EU Referendum: Webchat with Amber Rudd MP, Monday 20 June at 8.30am

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Amber Rudd MP on Monday 20 June at 8.30am. Amber is campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU.

Amber is the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. She has been the Conservative MP for Hastings and Rye since 2010. She says her focus for the constituency has been on ‘job creation, business investment, reducing unemployment and keeping the cost of living as low as possible’.

She also helped to organise Parliament’s cross-party inquiry into unplanned pregnancy, to which Mumsnet members contributed evidence, and which recommended better access to contraception and more sex and relationships education in schools.

Before Parliament, Amber worked in finance, then moved into specialising in recruitment and writing for financial publications.

The EU referendum will be held on 23 June.

Please do join the chat on Monday, or if you can’t make it, please leave a question here in advance. And do bear in mind the webchat guidelines - one question each only (follow-ups allowed if there’s time) and please do be polite.

Thanks
MNHQ

@Caron2015

A group supporting girls adversely affected by the HPV vaccination has had a very bad experience with the European Medicines Agency when last year their Safety review of the vaccination resulted in a blatant cover up. A complaint from a group of Cochrane scientists has been submitted to the EMA, such was their shocking handling of the safety review.

Butting heads with the EMA has highlighted that the EU organisations and agencies are beyond reproach - there is no transparency and their meetings are shrouded in secrecy and not properly minuted. The process is unfathomable, even for our MEPs and it;s virtually impossible to find out exactly who is accountable and where the buck stops.

This is quite possibly exactly how most EU agencies work - I can't get my head around why anyone would defend this way of governing and why you find it acceptable that patient safety is being decided in this manner. Perhaps you can tell me who is accountable at the EMA?

Have you spoken to your MP? They should be able to help you get through the obstacles you are encountering.

(oh and thanks for your answer to my previous question Amber!)

shinytorch, sure, excuse the generalisation, but in this case it comes down to the same thing, since the Norway model is incompatible with a skills based points system

@Lottielo

Hi Amber

My concern is that if we vote to remain we'll just get more of the same, or be forced into ever closer union because the EU will think that we won't leave anyway.

Actually, we have a specific opt-out from ever-closer union. The member states in the Eurozone accept that we will never be part of it. The truth is, we have the best of both worlds, by having our own arrangement as part of the EU. We would be foolish to give that up - we need to work within the EU to make it work for us here. Leading, not leaving.

Thanks for answering Amber. The National Living Wage is a concern too though because it will make this country even more attractive to those from overseas and that could mean problems with unemployment.

I'm in the undecided camp at the moment.

@TresDesolee

Hi Amber

Not a conservative voter myself but I think you're a good MP (in a #thankyourMP spirit - not that you're mine)

If you had been PM, would you have called this referendum?

We needed to have this referendum. The debate may be fractious at times, but only because people feel so strongly about it. It's not just politicians but plenty of people up and down the country have been getting involved in this debate.

Thank you for your kind comments!

@snowysnowstorms

Hi Amber

What's on your schedule for Friday? How might your day be affected by the outcome of the referendum?

Thank you.

Well we will all be affected by the outcome on Friday. And between now and then I will be flat out continuing to make the case. But actually, my diary is already pretty full for Friday - an average constituency day in Hastings and Rye.

Thank you so much for your very interesting questions. I must go now and persuade some more people (I hope) to vote Remain on Thursday.

Thanks, Amber.

Thank you!

If an EU family from a poor country in Eastern Europe arrive in London with their three little children all under the age of seven, and the father goes to the job centre and registers as looking for work. Their money runs out and after 10 days they are wandering the streets - all homeless - desperately seeking accommodation for their young family and themselves.
IS IT TRUE that because the father is SEEKING work (although he has no job as yet) the family will receive financial help and accommodation from the UK ?
This is an actual scenario with a real family that was followed on a TV documentary a couple of weeks ago. The family were told that they could not be housed in London but they were supported by the state and within a couple of weeks were allocated a newly refurbished 3 bedroom terrace house in Birmingham.

Thanks Amber, keep on keeping on

Thanks Amber, and thanks Mumsnet for organising.!

Thanks Amber!

Lanchester I think that the father of that family had been in England for a few weeks before and had been claiming Jobseekers and he only returned to Romania for a week or two to collect his family, so he retained his status as a 'worker' because he had been signing on. Therefore, on a technicality, the DWP were obliged to provide the family with Housing Benefit, JSA, Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit.

Had he not retained worker status, Social Services would have stepped in and given the family accommodation and money. They have a duty to protect the children. The programme tried to imply that the family were homeless, but this would never have been the case (although it could have been if they did not have children and had not retained worker status).

I am mightliy relieved to hear that the thing that Amer dislikes about the EU is that ther are insufficent women in senior ioles. Persinally, I find the fact that it entered into people-smuggling and paying ransoms to Turkey to stop the flow of migrants far more dislikeable.

Also hugely relieved to hear that Amber is a firm believer that it's the old and medical advances that are placing pressure on our hospitals and not the additional 330,000 extra migrants to the UK each year, that it must now treat. Evidently our elastic hospitals cater nicely for these additional people.

Also very relived to hear that planning is underway to meet increased demand - when we have no idea what future demand will be and its up to the same organisation that has a £billion black hole in its funding and is facing cuts, to provide these extra hospitals

Planet Rudd seems like a nice place to live on. The planet I live on appears to have no practical strategy to deal with the very real issues its ordinary inhabitants are experiencing

David Cameron yesterday on television (Question Time Special at 6:45 pm yesterday) said that people arriving in the UK can NOT claim benefits unless they ALREADY HAVE a job .........
so it seems that DC was not telling the truth ?

Thank you for your response, it didn't answer my question but thank you for replying.

TresDesolee Amber is my MP, unsurprisingly I didn't vote for her.

This is one of the reasons I would disagree with your thoughts about her being a good MP.

Fracking U-turn

So if someone is 'signing on' does that makes them a 'worker' ?

It seems if they are signing on they may be entitled to benefits (like some or all of the "Housing Benefit, JSA, Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit" package outlined by Lottielo in her posting above)
Presumably it would be unfair
and also against EU freedom of movement of labour regulations to try to prevent EU nationals from registering as looking for work (i.e. 'signing on')....
So how can David Cameron claim that EU Nationals "cannot arrive here in and immediately claim benefits"?
This is an important claim made by him to sway the electorate ...but is it true?

David Cameron yesterday on television (Question Time Special at 6:45 pm yesterday) said that people arriving in the UK can NOT claim benefits unless they ALREADY HAVE a job .........
so it seems that DC was not telling the truth ?

21,000 EU migrants can to the UK last year with no job.

They can claim benefits if they are out of work because it is illegal under EU to discriminate against any EU citizen on the grounds of their nationally. In the yes of the EU we are all EU citizens

Lanchester there have been some changes to the rules on JSA so that now a migrant has to have been resident for 3 months before being able to claim. I think the Romanian guy had been here for a number of weeks and had a bit of work washing cars before returning to collect his family. Therefore, he had 'worker' status and retained this whilst he left the country for a short period. This meant he could claim all those benefits mentioned above on his return.

David Cameron failed to answer the question asked about a duty of care towards children. Accommodation and living costs will always be given to families by social services even if they've only been here for a very short time because they have a duty to protect the children. The difference is though that after a year or so they will be looking at offloading that duty (so will want immigration to get involved or the DWP).

So if someone is 'signing on' does that makes them a 'worker' ?

That was the test the Council applied in the Channel 4 programme about social housing and determined that it did.

It seems if they are signing on they may be entitled to benefits (like some or all of the "Housing Benefit, JSA, Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit" package outlined by Lottielo in her posting above)

Yes. Free school meals, medical and dental care, free prescriptions. If the family finds work it can move to Working Tax credit. David Cameron said in his ITV and Sky interviews that some EU migrant families can receive £10Kpa in in-work benefits.

^Presumably it would be unfair
and also against EU freedom of movement of labour regulations to try to prevent EU nationals from registering as looking for work (i.e. 'signing on')....
So how can David Cameron claim that EU Nationals "cannot arrive here in and immediately claim benefits"?^

At present he can't. Under his 'special deal' is he says he has nogotiated with the EU a deal that means that EU migrants will not get any benfits for the first 3 months and the amount they get will incraese to the full arte of benefits over 4 years. However, this ;agreement' has yet to be agreed by the European Parliament. Cameron said last night that they had effectively been squared away and agreement had been reached. I am not so sure. It woudl be embarrassing if we've voted on a special deal bit Cameron finds the EP rejects that deal or waters it down.

This is an important claim made by him to sway the electorate ...but is it true

I'd say he was economical with the truth trying to say it was 'no benefits for 4 years' when it was FULL benefits after 4 years but some benefits earlier.

BTW the benefit rules do not require a person to have been working legally. A cash in hand job is perfectly acceptable, although of course it would be difficult to prove.

I have never known an EU migrant to be denied benefits. On the odd occasion, when there is a problem with claiming JSA, they would be advised to claim ESA (too unwell to work....often dealing with the DWP causes a lot of stress). Families, of course, would get help from Social Services.

Definitely he has been economical with the truth. Poland will vehemently oppose any changes to benefits.

If we vote to remain, the other EU countries can basically do what they like for now, including opposing his supposed deal on benefits which is pretty worthless anyway IMHO.