Wednesday 2 October.

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and First Secretary of State (Dominic

Raab) I have been asked to reply. My right hon.

Friend the Prime Minister is in Manchester for the Conservative party conference. He

is making, as we speak, the keynote speech, setting out that we will leave the EU on 31

October, so that we can get on with our dynamic domestic agenda.

>> Julian Sturdy: Askham Bog, a world-renowned nature reserve

in my constituency, has been described as “irreplaceable” by, no less, Sir David

Attenborough; yet it is threatened by proposals to build more than 500 houses on adjoining

land. Will my right hon. Friend put in a good word with the Prime Minister to ask him to

join me in lying down in front of the bulldozers to save that important piece of natural heritage?

>> Dominic Raab: I thank my hon. Friend. I always put in a

good word with the Prime Minister on his behalf, and I share his passion for preserving our

precious natural habitats. Local community views are of course incredibly important to

the local planning process; that is what our revised national planning policy framework

provides. He will understand that I cannot comment on individual planning applications.

>> Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab):

Yesterday marked the start of Black History Month, so I will begin by paying tribute to

a young woman already making history this month. Dina Asher-Smith became the first British

woman in 36 years to win a sprint medal when she won silver at the 100 metres in Doha.

Tonight she aims to go one better in the 200 metres—and I am sure the whole House will

wish her well.

>> Mr Speaker: I think that was a preface to a question.

>> Ms Abbott: If I may continue, uninterrupted!

Last week, my hon. Friend the Member for Dewsbury (Paula Sherriff) raised the very specific

issue of how many of the hundreds of abusive and violent messages that she receives use

the Prime Minister's own words. The Prime Minister dismissed those concerns as simply

“humbug”. Since that exchange, my hon. Friend has received four further death threats,

some again quoting the Prime Minister's words. Women across this House experience

death threats and abuse. Will the Foreign Secretary take the opportunity to apologise

on behalf of the Prime Minister for his initial dismissive response?

>> Dominic Raab: I thank the right hon. Lady for her question.

My eagerness to rise to the Dispatch Box was because, in Black History Month, as she becomes

the first black MP to take to the Dispatch Box for PMQs, it is only fitting to say that

she has blazed a trail and made it easier for others to follow in her footsteps. That

is something in which I and every hon. Member in this House can take pride in paying tribute.

The right hon. Lady raises the increasing level of online and wider abuse that politicians

from all parts of the House get, and we should come together to be clear that there must

be zero tolerance of any abuse or any threats. May I also say that I have found the level

of abuse that she herself has received online to be totally disgusting and totally unacceptable.

At the same time, I am sure that, as a passionate champion of free speech, she will defend our

right in this House to defend the issues of substance. The remarks that the Prime Minister,

my right hon. Friend, made were aimed at the suggestion that he could not describe the

surrender Act in such terms. It is absolutely clear, given the substance of the legislation,

that it would achieve that and undermine the ability of the Government to go and get a

deal in the EU, which on all sides we want to achieve.

>> Ms Abbott: So, we can take it that there is no apology

from the Foreign Secretary. I raised the very specific point that my hon. Friend the Member

for Dewsbury made about the abuse she gets that uses the Prime Minister's language.

Deliberately disturbing billboards showing unborn foetuses have been put up in the London

borough of Walthamstow. They are upsetting for women walking past, but particularly upsetting

for my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy), because these billboards

are targeted at her in response to her work to decriminalise abortion in Northern Ireland.

Abortion in Northern Ireland should be decriminalised on 21 October. What will the Foreign Secretary

do to ensure that, from later on this month, women in Northern Ireland will have the same

human rights to legal and safe abortion as women in England, Wales and Scotland?

>> Dominic Raab: The right hon. Lady has referred to the hon.

Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy) and the abuse that she has received, which I and

all Members of this House, I know, believe is totally unacceptable. There is a place

for free speech, but we should never allow that to cross over into abuse, intimidation

or harassment of hon. Members from all parts of the House going about their business. The

most important thing that we can do on the specific issue that the right hon. Lady raises

is get the institutions in Northern Ireland back up and running so that they can exercise

their rights, their prerogatives, on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland.

>> Ms Abbott: I notice that the Foreign Secretary has not

said anything about those horrific posters—they are not posters that anyone would want to

see, particularly someone who is pregnant, as is my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow.

Last week, Labour reiterated its call to end the rape clause, which forces women to fill

out a four-page form to prove their child was born of rape in order to get financial

help. Will the Foreign Secretary today back Labour's pledge to remove the abhorrent

rape clause from universal credit?

>> Dominic Raab: I would say that we have looked at this issue

and we continue to look at it. On the subject of using inflammatory language, it is incumbent

on Members in all parts of the House to be very careful about it. I know that my right

hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions is looking

at this matter and will continue to take questions and scrutinise it very carefully, so that

we get the balance right. I gently say to the right hon. Lady that Labour wants to abolish

universal credit and engage in an open spending spree on handouts. That is the wrong thing

to do—trapping people in the welfare trap. On our side, we want to help those people

from the poorest backgrounds get into work, and our record speaks for itself.

>> Ms Abbott: How much more dismissive can the Foreign Secretary

be of people and families dependent on benefits? We are not talking about a spending spree;

we are talking about a system that is fair and just, and which does not subject people

to undue humiliation.

Last week, the 100-year-old travel company Thomas Cook went out of business. We know

that 72% of its workers are women. We also know that, although Governments around the

world stepped in to save Thomas Cook subsidiary companies in their own countries, the UK Business

Secretary thought that this was not her job. Can the Foreign Secretary explain to those

workers, some of whom are with us today, why their Government sat idly by?

>> Dominic Raab: First, we did not sit idly by. The Government's

efforts, co-ordinated by the Transport Secretary, to ensure that the holidaymakers and travellers

who were caught overseas could be returned back to the UK, have been very effective and

required a huge amount of cross-Government work, including in my own Department. On whether

the Government should have stepped in to bail out Thomas Cook, it is very clear from looking

at the financing that such a step would not have rendered the company more sustainable

and would not have saved jobs in the long run. We are, of course, concerned to ensure

that we have a sound economic base in the long term. We have created 3 million new jobs

in this country since 2010, and will continue with that. What we are not going to do is

routinely bail out companies that are unsustainable. That is not the right way to go about this.

>> Ms Abbott: Nobody is asking the Government routinely

to bail out companies. We are asking the Government why they will not even meet the workers.

Whether it is women Members in this House, women claiming benefits, women's reproductive

rights in Northern Ireland or the failure to support women workers at Thomas Cook, is

not this a Government letting women down?

>> Dominic Raab: On this side of the House, we are proud to

be on our second female Prime Minister.

>> Mr Speaker: Order. The Foreign Secretary has embarked

on his answer. I want to hear it, and I think the House and everybody else will want to

hear it as well.

>> Dominic Raab: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Members on the Labour Front Bench are pointing to my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead

(Mrs May). Well, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my right hon.

Friend for her accomplishments in tackling human trafficking, for her accomplishments

and drive to tackle violence against women and for the domestic violence Bill that we

will be introducing in the House today for further debate.

>> Ms Abbott: The Foreign Secretary has not mentioned the

fact that there are over 600,000 more women and girls in poverty now than in 2010. I gently

say to him that I was a Member of this House when Tory MPs defenestrated the first female

Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, and I was a Member of this House when the Tory MPs worked

their will against the second female Prime Minister. It seems to me that Tory Members

of Parliament may on occasion make women their leaders, but they need to learn— They need

to learn how to treat them less cruelly.

>> Dominic Raab: The right hon. Lady mentions Margaret Thatcher.

I gently say to her that if she wants to talk about treating women better, she might have

a word with the shadow Chancellor, who talked about going back in time to “assassinate”

Margaret Thatcher. That is not appropriate language from the Opposition.

The right hon. Lady talked about Labour's record. Let me remind her that female unemployment

rose by over a quarter because of Labour's economic mismanagement, and now Labour wants

more debt, more borrowing and higher taxes. On our side, we are proud: female unemployment

at record lows, a higher percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards and a record low gender

pay gap—lower than under the last Labour Government.

>> Ms Abbott: rose—

>> Mr Speaker: Order. I believe I am right in saying that

the shadow Home Secretary has had her six questions. [Hon. Members: “More!”] There

will be more.

Margot James (Stourbridge) (Ind): Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that legislation

to establish a tough independent regulator of internet companies empowered to challenge

the automatic right to anonymity online should be a priority for the Queen's Speech?

>> Dominic Raab: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We want

to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online for our children, but also for

all members of our society. Our online harms White Paper set out our plans to make companies

more responsible for their users' safety online, especially children, and also sets

out measures to reinforce powers to issue fines against those who put them at risk.

>> Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP):

It is a disgrace that the Prime Minister is not here. Since he was elected in July, he

has been to only one Prime Minister's questions. Quite simply, he is running scared from this

Chamber.

Right now the Prime Minister is setting out his Brexit fantasy at the Tory party conference—a

deal that he knows is unacceptable and doomed to failure. When this deal fails, as Tory

Members know it will, Downing Street sources have insisted that the Government will not

seek an extension. They will not obey their legal obligations. Yet again, this Prime Minister

is prepared to act unlawfully. Has the Prime Minister not learnt his lesson? He is not

above the law. Can the Foreign Secretary confirm whether those sources are correct that the

Prime Minister will not obey the law? Are this Government seriously planning to take

on Parliament in the courts to force through a catastrophic no-deal Brexit, or will the

Foreign Secretary now rule that out?

>> Dominic Raab: Of course this Government will always adhere

to the law. The Prime Minister has written to Jean-Claude Juncker setting out our proposals.

We want to take forward the negotiations. We want to avoid a no-deal scenario, and I

would urge the SNP, rather than undermining the negotiations in Brussels, to try and support

the Government in securing a deal that is good for this country. The right hon. Gentleman

talks about respecting judgments. We will always respect legal judgments. I call on

the SNP to respect the judgment of the people of Scotland when it comes to staying in the

United Kingdom and the judgment of the people of the United Kingdom to give effect to the

referendum on the EU.

>> Ian Blackford: “We will always respect legal judgments.”

The fact is that this Prime Minister cannot be trusted, and his Foreign Secretary cannot

even commit the Prime Minister to the letter of the law. This Government must be stopped.

I am looking now to colleagues on the Opposition Benches, and I urge them: we must unite. We

must stop this Prime Minister by removing him from office. The Scottish National party

stands ready to bring this Government down. Other parties need to step up at this moment

of national crisis—prepare a vote of no confidence, ensure a Brexit extension, prevent

a no deal and call a general election. Doing nothing is not an option. We must act. So

I ask the Foreign Secretary: will he give the Prime Minister a message from the Scottish

National party? It is not a case of if but when: we will bring this dangerous Government

down. The right hon. Gentleman is at risk of sounding like he is all mouth and no trousers,

because he had the chance to vote for a general election and he turned it down; he had the

chance to avoid no deal; and the best chance now is to back this Government in securing

a good deal—good for the United Kingdom and good for all quarters of the United Kingdom,

including the people of Scotland.

>> Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): On Saturday, I was out knocking on doors with

my listening team, listening to the views of local people, as we do every week. The

message to me, whether they were leave or remain voters, was crystal clear: get Brexit

done by 31 October. Deputy Prime Minister, can you reassure my constituents that we will

leave the European Union by the end of this month, come what may, no ifs, no buts?

>> Dominic Raab: My hon. Friend gets straight to the crux of

the matter. We must leave by the end of October, come what may. We are committed to doing that.

The most effective way of doing it that will unite this House and bring the country back

together is to get behind the Prime Minister's efforts to secure a good deal. I think it

is incumbent on all Members on both sides of the House to support the United Kingdom

rather than try to undermine the negotiating position in Brussels.

>> Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab): Housing, I believe, is the first of the social

services; without it, we cannot have education, productivity or health. The NHS has a diagnosis

code for inadequate housing. The Department of Health wrote to me saying that poor housing

costs the NHS £1.4 billion a year, but that figure is now four years old. Will the Secretary

of State ensure that the Department of Health writes to me with the most up-to-date figures