Tulip Siddiq: I would like to come back to a point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell). The fairer early years funding plan has created a ticking time bomb for nurseries. Figures revealed by the Secretary of State’s own Department show that 25% of local authorities across the country will lose out financially. I am afraid that her earlier answer will do nothing to...
Tulip Siddiq: I decided to call this debate because I wanted to highlight the cost of living people for disabled people. The truth is that disabled people should be able to learn, work and live independently without facing a financial penalty. Unfortunately, however, that is not the case. Whether because of a huge digital divide, or a wheelchair charge in taxis, or unaffordable social care, disabled people...
Tulip Siddiq: Owing to the lack of time in the debate, I will focus mainly on the causes of the extra costs rather than the well-trodden path of existing support payments, although I acknowledge from the outset that the battle to manage the extra costs is made all the more difficult by the fact that state support is increasingly difficult to obtain. As most people will be aware, the Government are...
Tulip Siddiq: I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. Like her constituent Mary, others want to live independently and not be humiliated in their everyday living, and it is being made more difficult for them. The other point I should add in respect of my hon. Friend’s point is that people who are severely disabled are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to receiving payments. The consequences...
Tulip Siddiq: I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. I have seen real-life instances of what she describes in my constituency. I agree that we need to do more to ensure that Transport for London makes both buses and tube stations more accessible. Indeed, only 4% of the tube stations in London have full wheelchair access. I am proud to say that our station here in Westminster has full wheelchair...
Tulip Siddiq: I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I absolutely agree with him and recognise all the hard work he has done to secure the voices of black cab drivers in his area. Not long ago I was in a black cab with him and the driver instantly recognised him because of all the hard work he has been doing—he did not recognise me at all. My hon. Friend has been championing the voices of black cab...
Tulip Siddiq: The Government’s shocking record on tackling air pollution is well documented, with almost 10,000 associated deaths in London in just one year. Given that the Government regularly flout EU regulations on air pollution even now, what assurance can the Minister give me that once we exit the European Union, they will not simply abandon all legal protection on air pollution in the capital and,...
Tulip Siddiq: In Camden, where I live, the Back to Business and FastForward programmes benefit enormously from the European social fund. Those programmes create a more inclusive labour market employing 400 people in my constituency, many of whom are disabled. Will the Minister outline what plans he has to protect the funding for such programmes, which promote social inclusivity?
Tulip Siddiq: I thank the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for bringing this important Bill forward to the House; I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for all her work in generating and fostering cross-party support for the Bill. The hon. Member for Harrow East has already mentioned the staggering figures for people sleeping rough in London The...
Tulip Siddiq: I note the Minister’s earlier response, but I am sure she is aware that of the nurseries that responded to her very own consultation on free childcare, half said that they were desperately in need of funding and a quarter said that they were not receiving enough money to cover their basic costs. In the run-up to the general election, the Conservative party promised millions of people in...
Tulip Siddiq: I thank the hon. Gentleman for securing this important debate, and I echo what my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) said about the Government’s rhetoric on international students. There are a lot of students in Hampstead and Kilburn, and they are diverse; they make my constituency what it is. The hon. Gentleman talked about international students’ net...
Tulip Siddiq: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones), who opened the debate, for all the work she has done in raising the importance of the issue we are debating. She said at the beginning of her speech that she was not very savvy about technology, but she has done an amazing job, not just by having web...
Tulip Siddiq: I thank the Minister for her contribution, but the source I have, which I believe and which is very credible, says that it is 42% of families, so we will have to figure out who is right. I would just like to point out again that under the Labour Administration in Wales the uptake of Flying Start provision for two-year-olds stood at 86% last year. Labour believes that the Government have...
Tulip Siddiq: I am sorry the Minister seems a bit rattled by what I have said. I am the Opposition spokesperson and I will hold the Government to account and do my duty in making sure that childcare is properly provided to parents; and I want to hear about the funding. The statistic I cited, which the Minister disputed, was from the Family and Childcare Trust childcare costs survey 2016. In England, the...
Tulip Siddiq: Will the Minister give way?
Tulip Siddiq: It is a consultancy.
Tulip Siddiq: My constituent Nazanin Ratcliffe, a British national, is in prison in Iran. She has been separated from her husband and her two-year-old daughter for eight months. She has been on hunger strike and is now suicidal. The Prime Minister needs to reunite this mother, this daughter and this wife with her family. Will it take Nazanin’s death for the Government to start taking her seriously?
Tulip Siddiq: To follow on from the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster Central (Dame Rosie Winterton), the demand for social care services in my constituency is set to rise by 10% in just one year, so will the Chancellor take the opportunity today to commit to additional funding for social care?
Tulip Siddiq: I voted to remain in the European Union, as did 75% of my constituents, so it is not surprising that my inbox has been filled with questions about access to the single market, customs union, immigration, the environment and workplace protections. Perhaps the most pressing issue, which has come up over and over again, is the protection of EU nationals. Forty-six per cent. of my constituents...
Tulip Siddiq: First, I would like to pay a personal tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt). He grew up in the best constituency in the world and went to school in the best constituency in the world, Hampstead and Kilburn. I also thank him for sending me a long handwritten letter after my maiden speech, which was much appreciated by a newbie. I am in danger of...