Oral QuestionCabinet Office

What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's processes for scrutinising nominations for honours.

Tabled: 18 April 2024Answered: 25 April 2024

Asked by

Ruth Cadbury

LabourBrentford and Isleworth

Answering Minister

the Minister for the Cabinet Office

Answer from Hansard

The Prime Minister

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising this matter on behalf of his constituents, so I will speak and his constituents will hear the answer. There was not a plan for the building. It was a pretend plan; it was a fiction. It was unfunded and undeliverable. It only existed in the head of Boris Johnson. There is the frustration for his constituents and I really understand it. They thought—because they were promised—that they were going to get something, which the Conservative party knew was never going to be delivered. That is absolutely unforgiveable. We will pick that up. We have put in place a funded scheme to build as quickly as we can, but it has to be funded and it has to be deliverable. That is the difference between the approach that we are taking and the approach that they took. Of course I will ensure that a relevant Minister meets the hon. Gentleman and his constituents to explain that more fully to them.