- Liberal Democrats: PM must not ignore defence concerns about Huawei deal
- Liberal Democrats: Sacking Northern is just the first step
Liberal Democrats: PM must not ignore defence concerns about Huawei deal
Responding to reports that Boris Johnson has defied his Defence Secretary by allowing Huawei to help to build Britain’s 5G network, Liberal Democrat Defence Spokesperson Jamie Stone MP said:
Boris Johnson must not ignore the Defence Secretary’s concerns. There are legitimate human rights and security issues associated with this move.
Three of our Five Eyes allies, the US, Australia and New Zealand, have already blocked the Chinese firm in full or in part due to security concerns. We ought to be working with these allies to assess the risks arising from Huawei’s bid.
Any Government decision that makes the work of our armed forces and security services more difficult is reprehensible. It is vital that decisions made by the Prime Minister are not detrimental to the security sharing of the Five Eyes Alliance.
Liberal Democrats: Sacking Northern is just the first step
Responding to news that Northern will be taken into public ownership on 1 March, Tim Farron MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the north of England, said:
I am delighted that my calls to ‘Sack Northern’ have finally been listened to by this Conservative government. For far too long, people across the north of England have suffered a substandard service.
However, this is just the first step on a long road to improving the trains across the north. The Conservatives must now reverse their cancellations of the electrification of the Lakes Line and the Trans-Pennine line. It must press on with HS2, while increasing transparency and accountability of this project.
It must also approve the new Northern Powerhouse Rail between Manchester and Leeds and publish the Williams Review, implementing its recommendations as a matter of urgency.
Sacking Northern will not fix the problems with our railways overnight and Liberal Democrats will continue to hold the Tories to account on their delivery of rail services across the north and the rest of the UK.
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3 Comments
The failure of rail services in the north should clearly be laid at the door of the government and Liberal Democrats should not conspire with the Tories to point the finger at Northern. At the time the franchise was awared to Northern the government via the Dft made a number of clear commitment which would have to be met if Northern were to have any chance of providing the required service. Electrifying the network,completing the round Manchester link, making sure that Platforms 15 and 16 were provided at Manchester Piccadilly and the provision of new rolling stock. The Dft is perfectly transparent in identifying that it have failed to provide that which it promised to provide. You must be careful not to let the Government off the hook by joining in the condemnation of Northern.
Tim Farron does say that the Govnt has to step up and admit its pasted failures ie electrification of lines.
@n Hunter – so do the LibDems, remember they were in the room in 2010 which decided the country’s spending priorities and on this case on rail projects, voting to delay solid business cases for investment in the rail infrastructure whilst voting for the continuation of the HS2 vanity project. A question for Tim (and the LibDems) is given the monies spent todate on HS2 is what has been the economic benefit has been achieved todate, given the stated priorities for assessing spend in those meetings…