Jobs, 130 at the facility in forest and i have no doubt a launch of the uk on a path to ever greater presence in the global satellite market. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Prime Minister announced a series of changes that none of us wand to see to keep the violence as low as possible and residents are concerned and anxious. Would the Prime Minister reassure my constituents the primary focus of the government remains on protecting lives and livelihoods. My honorable friend can reassure his constituents that our purposes and the purpose of the package that i think would carry overwhelming support yesterday in this house is to continue to drive down that number while keeping businesses open and keeping children keeping people in school. Leader of the opposition. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Three months ago today, the Prime Minister said test and trace can be a game changer for us. He was backed up by the Health Secretary who said finding where people who test positive are is the single most important thing that we can do to stop the spread of the virus. Yesterday the Prime Minister said the complete opposite. Starting there, he said testing and tracing has very little or nothing to do with the spread or transmission of the disease. Both positions cannot be right. Which one is it, Prime Minister . Mr. Speaker, it is an obvious fact of epidemiology that alas this disease is transmitted by human contact or ar sol contact but its one of the advantages of test and trace which we did not have working early in the pandemic. We didnt have it in the spring and the result is that we now have the ability to see in granular detail where the epidemic is breaking out, which groups are being infected. Thats why weve been able to deliver the local lockdowns and thats why were able to tell now at this stage that it is necessary to take the divisive action that we are in which i think he supports to drive the virus down, keep kids in school and keep our economy moving. Thats the point, mr. Speaker. So why yesterday did the Prime Minister say that testing and tracing had very little or nothing to do with the spread or transmission of the disease . Mr. Speaker, i hesitate to reprove the gentleman for a not listening to my previous answer. I gave a very, very clear answer. The answer is, it is simply an epidemiology fact that transmission of the virus takes place by a human contact from person to person. What test and trace enables us to do is to isolate the cases of the virus which we werent able to do before. And thanks to the efforts, many thousands of people, nurses, doctors, young people, members of the Armed Services, we now have were not only testing more capacity testing more than any other country in europe, but capacity today is at a record high and i think you should pay tribute to their work. Mr. Speaker, i listened to the answer that the Prime Minister gave the questions. Thats why i asked him the question. Yesterday, he said the complete opposite of what he said today. Everybody who was in the chamber, everybody will see it. And he talks about testing. Mr. Speaker, can i remind the Prime Minister that last week before the lcommittee that testing has huge problems, the Health Center said fixing testing would take weeks, pretending there isnt a problem is part of the problem, Prime Minister. Its unclear lets test what the Prime Ministers explanation is. Is it the explanation for the problems that we havent got enough the problem it says which problem . The problem that he acknowledged one week ago before the committee. Mr. Speaker is the explanation from the Prime Minister that we havent got enough capacity because nobody could have expected the rise in demand, thats the harding defense, or is it weve got all of the capacity we need, its just that people are being unreasonable in asking for tests. Thats the hancock defense. Which is it . I think the attacks by the opposition on harding in particular are unseemly and unjustified. And i think the and i think her teams have done an outstanding job in recruiting people. This is not for a moment to deny the to deny the anxiety of those who want tests which i readily accept. Of course, of course we would love to have much more testing and it is thanks to the efforts of nhs test and trace that we arent not only at a record high today, testing more people than any other european country, but to get to the point that he raised, were going to go up to 500,000 tests by the end of october. That is the work of harding and her team and i think actually again, what we want to hear, and what i frankly want to hear, is more of the spirit of togetherness that we had yesterday. This is an opportunity to support nhs to support test and trace. Instead, he constantly knocks it from the sidelines, mr. Speaker. Theres a little bit of rowdiness coming from here. And we have a little bit from this side. I want to hear the Prime Minister. When i cant hear the Prime Minister, i worry about the people who are watching the proceedings. If you have further comment, speak to me afterwards. Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister knows my complaint is not with the nhs, its with the government. My wife works for the nhs. My mother worked for the nhs so im not going to take lectures from the Prime Minister on supporting the nhs. The Prime Minister says we got capacity, goes on and on about capacity. Lets test that. Three weeks ago, millions of children went back to school. Thats a good thing. Then the inevitable happened. Kids get coughs, bugs, flu. Thats what happens. Its in the job description. But theres no effective system in place to deal with it. Many cant get tests quickly, schools allocated ten tests, many wait days for the results, the outcome is obvious, child and siblings off school, and year group off school. How on earth did we get into this mess . Mr. Speaker, he knows perfectly well that or he read the advice from the four chief medical officers that theres a small risk to children of primary and secondary school age from this disease. He knows that children have a significantly less lower rate of infection, thats all in the letter that they published today. But he also knows, he also knows that were doing our best to get every child a test who has symptoms and further that thanks to the efforts of teachers in this country, of parents, peoples, 99. 9 of our schools are now back in spite of all of his attempts, i may say, throughout the summer to sow doubt on the idea that schools are safe. The people of this country had more commonsense, mr. Speaker. Such a poor defense. Thats such a poor defense. The point isnt whether the children the point isnt whether the children have got covid, its they got covid symptoms and then theyre off school. The governments own department shows that 1 in 8 children are off school this week. That disrupts their education. Whether its covid symptoms or other symptoms, its nothing to the point. If the primaries doesnt see that, hes out of touch with families and what theyre going through in school day in and day out in the last few weeks. The reality is, losing control of testing is a major reason why the Prime Minister is losing control of this virus. As a result, hes phasing in health measures, restrictions that we support, but hes phasing out economic support. Health measures are out of sync. There could be no avoiding the crushi crushing blow new measures will bring. They go hand and hand with clarity on the business support to protect jobs. Why wasnt that announced yesterday . Mr. Speaker, lets be absolutely no doubt that the work this government has done to protect the economy of this country, to support the jobs of 12 Million People through overall expenditure of 160 billion pounds has been unexampled anywhere else in the world and i think he should pay tribute to the chancellor and his work and we will go forward with further creative and imaginative schemes to keep our economy moving. And that is the essence, mr. Speaker, of the plan, of the proposals that we he talks about he supported them last night or yesterday, mr. Speaker. I hope he continues to support them. The essence of what were saying, mr. Speaker, is that we want to depress the virus but keep pupils in school and keep our economy moving. That is the single best thing we can do to support firms across the country. Mr. Speaker, im not asking about the support that was being put in place in the past. We support that. Im asking about the support thats needed now particularly in light of the restrictions announced yesterday. Mr. Speaker, this is not theoretical. Yesterday 6,000 jobs were lost at one of the major employers in the hospitality sector. The cbi, the trade unions, the federation of small businesses, the British Chamber of commerce, the government of the bank of new england, theyre calling on the Prime Minister to stop and rethink, support the businesses affected, dont withdraw furlough. When is the Prime Minister finally going to act . Mr. Speaker, these are indeed tough times and i have no doubt that many businesses, many employees are feeling a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty and we will do our best to protect them throughout this period. But we will get through this, mr. Speaker, by precisely the methods that we have outlined and that were agreed on in this house. I think the what the reality of the position has been exposed. The cat is out of the bag. It was his shadow education secretary who said of the present crisis, she said, dont let a good crisis go to waste. Thats the real approach of the labor party, mr. Speaker. Seeking to create political opportunity out of a crisis, out of the difficulties and changers this country is going through while were taking the tough decisions, the tough decisions to get this virus down, to keep our Education System going and keep our economy moving. He supported it yesterday, i hope he will continue to give it his support. Mr. Speaker, local football clubs are hugely important to our communities. Many sports, clubs around the country have found their hopes of welcoming fans back to stadiums next month have been dashed. Given the football leagues, they assured me that theyll do Everything Possible to support these club and is the communities that rely on them too. Mr. Speaker, i know what a passionate supporter you are. I can tell him the secretary of state for culture, media and support is active consultations with clubs across the country to see what we can do to help. Thanks, mr. Speaker. Last night the Prime Minister and leaders of the government announced restrictions at stopping the number of covid cases reaching a predicted 50,000 a day by midoctober. But there are other major threats that we face this october. Theres another set of numbers that all of this is at the tory government. 1 million jobs at risk if furlough ends early. 30 billion a year billed to the taxpayer from a nodeal brexit. And today we learned 7,000 trucks queueing for days. Mr. Speaker, if those numbers become a reality, the Prime Minister is leading us into another winter of discontent. Mr. Speaker, our first minister has shown leadership at all fronts during this pandemic. However the responsibility and powers for extending the scheme rely with the Prime Minister and the chancellor. The Prime Minister must announce an extension, no half measures, no halfbaked projects, to this vital and life saving scheme. I notice that both the leader of the party and opposition support an extension of the furlough scheme. Thats what thats what he said. What we will do as i said throughout is continue to put our arms around the people of this country going through a tough time and come up with the the appropriate creative and imaginative schemes to keep them in and work and keep the economy moving. Thats the essence of our approach. Thats so poor, mr. Speaker. What were talking about is protecting the jobs of people today. Its not a definite and nobody, nobody, Prime Minister, has asked for that. Mr. Speaker, the first steps to any recovery is admitting that there is a problem. Even the governor of the bank of england is telling the Prime Minister to stop and rethink. The solution for millions of people right now is an extensio minister, of the scheme beyond october. The alternative is putting jobs in scotland at risk. Yesterday the only reassurance the Prime Minister gave those scottish workers was saying he would throw his arms around them. Prime minister, i can tell you the last thing those 61,000 scotts are looking for is a hug from you. They need the security of knowing they can hold on to their jobs and incomes for themselves and their families. Time is running out. Workers are facing it today. Will the government instruct the chancellor to extend the furlough scheme and stop 1 million workers being sold into the scrap heap by this government . What i can certainly tell him is of course the furlough scheme has been extended until the end of the october. There should be no doubt about that. As i said before, we will continue to provide the best support we can possibly give to keep people, get people new jobs are being created, mr. Speaker get people into work. I can imagine he doesnt want a hug from me, but that was a metaphor, mr. Speaker. And perhaps its physically incarnated by the 12. 7 billion pounds of consequentials were seeing come from the uk to support people across the whole of our country. I suspect you might get a vote from andrew bowen. Not in present company. The leader of the scottish party, we voted this week and last to protect 500,000 jobs enshrined scotlands most important market, our internal uk market. Why does my friend think the s p did not support this bill . Spl speaker, i have no absolutely no idea. Its baffling. This is a bill that underpins a massive transfer of powers back to scotland from brussels, from brussels, about 70 powers and prerogatives go back to scotland which they would throw away again, as, mr. Speaker, they would throw away again the entire beautiful glistening whole of the uks or scotlands spectacular marine wealth, scotlands fisheries straight back to brussels. Thats what they want to do. Caroline lucas. Thank you very much mr. Speaker. Last week an, aresvp report government failing to reach 17 out of 20 targets it had signed up to. Theres a major un summit next week. It is a vital moment to put this right and to show real leadership. Now the eus summit aims to protect a minimum 30 of land and sea for nature by 2030. Will the Prime Minister commit now to at least match that goal, 30 of land and sea for nature by 2030 and deliver the forthcoming Spending Review . Chief, the honorable lady cant be unaware that the campaign to get the worlds leaders to sign up to a leaders declaration, mr. Speaker, was led, has been led over the last few weeks by this government. And it is this government you know that. She knows that, mr. Speaker. Its this government that devised the charter. Its this government thats leading the world and protecting biodiversity. We put in the funding. We pioneered the idea and we will certainly put in all the funding required. Mr. Speaker, theres varying concern across the country about the rising number of illegal crossings across the channel. In order to stop these dangerous journeys, to save lives and to protect our borders, the uk must deter people from making these crossings. The law in this area is complex. Can you assure the constituents and the country that the latest bill to deal with the problem will be brought before the house following the next speech. Hes completely right that the legal position is currently very difficult because of the influx of rigid dublin regulation for returns. Whats happening now, people think theres a way that is legally very difficult. Its tragic for those coming across in rubber dinghies or childrens paddling pools, cheated by gangs as they are. We must find a way of doing this once we are out of the eu, able to make our own return arrangements, able to settle our own ln i have no doubt well find a way forward. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I hope respectfully the Prime Minister isnt having problems with his memory because just yesterday, can i remind him we just had a recent exchange where metaphorically you promised to put your arms around the british people and support jobs and the economy. Now we know that the cbi and the tuc, businesses and unions, employees and workers, and now even the bunt of england are united in a call for a targeted expansion in the covid Job Retention scheme. And make no mistake, theres a tsunami of job losses in the pipeline within 38 days. So, will the Prime Minister please listen to that advice and take urgent action . Id like a yes or no answer. I think the honorable member is gravity of the situation. Although it is true. This is very, very difficult, very, very difficult circumstances. Thats why weve put in the support that we have. Thats why dont forget theres the Job Retention bonus at the end of the year to help firms to keep people in employment. But also thats why were looking at a massive package now of investment in jobs and growth in the medium in the short medium and the long term. And you look at the 2 billion pound Kick Start Fund that weve already put in place, about 640 billion pounds of investment overall in infrastructure. And what i can tell the house is in addition to the package that i sent out yesterday, as i said earlier on, there will be creative and imaginative measures from the chancellor to help people through this crisis. Thank you very much, mr. Speaker. Prime minister, like you, one of my top priorities, improving education and spending opportunity across dublin and the west country. I welcome the 1 billion School Program which will help refurbish 50 schools next year. The high school in my constituency is currently in a flood zone, but we do have permission to build a new school and move out of the flood zone. So, the governors and the council are backing the scheme. Could i make an early bid for the high school, could you back us to have a new school in the rebuilding program to raise the aspiration and the opportunity for the great young people . Well, mr. Speaker, the cause of education could have no further advocate than my honorable friend, and i can tell him although the first 50 schools, the first 50, the first 50, have not yet been announced, i know my secretary of state of education will have heard that powerful cry. And i have no doubt he will be answered. Mr. Speaker, does he understand as long as these powers are reserved, its the government that has to meet the costs that come with the pandemic . So, he can either do that by extending the Job Retention schemes, especially for those who are excluded or sectorspecific support, or he can pay the longterm price of longterm unemployment, increased social security, and all the damage that comes to the economy and the society with it. So, which of those is it going to be . What is his vision for Building Back better . I think i thank the honorable man. Simply its to keep doing what we have been doing and intensify our support for every part of the union from space ports, mr. Speaker, to backing our Armed Services throughout the whole of the uk to investing in our health care. That is what we will do. The overall consequences as i said so far are 12. 7 billion pounds. And we will continue we will continue to provide that support, mr. Speaker. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I was part of the pilot to let fans back into football. Its disappointing the reopening has been postponed. With the many clubs and sports facing real threat to their viability with no fans coming into the grounds, we look at Sports Recovery Fund to ensure their viability in their place at the heart of the communities. Prime minister. Mr. Speaker, it grieves me to see football clubs, mansfield, others, not able to go back in the way they want to right now. And i totally sympathize with him and with the fans. I wish we i really wish we did not have to do this now. I really wish we did not have to do this now. The best way, obviously, to get through it is to follow the advice and suppress the virus. In the meantime, my right honorable friend, the secretary of state is looking actively at solutions to help the city and other clubs. Kneel neil gray. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Its clear that doing the right thing to stop the spread of covid 19 is going to have a social, business, and economic impact. Theres full security for those doing the right thing. So, will he do the right thing and look now as a minimum at the support available to businesses, in particular the selfemployed who may need to selfisolate repeatedly or be back in the realm of zero income, extend the following scheme, and ensure the credit uplift is expanded to Legacy Benefits and made permanent . Thank you, mr. Speaker and the honorable gentleman is right in the sense that of course the government is going to come forward with further measures. I dont think that it will be sensible simply to extend the current existing scheme in its present form beyond the end of october. But we will do everything we can to support business systems, support those in jobs and indeed the selfemployed as the honorable gentleman rightly says. Thank you, mr. Speaker. My constituents understand the need for more housing. The majority is green belt land. Residents are quite rightly concerned about the pressures on the green belt. So, can you confirm government is a first government and can you do everything you can to protect the green belt. I certainly can. The green belt is a labour achievement and we intend to build on it. The governments approach is totally different. Our form will not change. Thats what they want odo, mr. Speaker. We will not change existing policy to protect green belt and our housing targets, which are very, very ambitious. Well focus, as he rightly says, on brown field. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Leaving hundreds of leaseholders unable to sell or remortgage their properties. The ews1 forms are not being used as intended and leaving my constituents between riskadverse lenders and irresponsible building owners. They have been waiting three years r will. So, can the Prime Minister tell me what steps he taking now to resolve this really dangerous situation . I thank the honorable lady. I am aware of this problem of people facing real disbondage because of unsafe planning on their buildings. I think it is disgraceful and both acm and hpl planning in my view should come off as fast as possible when we are investing massively to achieve that as fast as we can. I sincerely appreciate the problem she raises. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Told of improvement plans to dangerous junction on the 838, something ive longcampaigned for. But two months ago, the regional director of the southwest port told me this was not going to happen, blaming the change from the old highways agency. Can my right honorable friends tell me when, if ever, the people will finally see shovels in the ground . Mr. Speaker, im grateful to my honorable friend because she gave me advance notice of this question. I think this is a case for project speed, mr. Speaker, and i hope highways england is currently undertalking the safety study of the 838. Well be able to accelerate their work and get on with the junction as fast as possible. Before lockdown, children on Free School Meals finished on education on average 18 months behind their classmates, and the gap was getting worse. Schools closed, and a quarter of these children did less than one hours school work a day. Lockdown was temporary, but the impact could be life long. To help these children catch up, and in the spirit of togetherness invoked by the Prime Minister earlier on, will his government give time for my bill to close the Digital Divide and give children on Free School Meals access to internet in their homes . Prime minister. Well, im very grateful to the honorable lady because shes raising a very important point. And getting kids into school, getting kids back into school, has been the most important objective weve had in the last few months. Im glad its gone underway. Hes right in what shes said about the Digital Divide. Were investing in online education, giving 250,000 laptops and tablets and putting rou routers in schools across the country. That is what were going to do. I want to see a world in which every school in our country has full gigabyte broadband with the equipment that will give the pupils the equipment and the access to the internet that they need. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Would my friend agree that as the uks performing arts are a global gold standard, which are not only the envy of the world but also a vital show case for uk plc across the world, we should treasure it and we should look after that industry. And weve had the furlough and other schemes, Job Retention schemes, but there are those that have fallen through the cracks, and that, mr. Speaker, are the freelancers. We must do something to protect the freelancers, the actors, the costumers, the prop makers. Can we do something to look after those people . Mr. Speaker, that is a very, very important point because obviously the Job Retention scheme has been very, very effective. There are of course people who dont have employment of that kind. Thats why we have given them 1. 57 billion to support the media sectors including the theaters. We will do whatever we can to support the freelancers that he describes because they are the backbone of our theatrical world, which, as he knows, is the jewel in the crown of the london cultural economy. Turning to scotland. Thank you, mr. Speaker, the control of the review of gambling legislation. Is this true . And if so, will number 10 consider all the recommendations made by the appg in the gamble emitted harm and the report published in june . Prime minister. Mr. Speaker, what i can certainly tell the honorable gentleman is that im not the enthusiast for encouraging the spread of gambling in this country. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Like the majority of the British Public i support the restrictions. The Prime Minister said we will get through this. But longterm, there are only three routes after this pandemic. One is to eradicate the virus, two, gain herd immunity, or three, suppress the virus and reduce the deaths until a vaccine or highly effective treatment arise such as being worked on. Will my friend the Prime Minister tell me which one of these three routes is the government taking us . Number three, mr. Speaker. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Only time will tell, Prime Minister, whether the predictions made this week by the medical advisers of deaths and infections of coronavirus have any credibility or whether there is exaggerated as it claims that there will be half a Million Deaths within weeks made at the beginning of the year . What is not in dispute, however, is that the scare tactics being used and the labour actions taken will have an Immediate Impact on the Hospitality Industry and further devastation for the aviation industry. Since the economic consequences are bourn by people, businesses and local economies, will the government make a commitment to first of all retaining continued support for employment, giving resources to devolved authorities to help local economies and suspending to stave off bankruptcies and save jobs . He makes a powerful point of skepticism about the medical forecast. All i can say is that everybody should look at the whats already happened in the first phases of this pandemic and been in no doubt that it is possible that such a thing could happen again. And its precisely to avoid that that we are taking the steps now that we are because a stitch in time saves nine. And there will be far more damage to the economy throughout our country if we failed to control the virus now. We saw obliged to put in seriously damaging lockdown measures that really affected every business in the country. Thats why were taking the approach now. I hope it has the support of him and his party as well. But i can certainly tell him that the advantage of this approach is that it would allow us not just to keep that virus down if we all follow the guidance, if we all do follow the package that weve set out, keep that virus down, but also enable education to continue and our economy to go forward. And of course we will continue to support businesses in Northern Ireland and across the country throughout the period. In order to allow the safe exit, formal members participating in this business and safe arrivals, im suspending the house with three minutes. Order. President trump has a News Conference scheduled today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern, and well have live coverage here on cspan3 when it starts. This is a live picture outside the u. S. Supreme court where the late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg is lying in repose. The public is able to pay tribute until 10 00 p. M. Eastern and again tomorrow. Friday, she will lie in state at the u. S. Capitol. The Supreme Court held a Memorial Service for Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg this morning before the public viewing period began. Chief Justice John Roberts was among those who spoke at the service. This is half an hour