon capture but we’re ensuring we’ve got a balanced system which has discipline built into it in order to drive cost down when we have C

Bams and other things coming on stream as well I firmly expect in the 2030s we will have lower cost energy compared to our neighbors and we will be as my right honorable friend referred to more economically competitive chair the SL committee angress Brandon mne thank you

Very much uh Mr Deputy Mr Speaker St it’s concerning that this is in chattam house and not here and it’s also concerning that the secretary state’s not here today as well uh off piece speeches have cost in the past an energy Minister my committee here this morning

A decade ago made a speech that cost a th000 jobs uh in the effect it had on investment he says this is a consultation but have they picked a winner what room have they given for storage to be in the mix and and confusing energy security and we know

We’ve learned from the Ukraine war who that is with continual electricity Supply and given what he says the gas percentage will be by 2030 and afterwards what percentage will this capacity provide and what percentage what percentage will this provide of capacity and what percentage does he en Visage will be used day to

Day and what other options and what other thoughts we given other Technologies being considered in this in his gigawatt demand well I Thank The Honorable gentleman uh for his question I suggested on different scenarios around one or two% uh of total generation coming from gas in the future compared

To the 38% in 2022 on on on an annualized basis but clearly as The Honorable gentleman should know better than anybody here with his deep knowledge on the subject it’s based on the intermittency so it depends how much The Sun Shines how much the wind blows

But we have we make sure that we have a robust system that’s exactly what we’re doing so we this is uh we can continue and I I you know i’ loved especially the people who supposed to care about climate change like the green party could celebrate this country’s Global

Leadership the fact that we’re driving this forward we’re doing so in a way which maintains security of supply and by bringing more and more Renewables on with the lowest cost flexibility system to back it up we’re doing so at a more in a more and more economical fashion Al

Stff thank you very much indeed Mr Speaker I welcome this announcement today it’s pure common sense when the wind uh isn’t blowing something shining we need that uh security supply and although we need to of course deal with climate change in the medium to long term we must also deal with security

Supply in the short term so I welcome this but does the minister agree with me that actually for the medium and longer term uh security supply we need to really upscale what we’re doing the hydrogen sector have more hyren production more hydrogen usage and be a world leion hydrogen at the moment we

Are slipping behind a bit well I agree with my honorable friend on uh his point about the importance of hydrogen where I disagree with him having seen the I think it was eight projects in the hyd hydrogen allocation round one um I don’t think there’s any indication that we’re

Slipping behind the truth is uh the whole world needs to do this because everyone’s analysis from the Ia to the climate change committee to my own Department suggest that hydrogen and car Caron capture are necessary to bring about this decarbonized system that we seek but he’s absolutely right on the

Importance of hydrogen um and I I I would say to him that uh he will can expect uh more developments uh going forward because this country is leading on that as it is in ccus to so Marly Mr Speaker I have a great deal of respect for the minister and his knowledge on

The subject and the fact that he as we most of us doing this chamber uh recognize the need for cutting carbon and he I’m sure is not one of those who would follow the flat earthers that we’ve seen from the member like we’ve seen from the member for North Somerset

But clearly there’s a great deal of trust and Reliance being put on carbon capture and storage and also on hydrogen both of which in terms of Technologies are qu still quite new we’ve talked about this stuff for 25 years and the minister would seemingly forget that this government has been in power for

The last 14 years and we’re still not off the blocks in terms of hydrogen and carbon captur and storage is it not the case thatth the government is taking this position because it’s a nod and a wink to the gas and oil Industries whose support they’ll probably need before the

Election this year and this is part of the uh the whole agenda implicating the rightwing of his own party I was with the honorable gentleman nearly all the way um and and and and he’s and he’s right I mean carbon capture and hydrogen the whole world is

Looking at it because that’s what the science says everybody looks at and analyzes it says we need it and it isn’t yet at that level a great level of maturity but just as in so many other areas this country is leading the way we’ve cut emissions more than anyone

Else we’ve transformed he knows how dire the Legacy his uh uh party left this country in 2010 I mean less than 7% I’m just appalling um and the and the real danger if we go back to that but that’s why we that’s why we have the that’s why

We have the um the gas poers are back up so we’ve got a completely sound system um and we but we believe and and will seek to deliver a decarbonized system by 2035 the biggest risk to that would be if the right honorable gentleman for Doncaster North were to come in and

Start to mess with the system which Has Lifted us up from the back of uh uh of the of climate leadership to the front that’s that’s the real danger and that’s what we need to avoid thank you very much um Can my right honorable friend um stop by South darbishire um specifically

Come to the Willington site which has already got planning permission for a new gas power station and um cut the ribbon when it opens we’ve got spades in the ground so I welcome this announcement and I invite him to come and have a look at the Willington site which is ready to

Go well I I agree with my right with my honorable friend and I I in applaud those who are investing in our system uh We’ve made ourselves one of the most investable countries in the world for clean energy gas has an important part to play in part of that balancing and

With the development uh of carbon capture and hydrogen then there’s every opportunity for those assets to have an even longer life in a green fashion and I would love to come and see my honorable friend we thank you Mr Speaker oil and gas are the energy sources of

The past and the reality of course with intermittent Renewables is that we need an intermittent re um energy source that comes into there the reality is of course gas power plants do the opposite they don’t come in intermittently they’re sit there and when we have too much Renewables the renewable energy is

Shut off and gas the carbon energy continues to uh to to to flow and that is the reality of today we are wasting renewable energy those Energy company sources get cut off while gas continues to flow and the government uh uh does not realize that and does not respond to that my question

Is really can he confirm how many times the government has met with representatives of the oil and gas industry and how that compares with um uh representatives of the Renewables industry uh well as so often the lady does do it spectacularly well she’s completely and utterly wrong um the

Reason that Renewables as you say get turned off it’s because of the constraints within the system and the reason that gas gets turned on is because the system cannot otherwise cope that is why we had the transmission acceleration plan that’s why we got the connections action plan it is it is it

Is something that has come about and it’s being opposed by The Honorable gentleman every time we try and build the infrastructure out the honorable gentleman says he’s a friend the SNP wants to a friend of the Renewables industry and Scottish jobs and then opposes the infrastructure required for it it’s absolutely

Um I meet with the oil and gas industry a lot because the truth is that even with our world leadership and we’ve cut emissions more than any other major economy on the planet 75% of our primary energy today is still from oil and gas and we will be dependent on oil and gas

In 2050 when we’re at Net Zero and that’s why it is so crazy that the parties opposite including that of The Honorable lady believe that opposing licenses when we’re actually dependent on the product all it will do is see the loss of British jobs and the import of

Higher emission product from abroad it’s crazy and I really do hope that people would think a bit more deeply on the other side and we could hear some common sense I hear it in the corridors from back benches but on the front benches and from The Honorable lady I hear

Nothing but nonsense because thank you Mr Speaker I welcome uh this policy decision which is recognition of reality uh could the minister confirm that these new plants will actually be able to convert to a low carbon alternative in the future I thank my honorable friend and we will be legislating precisely to

Create that obligation uh for carbon capture ready and or uh hydrogen ready Samson thank Mr Speaker I I hope that this decision is an indication of the realization which seems to be slowly Dawning on the government of the impact of The Madness of its Net Zero policy

Which has damaged the UK economy we have the highest electricity prices of most of the countries in the G7 we have uh lost vast numbers of jobs in EN energy intensive Industries and now there’s a recognition that because of the intermittency of wind and solar that

There is a risk of blackouts so I welcome this Common Sense decision but since we’re going to use gas to par these stations why doesn’t the Min take the next logical step and legislate to allow us to tap into the vast UK gas resources that we have which as the

United States has shown will bring down prices will give us energy security and will make our competitive more economy well the right The Honorable gentleman couldn’t be more wrong record levels of employment in this this country we overtook France recently as to become the eighth largest

Manufacturer in the world I I would not expect him to join the Dismal party opposite in talking this country down in truth we’re leading the world in tackling climate change and we created more jobs than any time in British history and going forward into the 2030s what we’re going to do by harnessing

More and more of British uh low uh uh carbon energy renewable energy is lower bills for families and increase our competitiveness and as I say in a world which is increasingly recognizing the need for action and is looking to bring in things like carbon border adjustment me mechanisms effectively effectively

Carbon taxes at the border the truth is the UK is in pole position to grow from its already strong economic position into an even stronger one as a result of the Net Zero policies of this government thank speaker across London and the southeast many much needed developments that are required for the increasing

Population have literally been frozen because of lack of Supply from the grid indeed nuclear power can provide the Basel load Renewables are unreliable and obviously gas is required particularly at peak times so will my honor friend friend agree with me that actually this is all about topping up the Grid at peak

Times when people want to use electricity because gas is the fastest way to bring a power station onto the grid and equally to shut down well I thank my honorable friend and he he’ll be aware of all the work we’re doing to um speed up uh uh for

Instance transmission cut it from a 12 to 14e timeline down to half of that down to 7 years the connections action plan which has already moved um tens of I think 40 gws of projects have been able to be have their connection date moved forward so we’re putting a lot of

Work in across the piece this uh uh uh gas uh capability is there as a backup but the usage and the emissions resulting from it will be falling precipitately over the next 10 years and we can all celebrate that J BR after years of delaying meaningful investment in clean cheaper reliable Renewable

Energy Technologies such as tidal and long duration pumped Hydro storage it’s no surprise the government’s now having to scramble to create new dirty gas powered plants but how much does his Department estimate these new plants will cost and where is his Department suggesting they will be built and what

Does he mean by carbon capture ready does he mean carbon capture operational yeah here DOA thank you Mr Speaker as I say um uh further uh uh you know our legislation will come forward in the not too distant future and she will be able to scrutinize that um it’s extraordinary

That she should say to the country that’s gone from 7% Renewables less than to approaching 50% today that we’ve gone slow on Renewables we’re leading we we have decarbonized our power system fast we’ve decarbonized our power system faster than any other major economy on the planet the kind of reality denial

That we get from the party opposite is quite extraordinary and on tile she specifically wants to highlight title well guess which country in the world has more title the The Honorable the right honorable gentleman there who is one of the greatest champions of title in there he could tell the honorable

Lady if she’s so ignorant he’s a fellow Scottish MP he can tell her the UK has more tidal deployment than any other Nation on on the planet we’re proud of that we’re proud of the transformation and it’s about time the SNP and the labor party stopped misleading the

People and this house Patrick R speaker the minister said earlier that we Face a climate challenge after struggling for a word to describe what we face why can’t the government join the global consensus and admit that what we are facing is a climate emergency as the chair as the

Secretary General of the United Nations said the year of climate warming is over we’re in a era of climate burning well unlike The Honorable gentle I’m not primarily concerned with words I’m primarily concerned with action and I’m glad at our response is I did actually use the emergency word I don’t

Know if I broke some uh Golden Rule that says government ministers shouldn’t say it but I treat it like it’s an emergency I see uh the world warming up I see the negative impacts of climate change and that’s why I spend every single day being proud to be part of a department

Which is decarbonizing its country faster than any other in the world The Honorable gentleman should get away from rhetoric and start focusing on action Jim thank you uh Mr Speaker can I thank the minister for his answers and wi there is certainly an urge to prioritize our Net Zero uh promises I’m grateful

The government are are talking and backing up precautions into considerations Northern Iron plays an important role in any contribution to n Target the minister has recognized that in many occasions and questions that I’ve asked him so will the minister Ure in terms of any new gas power stations

To be built at Northern n is considered and prioritized as a leading location for those thank you Minister well The Honorable gentleman um I don’t know he sometimes gives the impression he’d like it if I was running the energy system in Northern isand but it’s not it’s

Devolved and we do have ministers back and that’s something of Celebration and I will work closely with ministers in Northern iseland as I do with other ministers in devolved um uh administrations because in order to meet our Net Zero time targets Northern Ireland has to deliver it his its um

Scotland has to deliver its targets so does Wales we’ve got to work together in a spirit of collaboration we can do that and if he can persuade his honorable friend beside him that actually it can be done that in a way that strengthens our economy too then we really will have

Something to celebrate that completes the Urgent question we now come to the statement Minister Kevin h r uh thank you Mr Speaker and with permission I shall make a statement about post office legislation and Horizon redress schemes I’m very pleased to be able to announce that we are introducing today a

New bill that will qu the convictions of post Masters in England and Wales affected by the Horizon Scandal I set out in my written statement last month this legislation will quash all convictions which meet a clear set of conditions those in scope will have their convictions quashed on the day

That the new legislation is brought into Force subject to parliamentary passage our aim is for Royal Ascent to happen as soon as possible before the summer recess we accept and have always been clear that the legislation May overturn the convictions of some people who are guilty of genuine wrongdoing however we

Believe this is a price worth paying to ensure that many innocent people are exonerated the government will however seek to mitigate the risk of people receiving Financial redress when they have not been wronged the government also accepts that this legislation is unprecedented it is an exceptional response to a factually exceptional

Situation I want to be clear however that this does not set a precedent or is it a criticism of the Judiciary or the courts who have dealt swiftly with matters brought before them the fact remains however that 3 years after the first convictions were overturned only around 100 have yet been

Quashed and that without government intervention many of these convictions could not be overturned either because all the evidence has long been lost or because quite simply Pur masses have lost faith in the state and the criminal justice system and would not come forward to seek Justice the legislation will apply to

England and Wales only however we are fully committed to work with the Scottish government and the northernland executive through regular weekly official level engagement to progress their own approaches I have met with my counterparts in the Scottish government and the northern and executive to offer support and address their concerns and

Offer for further meetings the financial redress scheme of course will be open to applications from applicants throughout the UK once convictions have been over overturned can I thank the business and trade committee which recently published a report including some recommendations for government regarding Horizon redress

We will of course respond to them in the usual way but today I’d like to address two of the recommendations which they make the first is that responsibility for address should not lie with the post office that it should be subject to Independent oversight this has also been

Something recommended To Us by The Horizon compensation Advisory Board I can announce today that we’ll be the department for business and trade rather than the post office which will be responsible for delivery of this redress which is relating to the overturning of these convictions final decisions on redress

Will be made by independent panels are independent individuals I shall return to the house at a later date with your permission Mr Speaker to provide details on how we intend to deliver address for those who have have their convictions overturned by this bill or via subsequent measures taken in Scotland

And Northern Ireland we are discussing these details with The Advisory Board my honorable friend my horable friend the financial secretary to the treasury will be introducing legislation to make any payments made via this new scheme that are exempt from tax the select committee also recommended that the government should

Introduce legally binding time frames to deliver address for sub postmasters with financial penalties for non-compliance and I strongly support the committee’s desire to speed up redress we feel their proposed regime would have the opposite impact it would mean potentially imposing penalties on Forensic accountants or others who are helping

Post Masters to PR prepare their claims doing that would probably cause some of them to withdraw from this work which would slow down the delivery of redress furthermore we do not want to be in a position where we are rushing post Masters into major decisions about their claims and the offers they receive

Possibly meaning some are timed out of redress altogether The Advisory Board have said that their strong view is that this would be a backward step and which is why less than two months ago we passed legislation removing the arbitrary deadline from the Glo scheme we do not want to reverse that

Change however the government is acting to ensure that redress is delivered as quickly as possible first we are working with claimants lawyers to reduce the number of cases which require expert evidence for example forensic accountants or medical evidence which do does delay claims we will pilot this approach and

Assuming that the pilots succeed we hope to expand it rapidly second The Advisory Board and I have asked for monthly reports on each scheme these will come from independent case managers for schemes where they are in place we will publish those reports reports which will give us the best

Basis on which to assess measures for speeding up redress finally we are introducing optional fixed sum Awards in January the government announced it would introduce an offer of an optional £75,000 a fix some award for those in the group litigation order scheme as of the 5th of

March 110 offers have been accepted and over 100 of these have taken the £75,000 fixed payment of those who have accepted the fixed payment 3/4s are new claims so the fixed offer has already meant over 100 claims have been resolved very promptly in some cases those people

Will have got more than they would have asked for the fixed offer also has had a helpful effect helpful effect on other claims it substantially reduces work on small claims by Clement’s lawyers making more resource Avail to to progress larger claims more quickly I’m pleased to announce today that the

£75,000 fix some award offer will also now be extended to the Horizon shortfall scheme to ensure that everyone across all the schemes is treated fairly those who have already settled their claim below £75,000 will be offered a topup to bring their total address to this amount this means over

2,000 po Masters will benefit quickly from this announcement we are mindful that claims in the Glo scheme are not being submitted as swiftly as we would like to see to ensure that we get help to claim it more quickly we’ve already announced an optional fixed sum Award of £75,000

I can announc today that anyone who chooses not to take that offer but instead submits a full claim for individual assessment will straight away have the interim payment topped up to £50,000 Mr Speaker many postmaster’s lives have been ruined by this Scandal we are working hard to deliver

Redress we have set up the Williams inquiry which will discover the truth we will provide Fair Financial address as promptly as we can and we will exonerate those who were so unjustly convicted of crimes which they did not commit Mr Speaker I commend this statement to the house sh Minister

Russ thank you Mr Speaker I thank the minister for advanced sight of his statement before I begin my response I’d like to put on the record my deep disappointment at The Minister’s comment this morning on BBC breakfast uh instead of categorically condemning the Tory party Doner Frank Hester’s horrific

Racist remarks about the right honorable member for Hackney North and sto Newton and despite number 10 after much delay finally describing the remarks as I quote racist and wrong the minister this morning appeared to contradict this position sorry sorry point four thank you Mr Speaker Mr Speaker this is a statement on post

Office legislation and I respectfully say that what the honorable lady opposite is saying is irrelevant to this statement the sh Minister we moving on Minister I will move on I will move on uh I simply hope that the minister will refle reflect on the reversal of the statement this morning and the position

That he took that he would take a donation if it was submit provided by the donor I hope he reflects on the impact that that it is having on many of us turning to Mr Speaker uh today’s crucial statement The Horizon Scandal is truly shocking a miscarriage of justice

And one of the most devastating in British history the Scandal has brought Devastation to the lives of hundreds of falsely convicted sub poost Masters over 20 years on they and their families are still suffering from the consequences and the trauma of all they have been put through I pay tribute to their

Determination in pursuing Justice and I want to pay tribute to Alan Bates and the sub poost Masters who have pioneered this campaign and worked tirelessly to seek Justice without their bravery and perseverance the campaign would not have come be where it is today I also want to

Pay tribute to my right honorable friend the member for North Durham uh for all his work and the campaigning on this issue by Lord arbot for many years as well as uh others in this house and the other house and members of the business select committee and the chair turning

To the legislation we of course welcome the laying of this legislation today uh but be before giving a full verdict on the legislation we will need to uh properly scrutinize the details and analyze its potential impacts in the first instance Mr Speaker this legislation does in our view leave a

Series of outstanding issues and questions as to when Justice and compensation will be delivered and to whom first I’d like to address the territorial scope uh of the legislation as it is currently only applying to England and Wales uh even though the post office is not devolved and the

Horizon Scandal is a uk-wide uh Horizon system uh and the Scandal uh in terms of its impact is uk-wide um we know there are 30 approximately 30 cases that need overturning between Scotland and Northern Ireland uh but there remains a Ser a series of outstanding questions as

To when s postmasters in both Scotland and particularly Northern Ireland will receive Justice and comp compensation I welcome The Minister’s uh offer of and assurances of having regular dialogue with the Devol administrations but I’d be grateful if he could provide more more detail on how that will work in

Practice recognizing uh the the different legal processes um Mr Speaker additionally as we know 80% of the redressed budget is yet to be paid out there remains considerable uncertainty as to when sub poost Masters will receive their compensation I’m sure we can all agree that the sub postmasters have waited long enough the

Delays are causing further financial distress and further suffering we know the the business and trade can select committee’s recommendation of a legally binding time frame from when an offer is first tabled to when settlement is reached even if these legally binding targets are not adopted what assurances

Can the minister give that he will meet his Target of ensuring all compensation is paid out is out of the door by the end of the year What mechanisms will the minister put in place to ensure that there are no further delays and and I know that he is committed to making sure

There are no further delays but sub postmasters will want to know that that actually happens and given the recent chaos in the post offices leadership we welcome the decision to take the post office out of the redress process as the minister said redress must have an independent have independent oversight

We know the post office is in disarray and what we need is focus and efficiency and ensuring compensation is paid to the sub most post Masters as soon as possible in conclusion Mr Speaker the suffering of the sub postmasters can never come close to being repaid just through financial

Redress though it is so important we get this right the very least the government can do is ensure they receive the fair compensation and exoneration as soon as possible there are those who’ve been impacted by the Scandal that have sadly passed away never to be able to see their innocence proven proven

Or live to see the compensation they deserve it is absolutely vital that the government acts with the urgency and speed that’s needed to correct this terrible Injustice well thank you Mr Speaker if I can soon as the comments the shadow Minister made are on the record if I can

Just deal with them very briefly uh Mr Speaker and I’ve got to say it’s the second time I think she’s made comments at this dispatch box that been unfair or factually correct and I hope she doesn’t come and correct the record because if she actually watched the interview I

Made I absolutely did condemn the words of Mr Hester I said they were wrong I said they were they were racist and I think it’s absolutely right his apologize and she should actually watch full broadcast broadcast and I hope comes back to this house and apologizes and corrects the

Record in terms of the points she raises um I think they largely pertain to the Scot Scottish and Northern Ireland devolved administrations I quite understand the concern around that I’m very keen to make sure we get this right across the United Kingdom I think as she says in her own comments they have

Different legal processes she acknowledges in those areas therefore we think it would be inappropriate for us to legislate for parts of the United Kingdom have different legal processes different prosecutors Justice itself is devolved although the post office as she rightly says is a National Organization UK wide organization that’s why we think

The legislation should be we allow those devolved administrations to legislate themselves if that’s what they choose to do and very closely with them on a weekly basis officials are meeting on a weekly basis to assist whatever we can to make sure this is delivered the compensation can be delivered uk-wide as

Is how the scheme operates I think she said I may be wrong here so I will check the record myself that uh think says 80% of compensation is yet to be delivered can I just say across the whole all the schemes around 2/3 of cases have already received full and final compensation all

In that being the case some people will be topped up about 2,000 people will be topped up by the announcement I made earlier the £75,000 so it’s not right to say that the majority of people are waiting for compensation as I think she said um in terms of do want to deliver

By the end of the year absolutely we do I just point out to her as I said in my remarks not everything is within our gift we can’t compare tell a claim to submit a claim or when that will happen so if somebody put in a claim right

Towards the end of the year for example it may not be possible to do that for the end of the year so not everything is within our gift anything that is we’re very keen to expedite in terms of independent oversight absolutely critical that we have that in the overturn conviction schemes all schemes

Have independent oversight in the overturn conviction schemes we have uh retired high court judge s Gary hicking bottom um and on that scheme particularly we we have the 600,000 fixed sum award but also on Mr hicking botton’s advice we’ introduced the £450,000 payment as soon as a full claim has been

Submitted so uh so we’re doing everything we can to make sure people are compensated as quickly as possible Paul SC thank you Mr Speaker can I welcome The Minister’s statement the uh pragmatic way that he has uh looked to speed up the claims and take it in house

As best he can the uh legislation that proposed and indeed the extension of the £75,000 to Historic shortfall scheme uh people I would point the minister to an uh an article in the uh T times this morning talking about people who may be excluded uh from reportedly excluded

From the legislation and ask him if he can give any insurances that people who’s um who have gone through this process who’s um original conviction was based substantially on the horizon problems will indeed be exonerated and therefore able to compensation get compensation okay I thank him for his

Question and is Tyler’s campaigning on this area and his Tyler’s work as my predecessor in this particular role he did some great work in getting us where we are today helping to get to where we are today yes he’s right to say there are some people that are not exonerated

Through this process for example people who have been before the court of appeal um but those people will be able to still be able to appeal again in the light of our legislation today of course they had that right anyway to do that we will support them where we can to bring

Forward their cases to the court of appeal and we very much people very much hope people who are innocent who follow that process are exonerated we come to SNP spokesperson Marian fellow thank you Mr Speaker and apologies for being slightly late um I welcome then I oh thank you to the

Minister for prior sight of his statement I welcome the announcement of the legislation it will hopefully go along way in speeding up full and fair Financial redress for a large number of horizon victims and bring them closer to Justice furthermore I welcome the enhanced Financial address for those who have experienced Horizon related

Shortfalls and those who have already settled for less than 75,000 and they’ll have their address to up I want to pay tribute to the minister for his hard work in this and also the work Sterling work of the Horizon compensation Advisory board and the ongoing work of Sir Williamson is

Inquiry most of all I want to pay tribute to the victims following the unimaginable pain they’ve been forced to endure at the hands of post office limited and successive UT governments and I hope today’s announcement can give them some hope there’s an end in sight to this sorry

Chapter I welcome the administration of financial redress schemes have been taken out the hands of post office limited not before time uh theyve de post office Summit have demonstrated obis and come and in competence at every stage from a Scottish pect perspective I’m sure my Northern Irish colleagues

Will agree with me I’m disappointed disappointed deeply that the legislation is confined to England and Wales only this needs to be addressed to include both Scotland and Northern Ireland to ensure parity Westminster Parliament is Sovereign Scottish government Parliament can be challenged on its legislation and this needs to be looked at

The revolution process also risks slowing things down we hear in the government guarantee today that any relevant orders under Section 104 of the Scotland act are processed quickly by his government Scotland has no direct devolved equivalent on postal Affairs only Westminster has remit for the Post Office and his department will the

Minister ensure the bill contains Provisions requiring post office limited to fully cooperate with the Scottish government and supply all needed materials it’s vitally important that victims in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not have to wait any longer for justice than their English and Welsh counterparts victims across these aisles

Suffered enormously at the hands of a holy reserved institution and it’s essential there is complete parity here minister uh thank you m speaker um can I thank you again for all the work she does in this area she she’s a Tyler campaigner herself and uh again one of

The reasons we are this this far on we all like to be further on but um really important part of the work that’s gone on she’s contributed to and she’s right to say victims should be front and center in terms of how we deliver compensation we that we deliver it

Fairly and we deliver it as quickly as possible um some of the changes I announced today that included in my remarks were brought forward on the basis of feedback we’ve had from victims and the legal Representatives so absolutely we do listen to them make sure we deliver any changes where we can

I fully understand her PO points on Scotland and Northern Ireland she can understand I think the Constitutional sensitivity around this area these are tough decisions to make and uh and I quite understand that um Scottish ministers will also have to make similar decisions they can make a decision to do

What we are doing of course and if they do do that we’ll support them in terms of the way they legislate but given the sensitivities around this we thought the best way that devolve administrations where Justice is devolved they should make the those decisions rather than us

But I my commitment again to make sure we work across the piece wherever we can to deliver that consist comp consistency of compensation that she requires and not forgetting the redress schemes are UK wide so as soon as people’s convictions are overturned they can access compensation just like they can

In England and Wales Robert Neil thank you Deputy speaker I think everyone wants to see uh the uh suffering of the postmasters brought to an end as swiftly as possible and I welcome what the minister says in particular about simplifying and speeding up the compensation scheme he

Will know that clayt lawyers such as Neil hudel who gave evidence to the business and trade select committee have real expertise in this field and I hope that he will work very closely with the sector to make to maximize that expertise in designing the scheme but

Can I just say one note of caution I know the minister says that this is exceptional it is constitutionally unprecedented to overturn convictions uh imposed by our courts in good faith on the evidence before them at the time by legislation it is most undesirable frankly that we should ever

Go down that route and at risk of sounding a note of caution some of us will need to see the detail of the legislation and we want to see what evidence the government have that it will be quicker and more comprehensive to quash convictions by this L constitutionally unprecedented route

Rather than leaving it to the courts with assistance uh to deal with it which could have been dealt with as he knows by presumption uh in favor of their being quashed if they depend upon Horizon evidence rather than his wholesale thing in particular will he look at what impact this will have in

Relation to Rehabilitation of offenders legislation and also the impact as to whether or not convictions crossed by this legislation will uh be removed effectively for example if you travel to the United States or other foreign jurisdictions where you may need a visa and you’ll need be need to be able to

Show that you do not have an outstanding conviction Minister well can I thank him for his question and all his work on this himself and it’s been um very important that we’ve engaged with him through the process and and clearly he has much expertise in this area we agree with him

This is unprecedented we agree with him it’s undesirable but we believe it’s the least worst option you look at the current progress in terms of and we want to see this delivered more quickly of the the 790 or so post Masters we believe this legislation will affect

Only around a 100 so far the convictions have been overturned we think that’s an untenable situation which is why we decided to take this route uh but of course I’ll continue work with him and continue to listen to his very wise advice in terms of uh how the the

Process for marking the record um so I can right in saying if where court of appeal overturns of conviction the uh record is marked overturned by the court of appeal we see these records as been marked in a similar Way quashed by Parliament or something along those

Lines so but again very happy to engage with him to make sure we get that right Liam bur thank you madam Deputy speaker can I welcome The Minister’s statement and can I thank him for the Collegiate way in which he is working across the house to try and bring

Justice um for those who have suffered this is a welcome step forward uh today and as he knows and I’m glad to see him take on board some of the recommendations we made in our report last week that set out how we deliver Fair fast and independent redress the

Government has today proposed how it’s going to overturn convictions it has taken the post office out of some but not all processing of claims and it has crucially increase the number of people who can apply for fixed term um uh renumeration however the post office is

Still handling the claims for at least I think a hundred of those with overturn convictions when it is patently not fit for purpose for those who seek to contest their claims the minister is saying there won’t be a legally binding time frame between when they submit that

Claim and when the initial offer is made by his Department that’s a problem and there’s no standard tariff proposed for compensation for key heads of terms like for example loss of reputation that too is a problem so this bill today is far more than a half measure that’s true but

It’s not yet the full solution and I just want to leave in with the words of Joe Hamilton who messaged me last night to highlight the plight of the Glo uh litigants in particular um and the way in which they in her words have to justify every last penny even if some of

Their claims is for actual money stolen from them by the post office why can’t the government do the right thing before even more victims die those words need to be ringing in our ears as we seek to perfect this bill uh thank you Mr Speaker and can I

Thank him uh for his comments and and his uh collaboration on this really important that we listen to his recommendation indeed some of his very informative sessions they’ve had with the select committee which were is important uh I sat through all five hours of those sessions

Um so um so yes at this point in time we believe the post office should continue with its existing uh work on the cases got in front of it around a 100 we have no capacity at the moment within the Department of Business and trade to handle those claims right now clearly we

Will have by the time this legislation comes into effect we don’t want to pause between the legislation coming into effect in July and compensation payments being made we think we can get those payments to people in August using that route um now there may be some people

Left in the uh in the overturned convictions the first tranch people have been through the appeal court or that point in time and we will certainly look at his recommendations in terms of whether we bring those back in house or leave those with the post office but

That’s something we will we will keep an open mind on in terms of what I think he might describe as uh as fixed time scales to respond to offers or service level agreements we’ve got those already for the Glo scheme that’s on a submission of a full claim

We commit to responding to 90% of those claims within 40 days um very happy to look at we might put some benchmarks in place for this new scheme to make sure there’s a similar um speed of response um in terms of standard tariffs he makes that recommendation he probably listen

I’m sure you heard what I said earlier in terms of uh some of the new pilots we’re doing around working with with the some of the lawyers involved here where they can submit claims without the forensic accountants without the medical uh reports which may do something along

The lines he says so I’ll happily have a con ongoing conversation with him on the Glo scheme bear in mind that I think thus far 128 uh claims have been submitted I think of the 490 that there are 110 of those have been settled and there’s only

One so far to my knowledge or that has gone yet to the independent uh in terms of the arbitration dispute resolution before it goes to the independent panel so I think it indicates to everybody in the house hopefully that generally offers have been made that are that are fair and

They’ve been accepted uh almost straight away so um I I understand what Joe Hamilton says and i’ I’ve met with Joe about some of the processes she had to go through to prove her claim we determined to reduce those kind of frictions and reduce that evidence requirement on things that certainly

Things that are not essentially material um we’ve got three things we’ve got get right when delivering compensation we’ve got to be fair to the individual of course and their families have they’ve been affected we’ve got to be fair to all the other postmasters as well to make sure there’s a consistency across

The scheme and of course we going be fair to the taxpayer but um there is no cap on what we’re going to pay people as long as it is fair Don Baker Madam Deputy speaker I thank the minister for for bringing this to the house today it’s clearly uh moves

In the right direction for closure uh many times I have talked in this house about similar issues um a billion pounds has been put on the side by the government to uh deal with all this this issue and that is despite the fact that the post office have taken Millions upon

Millions upon millions of postmasters innocent people we have never had the figure of what was taken and I’ve asked for that before but secondly I want a second figure the Jitsu have said on the record that they would help compensate victims as well add to the reun ation

Pot what progress have we made Minister on making them pay also for being culpable in this whole Fiasco well thank you uh for his regular comments and cont contributions in this particular area it’s always good to have U the the views of the only U former serving postmaster in this this house um

Yeah we we are looking at a figure try to identify what it is and we will hopefully come back to him at some point and it’s quite complicated a lot of these records go back a long long way but that’s a body of work we’re undertaking with the post office um in

Terms of fij Jitsu um the secretary of state had a conversation yesterday I think with the chief executive International the global chief executive of Fujitsu so we are we are Keen to make sure that Fujitsu contribute and they’ve already said they will they said they are a moral responsibility to contribute

I think it’s fair to say at this point in time he mentions a billion pounds but we don’t know the final figure in terms of compensation but we’ expect a significant element of that to from fetu car Michael thank you m Deputy speaker can I also thank the minister

For advanced site not just of a statement but also somewhat noly the government top lines to take H that latter document H includes this passage so far we have identified up to around 800 cases that are potentially in scope note if we use this number in public

We’re going to get held to it there is a risk that we may deliver fewer overturns or award redress to fewer individuals we will then have to explain that if it is the view of officials in The Minister’s Department that accountability and transparency are some sort of problem

Then does he really think that they are the people who are best placed to exercise oversight of the compensation scheme and should that not be put now in the hands of someone who is independent of both government and the post office Mr thank you Mr Speaker um it’s

Interesting the figure he uses and and the documentary references I wasn’t aware that he had that I hav actually interestingly interesting maybe me I hav actually read that line actually but uh it’s because you might there might be an indication of that in my former comments because I mentioned that exact figure

Earlier in my comments I’m not afraid to be transparent or accountable for any the delivery of these compensation schemes Char may I congratulate my honorable friend for all that he is doing working night and day to bring this painful issue to a conclusion for the many postmasters and their families who have

Suffered so much over so many years can I just me seek the uh Assurance from the minister that for those people who do not accept the fixed offer but wish to pursue an individual claim that there will be expeditious treatment of those claims that resources will be made available to deal with

Those claims quickly and efficiently and also can I ask the minister to give an assurance that the claimant will have a named individual who is responsible for their files rather than whoever happens to pick up the file on a specific day Minister well can I thank him for

His question and um yes absolutely I can give him that Assurance uh fix some award is only one route it’s not right for everybody some people have higher levels of claims and we will support them where we can in my my remarks I now some new measures we’re doing that do

We’re using to do that including a pilot scheme where doesn’t require expert reports which should U significantly abbreviate the time scale for responding to off be able to submit a claim and responding to the claim um in ter terms of uh expedition in this area in the Glo

Scheme for example we set a Target that 90 on 90% of cases would respond to a final claim within 40 days weitting 87% currently on against that measure so we are delivering this more quickly it makes an interesting point about a named claims manager or something along those

Lines if I can I’ll take that away CL bford muty speaker I welcome the statement I welcome the the legislation and and removing the post office from the process as far as we have so far but I don’t think the post office is credible to be able to deal with any uh

Claims I wrote to the minister on the 12th of February regarding my constituent that came forward after the TV uh uh program and uh she was in a situation where she had problems with Horizon she agreed a compensation with the post office way below what her losses were she signed a non-disclosure

Agreement but at that time she was dealing with a partner who was terminally ill who has subsequently passed away so she was in no fit state to be able to take on the post office and she’s seriously out of pocket now in those circumstances I would expect her

To be able to uh to to um come under the HSS scheme and I hope that he will confirm that in the letter that no doubt he’s going to send to me uh well I look forward to I haven’t seen that letter yet um I understand his points about the post office handling

Claims um uh but I’m responding to every single letter I get on this from colleagues personally and um so um as we always do but even more so in this particular occasion um so I’m very sorry to hear about his constituents and the situation they’re in um if his

Constituent has accepted less than £75,000 they’ll get an automatic uplift to £75,000 so if they receive less um but um we’re determined to make sure people across every single scheme are treated fairly and feel that they’ve been Tre treated fairly very keen to look at his letter

And make sure that is the case in his casein Crosby thank you madam Deputy speaker may I welcome this important new bill I know the minister and his team have worked exceptionally hard uh on it e e e e e e e e e