PMQs

Question

I am concerned about the Prime Minister's statement regarding workers needing 'more graft' and potentially losing their rights. The latest figures show that over 7,000 households in my constituency are struggling with child poverty even though they have working parents. Does the Prime Minister believe these families should work harder to overcome their hardship?

Question

I warmly welcome the Prime Minister and ask about measures to assist businesses facing extreme energy price increases. A pub restaurant in my constituency faces a 600% hike to £320k due to high energy prices. Will her plan for tackling the energy crisis also support hospitality businesses crucial to local communities?

Question

I congratulate the Prime Minister on becoming PM and ask whether she still opposes windfall taxes as mentioned during her leadership campaign. Given this position, does it mean she will not introduce such a tax despite its potential for funding important initiatives?

Question

I thank the PM for her previous response and address the issue of excess energy profits. With a projected £170 billion surplus, who will shoulder the cost of an energy price freeze? Will she allow these vast profits to remain untouched, shifting the burden to working families?

Question

I look forward to tomorrow's statement but note that un-taxed excess profits will increase borrowing. This unnecessary borrowing is the real cost of protecting oil and gas companies at the expense of working people who will have to repay this debt for years. Is this her true choice?

Question

Mr Speaker, her first act as PM is borrowing more than necessary due to non-taxation of excess oil profits. On this point, how much will the proposed corporation tax cut benefit companies?

Question

It is extraordinary that the Prime Minister is not only refusing to extend the windfall tax but choosing to hand the water companies who are polluting our beaches a tax cut. She is choosing to hand the banks a tax cut. Add it all together, and companies who are already doing well are getting a £17 billion tax cut while working people pay for the cost of living crisis, stroke victims wait an hour for an ambulance and criminals walk the streets with impunity. Families and public services need every penny that they can get.

Question

The Prime Minister claims to be breaking orthodoxy, but the reality is that she is reheating George Osborne's failed corporation tax plans, protecting oil and gas profits, and forcing working people to pay the bill. She is the fourth Tory Prime Minister in six years. The face at the top may change, but the story remains the same.

Question

First, may I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on her successful campaign to become our party leader and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? It is right and proper that the Government focus their attention on rising energy costs for households across the country, but businesses big and small are exposed to horrific energy price increases with no restraint provided by the domestic energy price cap and no support so far from Government. For the sake of businesses in west Cornwall and on Scilly, the jobs that they provide and the economy as a whole, what can my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister do to ease the energy costs that our businesses face?

Question

I am sure that the thoughts and prayers of everyone in the House will be with the families caught up in the terrible shooting over recess in Kyle and Lochalsh, and indeed in Liverpool. I trust that the families will be fully supported. Let me congratulate the Prime Minister and her family on her appointment, but I am sorry to say that her reputation for straight talking is falling apart at the first PMQs. After nine questions, she has still not told us who will pay for her energy plan. Today, the public are waiting to find out the response to the economic crisis, and they want answers. Will she finally answer two very simple questions? Will she freeze energy prices at their current levels, and will that be paid for by a windfall tax—yes or no?

Question

On her first full day as Prime Minister, she has failed to rule out—[Interruption.]

Question

May I, too, warmly welcome my right hon. Friend to her seat as Prime Minister? Scottish Power, Bulb and E.ON are just three of the many energy suppliers that say they provide 100% renewable electricity, yet constituents of mine in West Dorset are baffled that the energy regulator allows those prices to rise on a par with oil and gas. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that she is on the side of the consumer in her energy policy, which we will hear about tomorrow?

Question

The Prime Minister should know by now that many people in the north of Ireland are starving and freezing in their homes. We need a tailored solution for Northern Ireland, but that is much harder to achieve because the Democratic Unionist party is refusing to form a Government at Stormont. The new Prime Minister has a choice to make: she can either be on the side of the DUP or on the side of struggling people in Northern Ireland. So whose side is she on?

Question

May I congratulate my right hon. Friend and welcome her to her position as the third female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Can I ask my right hon. Friend why does she think it is that all three female Prime Ministers have been Conservatives?

Question

I, too, congratulate the Prime Minister on her appointment. Inflation is at a 40-year high; the NHS is on its knees, with 6.6 million people waiting for treatment; thousands of victims of sexual offences and violent crime are waiting for justice—not to mention the passport delays, a summer of chaos in our airports and our beaches covered in sewage. The Prime Minister has served in every one of the Conservative Governments responsible for this mess, so why should the British public trust her to clean up the mess that she has helped create?

Question

All sides of the House should wish to help the Prime Minister to be successful in tackling the problems facing the country. When I raised one of them in July with the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), he said that I could talk to the Housing Minister, but the Housing Minister retired within 17 minutes of hearing that. [Laughter.] Will this Prime Minister look at why the Planning Inspectorate is able to overturn councils' planned protections for green lungs? And will she look at what is happening to the Goring Gap in relation to the A259 in the Worthing West and the Arundel and South Downs constituencies, because local councils have no role if they cannot protect what matters most to them?

Question

According to the Prime Minister's new Deputy Prime Minister, one of the things that qualified her most for being PM, and was one of her greatest achievements, was the reintroduction of beavers. Now, I am all for the beavers, but given her flip-flopping on Brexit and her inability to understand global affairs, how can constituents of mine, such as Waz Abbas, whose energy prices will go from £7,000 to £37,000 a year, or Broadtex in Livingston—its prices will go from £50,000 to £250,000 a month—have any faith that she can tackle the oncoming humanitarian crisis? Is she going to come out of her den in No. 10 and take real action, or is she going to be as useless and corrupt as her predecessor, who has rocketed off to somewhere in the Pacific?

Question

May I warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend and welcome her to her place, but may I also wish her the very best with the heavy responsibilities that she now bears? Around 1.5 million households across the countryside rely on heating oil in order to keep their homes warm and cook their meals. They have faced price rises of around 130% in recent months and they are not part of the energy price cap. As rumours abound about what tomorrow's statement may hold, will she confirm that those 1.5 million households—many of them in rural areas such as my constituency—will be specifically included in any mooted ideas about an energy price freeze?

Question

Hon. Members may be familiar with the work of Bo'ness firm Ballantine Castings, an iron foundry in operation since the 1820s that in recent years has done much work around the parliamentary estate. Without the protection of an energy price cap, this specialist SME is witnessing unaffordable costs, with bills rising from £13,000 to £120,000 per month. Heavy energy users face a disproportionate burden and clearly need more support than other businesses. What will the PM do to protect our strategically important and energy-intensive industries?

Question

May I congratulate the Prime Minister on her appointment and tell her that I know my constituents want her to succeed at a difficult time? Outside the immediate challenges of energy and inflation, levelling up remains a priority for them. One way to demonstrate her commitment to levelling up would be to choose a town such as Crewe to host Great British Railways. Will she ensure that levelling up is at the heart of that decision?

Question

I am concerned about the lack of support for the new Prime Minister from both the British public and within her party. The people in my constituency are not supportive of her role given her involvement with previous policies that failed many. Will she now do the right thing and call a general election?

Question

I congratulate the Prime Minister on her position and thank her for previous support regarding Doncaster Sheffield airport. Will she write to South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard and Peel Holdings chairman John Whittaker using her full authority to ensure the airport remains open?

Question

I welcome the Prime Minister to her role. During her campaign, she noted poor ambulance service in Norfolk, similar concerns exist nationwide. Will she commission the Care Quality Commission to investigate and address these issues before winter?

Question

I welcome the Prime Minister to her role. September marks Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, with cancer still the leading cause of death among children under 14. Will she commit to publishing a 10-year cancer strategy that embeds a childhood cancer mission?

Question

The Prime Minister knows from her time as Children's Minister that children living in cold, damp houses are more likely to fall seriously ill. Child poverty has been rising under previous Governments. Can she solemnly pledge that no child will go to bed in a cold, damp house this winter due to unaffordable heating?

Question

It is standard EU practice to play for time when it cannot get its way in UK negotiations. Will the PM confirm that her preferred option is a negotiated settlement, but if this fails, we will proceed with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill?

Question

After 12 years of Conservative leadership, the NHS struggles with high waiting lists and other critical issues. Can she explain why we should trust her to deliver improvements?

Question

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on her appointment and recognise her determination to address urgent challenges, including an almost entirely unregulated online environment. Will she assure me that the Online Safety Bill will return to this House soon?

Question

The Prime Minister has led a Government who have let down vulnerable children for 12 years. Given the need for a total reset, will she commit to publishing the Government's response to the independent review and an action plan before year-end?

Question

I would like to congratulate my right hon. Friend on her new position and wish her success. Can I ask her now to renew her commitment to rolling out “The best start for life” programme, which aims to give every baby the best chance at leading a fulfilling life?