Anne McLaughlin: I would like to start by acknowledging that the Government are in an unenviable position. This is a tough gig.
Anne McLaughlin: I see that the Health Secretary agrees with me somewhat. Everybody on these islands is tired at the moment, but those making the tough decisions do not have the option to give in to the tiredness. I might not always agree with everything they are doing—I do not generally agree with most of what they do—but I understand that everybody is an expert these days. Some of what the Government...
Anne McLaughlin: I have had less than half the time that the hon. Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth) had, but I thought his speech was great anyway. I want to talk about some other people who have been prevented from working from home—namely, MPs. We can participate virtually in question sessions, and when it comes to voting we can nominate a proxy, but we cannot participate virtually in...
Anne McLaughlin: I thank the Minister for her statement. I am interested in everything that it contains, and I commend her for volunteering to be part of the vaccine programme. I want to raise two issues—possibly three, if I have time. Minority ethnic women are particularly over-represented in frontline care roles, so they are at particular risk of job disruption, as highlighted in a report by Close the...
Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 14 October 2020 on Question 101290 on Pension Credit, how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful pension credit claims there were in each of the last 12 months for which data is available.
Anne McLaughlin: I think somebody else might need to answer this question! It is estimated that there is more than £2 billion out there every year that is the legal right of older people on those islands. Pension credit does not make anybody wealthy, but it can make the difference between the loneliness and misery that poverty brings and the joy of simply being able to engage in life again. Will the Minister...
Anne McLaughlin: I congratulate the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Abena Oppong-Asare) on securing this debate. I have had a number of messages from my SNP colleagues asking me to pass on their congratulations. The hon. Member said that she came to this place to speak for those who barely get a mention; I want her to know that it has not gone unnoticed, and I know that it will mean so much to the...
Anne McLaughlin: Spoken like a true engineer. His highest achievement, however, was that he played for the Scotland football team on three occasions, captaining the side in his first match. Most importantly, Scotland won each game. [Interruption.] The consensus and smiles may disappear in a moment, when I tell the House that the first of those matches was played at the Oval in Kennington, where he led his...
Anne McLaughlin: Maybe we will change the inquiry—I need to speak to the hon. Member for Brent North, but perhaps we will change it to the conscious bias of the SNP against the Tories. [Interruption.] Did I hear Conservatives saying, “Hear, hear”? Thank you. Glasgow University is making reparations for the way in which it benefited from the slave trade. It was the aforementioned Uncle Graham, in his...
Anne McLaughlin: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Anne McLaughlin: I will not go back to what the right hon. Gentleman said earlier because I have forgotten his exact words, but does he not accept that there are different perspectives when it comes to the empire and our role in it? Should those different perspectives be discussed in education and should we be told about them, or should we just have the one perspective that we have now?
Anne McLaughlin: Does the hon. Member accept that there are many people involved in the independence movement who make documentaries and are banging the drum to say that Scotland’s role in the slave trade has been overlooked? We want people in Scotland to be aware of it.
Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what progress her Department has made on bringing section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 into force.
Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with representatives of (a) political parties and (b) civil society groups on the enactment of section 106 of the Equality Act 2010.
Anne McLaughlin: My lovely 88-year-old constituent Mary feels foolish for falling for it. She is talking about being mis-sold green deal products by Home Energy and Lifestyle Management Ltd, a Government-approved company, in 2013. She is talking about being saddled with a 25-year loan that she must live to 106 to pay off. At the speed with which the complaints are being dealt with by the Department for...
Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit claims there were in each of the last 12 months for which data is available; and what the outcome was of those pension credit claims over that period.
Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit claims there have been since the announcement on introducing means-testing for free TV licences for people aged over 75.
Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps Department is taking to maximise uptake of pension credit.
Anne McLaughlin: What assessment he has made of the implications for the strength of the Union of recent differences in UK and Scottish Government policy on international law.
Anne McLaughlin: This House has approved a Bill that allows the democratically elected Scottish Government to be overruled by the right hon. Gentleman’s Government—happy to ignore laws they have not made, happy to break treaties and hungry to take power from everywhere they can. Alongside this appalling level of respect for the law and for Scotland, can I at least highlight one silver lining and thank him...