we now come to the leader of the opposition kia starman
thank you mr speaker can i join the prime minister in his comments about windrush uh
and can i pay tribute to everyone who is serving and has served in our armed forces
can i also pay tribute to everyone standing for election tomorrow
in particular the plucky conservative candidate for wakefield he's standing even though his own
colleagues think he's so useless they held a vote of no confidence in him
does the prime minister just does the prime minister hold any personal interest
in seeing if the public will vote for a tory that even his own side don't think is up to it
well mr speaker i have absolutely no doubt uh that the people of this country and the
people of wakefield people of tibetan and hollister would much rather vote
for a solid conservative government for a labour party they're enablers and acolytes in the liberal
democrats mr speaker the chameleons the karma chameleons of british politics when the leader
of the labour party hasn't even got the gumption mr speaker to speak out against the rail strikes
for the people in the north of this country up and down this
absolutely unbelievable silence from the leader of the labour party mr speaker
he's obviously not been to wakefield recently he's crashed the economy
he's put everybody's tax up the last tour he's sent up to wakefield being convicted of a sexual
assault that's not much of a pitch prime minister talking of people not up to the job whilst the
transport secretary spends his time working on his spreadsheet tracking the prime minister's
unpopularity thousands of families have had their holiday flights cancelled it takes forever to
renew your driving license or passport and now we've got the biggest rail strike in 30 years
if he's genuine about preventing strikes will the prime minister tell this house how many meetings
he or his transport secretary have had with rail workers this week to actually stop the strikes
mr speaker this is this is the government that loves the railways that invests in the railways
not not 96 billion pounds we're putting into the integrated railway plan building not just
i'm proud of bill crossfirel by the way mr speaker and we're going to build northern powerhouse rail
but what we've got to do is modernize our railways and it is a disgrace when we are planning to make
sure that you don't have ticket offices that sell fewer than one ticket every hour mr speaker so he
yesterday had 25 labour mps out on the picket line out on the picket line to fight the obstructions
i want to hear the proudest answer even if you don't i think you ought to show some respect
for the prime minister prime minister out on the 25 and and the shadow deputy leader out on the
picket line uh mr speaker backing the strikers mr speaker while we back the strivers mr speaker
on win rush day we celebrate all those who have made scotland in the uk their home my party
backs calls for a major commemoration for the 75th anniversary next year so we can properly
mark the value contribution that those that came here have made mr speaker this morning
it was revealed that uk inflation is now at a 40-year high families right across these islands
are seeing their income squeezed as prices rise bills soar and tory cuts in tax hikes hammer home
after 12 years in government the tories have left the uk economy in the doldrums and pushed
millions of people into poverty so can i ask the prime minister does he think his government bears
any blame for the fact that the united kingdom is doing so much worse than our european neighbours
actually mr speakers i think the whole house knows and the whole country knows we've got a global
inflationary problem but this government has the uh the fiscal firepower to to deal with it uh
mr speaker and that is i think of benefit to the whole of the united kingdom including uh scotland
as we've seen uh throughout the uh pandemic and there's a i think it's a matter of fact that taxes
are actually highest of all uh in scotland him blackfoot well well actually that is that is not
true mr speaker but of course the prime minister the prime minister can make all the excuses he
likes but the fact is the uk economy is lagging behind on his watch actually if he looks at france
inflation is less than six percent there this morning's report from the resolution foundation
and the london school of economics is the latest in a string of devastating reports on the outlook
for the uk economy the report could not be clearer the tory government's disastrous brexit is driving
wages down pushing and pressing up and will make us further over the next decade but instead of
reversing course the prime minister is recklessly threatening a trade war at the worst possible time
will he finally come to his senses and negotiate an economic agreement with the eu or is he going
to willfully willfully push the uk into recession mr speaker nobody wants a a trade war nor is there
any need for one but i think uh he's absolutely i'm afraid he's underestimating what this
country is currently achieving not just the madana investment but a record venture capital investment
in this country uh which has now overtaken uh china mr speaker as a venue for a venture
capital investment and not to say nothing about what we're getting in tech and that of course
mr speaker uh the benefits of that are being felt throughout the whole of the united kingdom
speaker tens of thousands of people were marching through london last weekend
for testing against this out of touch government rail workers are on strike
royal mail workers nhs workers teachers and even barristers are on the verge of taking industrial
action all workers are struggling to cope with the worst cost of living crisis in history
ministers are planning to boost city bosses pay whilst demanding wage restraint for everyone
else so can the prime minister tell me when is he going to stop meaningless sound bites and instead
start supporting working people across our country if she if she wants to support the
working people of this country mr speaker can i suggest she gets off the picket line
and supports the track and support and has a word with her leader
mr speaker it supports the traveling public of this country who want to see a reduction
in their cost of transport which this government is delivering