Dame Angela Eagle
MP for Wallasey · Labour · United Kingdom
“The Kremlin increasingly relies on proxy organisations to pursue its objectives, seeking to undermine our security while maintaining a degree of plausible deniability. The so-called GRU Volunteer Corps is a clear example of that approach. It is not an independent force or a loose collection of volunteers.”
“This Government have introduced support for the Jewish communities who have been threatened and directly targeted by IRGC proxies. Just a couple of days ago, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced an extra £250 million for policing to ensure that we can support and protect our Jewish communities.”
“I will move on to the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right. The IMCR has publicly claimed seven attacks at UK locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities and to Persian-language media, including the antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green on 23 March.”
“We expect platforms to act responsibly and not to provide space for state threat-linked activity, propaganda or recruitment. We will be keeping a close eye on that, as well as liaising with social media companies to tell them about how this law impacts them.”
“The IRGC Quds Force and the IRGC Intelligence Organisation, together with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, form the Iranian intelligence apparatus. As a key component of the Iranian state’s security apparatus, the IRGC is answerable directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader.”
“It provides a targeted and proportionate means of disrupting those involved in foreign power threat activity based on the recommendations of Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of state threat legislation. To answer the hon.”
The complete record
Every one of 5,924 lines we hold for Dame Angela Eagle, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 59 of 119.
“The former Work and Pensions Secretary made clear his opposition in his devastating resignation letter, in which he said that cuts to disability benefits were “not defensible in the way they were placed within a Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers.” That was this Chancellor’s choice. The former Work and Pensions Secretary called the disability cuts that the Chancellor presented last week “morally indefensible”. The former Work and Pensions Secretary has questioned the entire moral basis of the last six years of Conservative government, and weak assertions from Conservative Members that they are really, really compassionate are revealed for what they really, really are: hollow nonsense.”
“The Chancellor’s Budget was rightly savaged as deeply unfair by his then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr Duncan Smith). Back Benchers’ outrage grew as they realised that the huge cuts to disability support were being used to fund a tax giveaway for the well-off. We then had Panic Friday, as the Prime Minister realised that his party was in revolt and ordered a hasty retreat on the Chancellor’s biggest revenue raiser in the Red Book. Then came a dramatic Cabinet resignation by the Work and Pensions Secretary, who had reached the end of his tether. On Manic Monday, the cowardly Chancellor went missing, sending out his hapless junior to cover for him.”
“Despite his performance today, we see a Chancellor at bay, on the run from attacks in his own party. He has completely lost control of his own Budget. He is now so weakened that he is accepting amendments on the tampon tax and solar panels because he knows he would lose the votes, and he dare not let that happen. He has had to reappear in the Chamber today to explain where it all went wrong. It took less than 24 hours for the Chancellor’s triumph of Wednesday to turn into chaos at the weekend. We have seen a Government in complete and utter disarray and a Chancellor who has only succeeded in shredding his own reputation. Today, we see the utter collapse of his authority. His popularity has halved since the election, and two thirds of people who voted Conservative last May do not think that he is up to the job of being Prime Minister.”
“It was a Budget created by a Chancellor far more concerned with advancing his own interests than advancing the national interest. We all knew that this was a Budget that had to be seen through the lens of the Chancellor’s own long-cherished ambition to become leader of the Tory party and Prime Minister, and that the chief interest the Chancellor was promoting was his own. In an effort to curry favour with his own side, he announced increases in tax thresholds and cuts to capital gains tax, and he decided that cuts to disability benefits would pay for them. The Chancellor has presented a catastrophic Budget—omnishambles does not do it justice. The Prime Minister had ordered him to produce a “safety first” budget; instead, he has succeeded in producing a Budget that has torn the Cabinet apart.”
“Today we have heard contributions from 30 Opposition Members and only 14 Government Members—the Government ran out of contributors quite a while ago. The Chancellor has had to be dragged back to the Chamber today to explain what on earth has happened to his Budget which, after all, is still only six days old and already contains three U-turns. He put in a bravura performance, but there was not a windmill that he did not tilt at or a straw man that he did not set up. Even then, he had the gall to claim that he supports the vulnerable. At the end of all that sound and fury, however, his Budget was still a mess, and the idea of one nation Conservatism is still a national joke. What we actually got was a botched Budget that has disastrously unravelled in just a few short days.”
“It is National Apprenticeship Week, British Science Week, Global Consumer Day—and the Ides of March. Today, the CBI has released a survey showing that 80% of its members support the case that staying in the EU is best for jobs, growth and investment. They are right, are they not, Secretary of State?”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that response. It was not heard brilliantly on parts of his Back Benches. Is his lukewarm response for remaining not now irritating both sides of his divided party and damaging the Government’s case to remain in the EU? When the Prime Minister launched the Conservatives’ “in for Britain” campaign, the Business Secretary conveniently had a prior engagement, announcing that: “with a heavy heart and no enthusiasm, I will be voting for the UK to remain a member of the European Union.” He asserted that he would remain a “Brussels basher”, but is he not really increasingly seen in his own party as a Brexit betrayer? With 100 days to go to the EU referendum, does the overwhelming case for remaining in the EU not deserve a Business Secretary who can campaign with his heart as well as his head?”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Will you confirm again that the manuscript amendment that the Government attempted to sneak on to the amendment paper at the last minute today, which would have covered the compromise on which the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mrs Trevelyan) seems to have done a deal, is in fact not on the amendment paper and not before the House?”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The House has spoken on the very contentious issue of Sunday trading, which would have affected millions of workers. Can we now hear from the Government that they will respect the will of this House and abandon their tawdry attempts to reintroduce this proposal? And I mean the Chancellor.”
“I think the right hon. Gentleman should learn a bit of grace in defeat, because that is what the House likes. Will he confirm that these proposals did not fall under the EVEL or the WEVEL parts of our procedures, and will he also confirm that, having listened to the will of the House, this Government have no intention of bringing these Sunday trading proposals back before us?”
“The current Sunday trading laws work well and strike a sensible balance between the needs of those who want to shop and those who work in retail. This Bill is a missed opportunity. It is a modest Bill that fails to tackle the real challenges facing the economy. It could have aimed to be transformative. It did not. It could have aimed to tackle the skills emergency and the productivity puzzle. It did not. It could have set out an ambitious industrial strategy to help us to rebalance the economy and to tackle the gaping trade deficit. It did not. It could have prepared us for the challenges of big data and digital transformation, which offer great opportunities as well as threats, but it missed that chance. It is a modest Bill with much to be modest about.”
“The House was then put in the ludicrous position of having to debate measures on Second Reading that had not even been published and were not seen until the Committee stage. The Government have descended further still today. We saw a grubby and desperate last-ditch attempt to avoid a vote on amendment 1, when they tried and failed to put down a late manuscript amendment. When it was rejected, the Minister was reduced to pleading with his own side to support a pilot scheme that was not even on the amendment paper. That is no way for any serious Government to behave when passing laws that will affect millions of retail workers and change the nature of our country. I am happy that they have not been rewarded and hope that the measures will now be abandoned.”
“The provisions breach agreements that the Government made with some sectors of their own workforce only recently. The way that this Government have chosen to deal with the important issue of Sunday trading has been cynical and disreputable. During the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, it contained no mention whatsoever of Sunday trading, let alone the Government’s intention to deregulate it by starting a free-for-all in every local authority. There were rumours but no signs of any measures. It was therefore tawdry of the Secretary of State to make an announcement during his speech on Second Reading confirming that the Government did in fact intend to change Sunday trading laws.”
“The Government must ensure that our young people can build sustainable and fulfilling careers and that all apprenticeships offer genuine learning opportunities and pathways for progression. We are extremely disappointed that the Government have used the Bill to flog off the Green Investment Bank before it had been given a proper chance to develop. We are especially concerned that the bank’s core purpose to promote the vital green transformation of the economy will be lost or diluted by this unnecessary privatisation. Our concern is that, by rushing to sell, the Government will not get a decent price for the asset that has been created. On exit payments, we remain concerned that the Bill goes far beyond capping the most excessive pay-outs and will hit some low-paid, long-serving workers in a completely arbitrary fashion.”
“Of course we support moves to establish a quality benchmark for apprenticeships and statutory protection for the term itself, which should help to protect it from being discredited or abused. But with one in three vacancies in the economy reported to be the result of skills shortages, the provisions of the Bill barely scratch the surface of what is needed, and the “skills emergency” that is holding back our country goes on. Time will tell whether the Government’s target of reaching 3 million apprentices will be achieved at the cost of falling quality. I certainly hope that it will not be, but we intend to hold the Government to account on this as their plans develop. We will also continue to keep a close eye on the plans to introduce an apprenticeship levy, which is causing increasing worry in businesses up and down the country.”
“In fact, manufacturing is faltering, the service sector is stuttering and the trade balance continues to worsen; it is now standing at over 5% of gross domestic product. Of course we on Labour Benches will support the creation of the small business commissioner as it appears in the Bill. However, we worry about its tiny budget and the fact that its very limited remit will not be transformative. We argued successfully in the Lords to give the post some independence, but everyone in the House knows how modest this proposal is. We would much rather have been legislating for comprehensive reform by introducing a small business administration, instead of expending legislative effort on this minor tinkering.”
“This is not a great reforming Chancellor. What we actually see in No. 11 Downing Street is a man who is much more focused on his own leadership ambitions than he is on next week’s Budget or on the best interests of our country. We see a man who is much more interested in duffing up the Mayor of London and the Brexit rebels in his own party than he is in solving the huge challenges facing our economy. If this Bill is meant to be part of the solution to those challenges, I am afraid he has got his diagnosis completely wrong. Where is the “march of the makers” that the Chancellor was waxing so lyrical about six years ago? It has completely failed to materialise, and there is no sign of the rebalancing he promised us.”
“We all remember the smirking optimism he displayed at that Dispatch Box as he unveiled the £27 billion windfall that the Office for Budget Responsibility had discovered to assist him in making his sums add up. But much has changed since then, and the Bill addresses little of that. Just six weeks later, the Chancellor turned up in Cardiff warning ominously that the economy was suddenly facing a “cocktail of threats” in the new year that he had not noticed in November. Then he turned up in Shanghai warning about gathering “storm clouds” and announcing that the British economy was £18 billion smaller than he had expected it to be because of slowing growth and falling tax receipts. He is now in full retreat, adding a £7 billion volte face on his widely trailed radical pensions reform to his retreat on huge tax credit cuts late last year.”
“However, he seemed anxious to burnish his Eurosceptic credentials even as he abandoned his Brexit friends in pronouncing recently that he would remain a “Brussels basher” despite his Brexit betrayal. His enthusiasm for the cause will be a great asset to all of us who believe passionately that we need to remain engaged and optimistic about our place in the world, and who are clear that we should not be disengaging from the largest free trade area in the world, where we do 50% of our business. The Bill was just beginning its Report stage in the Lords when the Chancellor unveiled his comprehensive spending review on 25 November last year.”
“I would also like once more to pay tribute to the work of our Labour colleagues in the Lords who were able to secure some amendments to this very modest Bill, which undoubtedly improved it. May I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of all Members who served on the Bill Committee, whichever party they come from, as well as that of the all-important Whips, who ensure that the Committee stage works appropriately? I welcome the Business Secretary to his place for the first time since it became clear that he has joined the campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union. I do not know whether he has been bullied by the Chancellor.”
“The Bill should have been so much more ambitious to live up to its encouraging short title, but despite the sterling efforts of Opposition Members in this House, and those of our Labour colleagues in the House of Lords, it remains a mouse of a Bill which should have been a lion. As I observed on Second Reading, this piece of legislation does not even match the ambition of the Government’s own rhetoric, let alone meet the huge economic challenges now facing this country. Its timidity is a great disappointment to those of us on the Opposition Benches. Nevertheless, I would like to pay warm tribute to my right hon. and hon. Friends who served with such distinction in Committee.”
“Steel production is worth £9.5 billion to our economy, £5 billion of that in exports, at a time when we have a deteriorating trade deficit.”
“Britain’s steel industry is in crisis, and despite the warning signs flashing red, the Tories have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to come up with any kind of response. So far, it has been far too little and far too late. More than 5,000 UK steel jobs have been lost over the past 12 months. Redcar has been abandoned, the blast furnace and the coke ovens destroyed by this Government’s shameful complacency and inaction. Tata Steel has announced the loss of 1,050 jobs this year alone, and there are worrying signs that the entire industry in the UK is hanging by a thread. This is a vital foundation industry for the UK which, after all, was the world’s first industrial nation. Our steel communities are looking to Parliament to support them in their hour of need and we must not let them down.”
“I beg to move, That this House notes the crisis in the UK steel industry; calls on the Government to support tougher EU action to ensure a level playing field and prevent the dumping of Chinese steel, to support scrapping the lesser duty rule which prevents higher tariffs being imposed that reflect the actual margin of dumping and to examine the implications of granting China Market Economy Status for the EU’s ability to tackle unfair trade; and further calls on the Government to publish a full industrial strategy which includes a procurement policy which commits to using British steel wherever possible for publicly-funded infrastructure projects and which supports industrial supply chains across the UK.”
“I will be the first to work with Government Members, and I hope that by the time we have listened to the Business Secretary’s reply we will have something that we can all cheer. The British Chambers of Commerce recently found that export growth continued to slow at the end of 2015, with manufacturers struggling in particular. In the words of a former Conservative Trade Minister, the Government’s own export target is “a big stretch”. The Government have obviously been asleep at the wheel. Ahead of the Budget next month, the Government must acknowledge that on their watch domestic structural weaknesses in the UK economy have been allowed to persist and that they are now in danger of holding Britain back.”
“Perhaps it is because we have a Business Secretary who has read far too much Ayn Rand and thinks that markets should somehow just be left to look after themselves. Perhaps it is because we have a Business Secretary who will not let the phrase “industrial strategy” even pass his lips.”
“I certainly agree with my hon. Friend’s observations and share his surprise that Swedish steel is being used in Ministry of Defence contracts in quite that way. I note that it appears to be a Conservative donor company that was doing that work. I join him in commending the Daily Mirror for its fantastic Save Our Steel campaign, which has highlighted the very real effects of the current crisis on steel communities up and down the country. Long may it continue to help us campaign to save this vital industry. In the light of all that, why has the Government’s response to the steel crisis been so complacent and ineffective to date? Perhaps it is because we have a Business Secretary who is ideologically indisposed to taking any worthwhile action as he does not actually believe in the concept of Government action at all.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for that observation. I think that in this debate Opposition Members will want to explore the gap between the Government’s rhetoric and the reality of their actions, because all too often we find that the gap is far too wide.”
“The Government should certainly be leaving no stone unturned in encouraging UK steel to tender for any contract, especially as they boast about changing the procurement rules—in my experience, one has to do a lot more than that to make a real difference.”
“I am just getting the idea of a mixed rugby team out of my mind so that I can address the hon. Gentleman’s point. I think that it rather makes the point that the Government need to do more than just change technical criteria. They need to take a root-and-branch look at what is actually happening in our steel industry, and an industrial strategy would assist them in doing that. We need to do what we can to ensure that any blockages are removed so that we can give our steel communities the best chance to take maximum advantage of the procurement opportunities available in this country.”
“My hon. Friend makes a perfectly fair point. The Government should leave no stone unturned in order to maximise the chances of British steel companies bidding for these contracts successfully.”
“My hon. Friend has anticipated a point that I plan to make later in my speech. I certainly hope that there will be some good news on the catapult centre in the Budget, because we would certainly support that.”
“One of the first things we have to do is stop the tsunami of unfairly traded and dumped Chinese steel, which is preventing fair trade and competition in the market at the moment. The Opposition have had to drag this Government kicking and screaming to the House on no fewer than 12 occasions since 2014 to try to force them to turn their warm, sympathetic words on steel, which we all recognise they use, into effective action. Today, here we are doing so once again. The Opposition motion calls on the Government to stop using the European Union as an excuse for their own inaction. It asks them to support a more effective response to the dumping of Chinese steel, which threatens to decimate UK steel production. It calls on the Government to take tougher action to secure a level playing field for our industry.”
“Far be it from me to suggest that the Government should operate outside EU state aid rules; I simply do not think that they are being sufficiently inventive or creative with the rules as they are at the moment. Had they been more interested, perhaps we would not have had to drag them to the House 14 times to keep the pressure on.”
“Again, I agree. In this moment, we all have to do the most we can to preserve a future for the UK steel industry. Our motion calls on the Government to take tougher action to secure a level playing field for our industry by working in partnership with our European neighbours. As part of the largest economic bloc in the world, Britain is in a much stronger position to stand up to those who refuse to play by the rules of the game, damaging our future economic prosperity and putting at risk the jobs and livelihoods of families in our close-knit steel communities. We need a Government who are willing to make that case by standing up to China.”
“The Government should support the scrapping of the lesser duty rule, which is preventing tariffs from being set at a level that will actually deal with the problem. After months of agitation and a massive increase in Chinese imports, especially to the UK, the European Union has finally set its tariff on a particular product—Chinese rebar—between 9.2% and 13%. Meanwhile, the USA has introduced defensive tariffs of 66%, and they were operating 45 days after the start of its investigation. To work, tariffs have to be high enough to deal with the problem—the EU tariffs are not. It is important to make it crystal clear that we are objecting to blatant and unfair dumping, not to free trade, which the Opposition support.”
“I am coming to that later in my remarks, but my hon. Friend is exactly right: all energy-intensive industries are affected, and ceramics is one of them. If they are accurate, I welcome the media reports from today’s European Union Competitiveness Council, which appears to have agreed that the Commission should accelerate anti-dumping action. I look forward to much more detail from the Secretary of State when he responds to the debate on what that will mean in practice. Until then, we must judge the Government on their actions to date. Our motion calls on the Government to stop blocking reform of EU trade defence instruments, which would enable defensive tariffs to be imposed much more quickly and at a level that would actually prevent imports of unfairly traded steel products from China.”
“My hon. Friend is exactly right: we have to distinguish between free trade, fair trade and unfair trade, and what we face with Chinese steel imports is clearly unfair. Dumping is unfair, and it is threatening the very existence of the UK steel industry. Everyone in the House knows that once steel facilities have gone, they cannot easily be put back. We have to protect our industry’s capacity to exist, and perhaps to do better in future, when world conditions have changed. If we do not bear that in mind, we will lose the lot, and we will regret it.”
“My hon. Friend is exactly right. I could not agree more about the strategic importance of foundation industries, of which steel is a key one.”
“Exactly. My hon. Friend supports his constituents, and he knows exactly what is at stake if the Government fail to protect the fundamentals of this foundation industry.”
“I do not know which planet she is on, but it is clearly not the same one that the rest of us inhabit. The Conservatives have left our economy insufficiently resilient to global threats and not in a high enough state of readiness to seize on future opportunities. If they are to lay solid foundations for our future prosperity as a nation, they have to support our foundation industries. Decisions taken now will chart our economic fortunes for the decades to come. The UK steel industry does not need warm words from this Government: it needs effective action. Our steel communities need it, our economy needs it, and Labour Members demand it.”
“There is no sign that these modest technical changes are making any difference to the awarding of Government contracts to help our domestic industry. Perhaps that is because the new guidance merely states that steel requirements should be “openly advertised” to allow UK firms to compete. Britain’s steel industry needs a real champion in Government, but the Minister excuses the omission of British steel in projects like Hinkley Point C by claiming wrongly that UK steel does “not have this capacity”. I am beginning to worry about her connection with reality, especially after her appearance on “Pienaar’s Politics” yesterday when she claimed that there is no Tory infighting over the European Union and denied that the Prime Minister had attacked the Mayor of London in a speech last week.”
“That is why Labour would also support the Government in going further to develop a materials catapult to drive early-stage investment in this crucial area—an idea that has support from industry and business organisations such as the CBI. Labour Members certainly support it, and I hope that come the Budget we will hear from the Government that they support it too. The Government are always keen on asserting that they have changed the procurement rules as one of the five steel industry asks that the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise blithely asserted during the recent urgent question on 18 January had all somehow been delivered. However, these new rules do not seem to be having any impact on actual outcomes.”
“The Opposition motion calls on the Government to publish a full industrial strategy that is designed to support and grow our manufacturing sector, not just stand by as it is threatened by unfair competition. This should include a proactive procurement policy committed to using British steel wherever possible for publicly funded infrastructure projects and supporting industrial supply chains across the UK. Nothing less will do. In the forthcoming Budget, Labour would support the Government doing more on business rates and exempting new industrial equipment. An industrial strategy must be forward-looking and support our wider industrial base and its supply chains.”
“We already know that the Chancellor continues to be almost embarrassingly desperate to be China’s new best friend, but he must not pursue his infatuation so far that it excuses its unfair trade practices. Granting market economy status to China in the absence of important safeguards would significantly diminish the capacity of the EU to guard against Chinese dumping, which has the potential to destroy the UK steel industry, so it must not be granted until the criteria are objectively met. Will the Secretary of State tell us more about why the Government appear to have made their mind up already on this important issue in advance of the forthcoming assessment by the EU Commission? Surely they are not so intent on cosying up to China that they have left all judgment behind.”
“The Government should be arguing for such duties, not conniving with 15 other EU countries to block them. On granting market economy status to China as part of its ongoing acceptance into the World Trade Organisation, the Chinese Government regard this as an automatic thing, but it certainly should not be. In fact, as many in this House will know, this status is granted only when the economic conditions in the country concerned have developed in such a way that it can be shown that prices and costs are genuine and can therefore be used to determine trade defence disputes. China currently meets only one of the five criteria required for this status to be granted, and yet the UK Government support granting market economy status to China as early as the end of this year. Why is this?”
“The Government objected primarily to the abolition of the lesser duty rule and to giving the Commission the ability to initiate anti-dumping proceedings on its own. Perhaps the Business Secretary will let us know whether today’s apparent agreement changes that stance? If it did, that would be most welcome, and it would certainly be a departure from the recent past. When the Business Secretary was asked, in evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee recently, about the Government’s blocking of reform, he said: “If duties are applied that are disproportionate, it would have an impact, in Britain and elsewhere”. However, Chinese dumping is having a devastating impact in Britain now. We do not need disproportionate tariffs; we need tariffs that will be effective and duties that will prevent the damage caused by illegal dumping.”
“The hon. Gentleman has pointed out that, in some places in Europe, there may exist an industrial strategy, and we could do with one in this country. Far from fighting for the UK’s interests, as they would have us believe they are doing, the Government are actually a leading part of a group of EU countries that have moved to block reform of the lesser duty rule. Let us look at the record to date. The European Commission proposed strengthening trade defence instruments in April 2013 to protect Europe from Chinese dumping. That was endorsed by the European Parliament in February 2014. It was then blocked in the Trade Council in November 2014. It was the UK Government who successfully assembled a group of 15 other EU countries to oppose that crucial reform.”
“We are not calling for protectionism; we are calling for tariffs that prevent unfair trade. When the right hon. Gentleman talks about protectionism, it is important that he distinguishes between dumped and unfairly traded products—which must have high tariffs so that they can be blocked before they destroy our industry—and fairly traded products. We agree with him. We are not against free and fair trade.”
“Well, I am not sure from that answer whether the Business Secretary thought it was fair and proportionate, but at the weekend he said that it “wasn’t a glorious moment”, even though the Chancellor had hailed it as a success. Which is it? It cannot be both. Does the Secretary of State not understand how unfair this cosy sweetheart deal with a company that seems to regard paying its fair share of taxes as a voluntary activity must seem to Britain’s millions of small businesses that are now expected to do their tax returns quarterly and have no opportunity to meet Ministers 24 times to negotiate their own private little tax deals?”