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In yesterday’s confidence vote debate the Prime Minister said: “when you have worked hard all your life, you will get a good pension and security and dignity in your old age”. Not if you are a WASPI woman, and not if you are a couple where only one of you is over pensionable age, because a written statement on Monday showed that there would be a £7,000 pension cut for the poorest elderly couples. I called on the Prime Minister to come to the House and correct the record.

After a month of delay, Parliament finally had a chance to vote on the Government’s deeply flawed Brexit deal. Labour voted against this deal because it does not protect jobs, workplace rights or environmental standards; does not ensure frictionless trade for UK businesses and provides no certainty about our future relationship with the EU. The Government’s own economic analysis shows this deal will make the country poorer – with GDP falling by around 3.9% and every region of the UK being worse off.

I was delighted to attend Les Stockwell (pictured left) and  Noel Kirby’s (right) farewell event in Parliament on Thursday 10 January 2019.

This is a Government without a majority. They are in crisis and in denial about the crisis. The Government have faced two defeats in one week, breaking records. This is the first Government to be defeated on a Finance Bill since 1978. Our constituencies, businesses, the science community, the NHS, security and this House have made it clear that the Government should rule out a no-deal Brexit, yet the Government have refused to do so.

The Government was defeated again in Parliament on Wednesday 9 January 2019 on an amendment to the Business of the House motion on the EU Withdrawal Act by 11 votes. In the event that the Government loses the vote on its Brexit deal next week, the Prime Minister must come back to the House of Commons within three sitting days and MPs will have a say on what happens next.