Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 8th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Of course what my hon. Friend says is right. I am very sorry I will not be able to attend the prayer breakfast, because I know it is a very good event, and it brings a lot of people together and means a lot to Christians around our country. On the point she makes about the Prevent duty being misused, I have not heard of that exact example, but it is clearly ludicrous. People do need to exercise some common sense in making these judgments, because it is quite clear that that is not what was intended.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q12. Every day, around 6,000 people—many of them children—take on new caring responsibilities, providing unpaid care for an older or disabled family member or friend, yet many carers tell me they feel abandoned by everyone, including the Government. In this Carers Week, will the Prime Minister pledge that his Government will do much better for the 9,500 carers in my constituency, and the 6.5 million carers across the country?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 4th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a very important issue. A local group of Down’s syndrome parents came to my constituency surgery on Friday and made all these arguments to me. As a constituency MP, I am taking this up with the Department of Health to make sure that all the right processes are followed. There are moral and ethical issues that need to be considered in these cases, but on the other hand we also have to respect the view that women want to have screening and testing about the health of their children, and we should be in favour of maximum transparency, on the basis that this is optional rather than mandatory, but it is part of routine care. So the Health Secretary is going to have to find a way through this, but, above all, we must make sure we go about it in the right way.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q4. Nifco UK manufactures components for Ford and Nissan cars and employs hundreds of people, including many from my constituency. I am sure the Prime Minister knows of the need for us all to get behind our manufacturing industry, but does he agree with Nifco’s managing director, Mike Matthews, that it would be “business suicide” for the UK to leave the European Union?

[The Prime Minister]

I think we should listen to all the business voices, particularly those in manufacturing, so many of whom say that we are better off in a reformed European Union. We get an enormous amount of investment, particularly from Japanese motor industries. I will be welcoming the Japanese Prime Minister here to the UK tomorrow, when I am sure this will be on the agenda.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 14th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right. In Stevenage, unemployment has fallen by 24% over the past year, which shows that our long-term economic plan is working. Every single one of those people is not just a statistic, but someone who has the dignity, security and peace of mind of a pay packet to help them and their family. Increasing the number of apprenticeships is a vital part of our long-term economic plan. We have seen 1.7 million new apprentices under this Government and are aiming for 2 million. We need to do more to encourage small and medium-sized firms to take on apprentices, but the work is going well.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q4. There has been a 61% increase in the number of working families claiming housing benefit in the Stockton borough. Is that not further proof that the jobs that the Prime Minister claims to have created are generally low-paid, part-time and zero-hours contract jobs that do not pay enough to meet the rent?

[The Prime Minister]

In the Stockton North constituency, unemployment has fallen by 23% over the past year. If the hon. Gentleman looks at the unemployment figures, he will see that the number of people in part-time work who want full-time work has fallen as, increasingly, people are able to find the full-time work that they want. Of course there is an increase in the number of people who are in work and claiming housing benefit, because there is an increase in the number of people in work. That is what is happening in our country—we are getting the country back to work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 30th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for that beautifully and brilliantly crafted question about the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. It is a moment of celebration not just here in Britain but across the world, where Shakespeare’s works are gaining a wider understanding and distribution. I will not attempt quotes such as those that my hon. Friend brought out in his question, but I would say to any politician that if they read Henry V’s speech before Agincourt and it does not inspire them and drive them on, I cannot think what will.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q4. When will the Prime Minister publish the regulations to introduce standard packaging for tobacco products and ban smoking in cars when children are present?

[The Prime Minister]

I cannot pre-judge the Queen’s Speech, but we have said that we want to take action on this front and we will.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a very important issue. Everyone wants to see more research and better outcomes for prostate cancer. May I personally praise him for that magnificent growth on his top lip? I have noticed the number of my colleagues, and others on these Benches, suddenly resembling banditos. It is not something that I am fully capable of myself, so I am jealous of that. It is an important campaign. Better diagnosis, better knowledge and better information are all vital to beat prostate cancer.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q2. The Prime Minister once said that he wanted to see rising living standards for all, not just rewards for those in high finance. Why, then, are real wages down by more than £1,600, while bank bonuses are up by 83%?

[The Prime Minister]

What we see happening is that because we are cutting taxes, disposable income went up last year. What we have done is lift the first £10,000 that people earn out of tax altogether. That is worth £700 for every person who pays that tax. That is something that the hon. Gentleman should welcome. In addition, we have frozen the council tax, cut the petrol duty, and helped in all sorts of ways with families’ income—every single step opposed by Labour.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. The Government strongly support credit unions and think them a big part of the answer to the problems of payday lending. We have invested £38 million in credit unions and want to see them expand. Also, for the first time, we are properly regulating payday lending through the new regulator and are prepared to consider all the steps that can be taken to sort out this problem.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q5. Today is universal children’s day, and the Prime Minister will be aware that Save the Children has highlighted the importance of early years in children’s development. Does he accept that the closure of three Sure Start centres a week is undermining the life chances of countless needy children?

[The Prime Minister]

I would challenge the hon. Gentleman’s figures. Whereas the pot of money for children’s centres was £2.3 billion in 2012-13, it is going up to £2.5 billion in 2014-15; there are 3,000 children’s centres open; and as I said, only about 1% have closed, so I think the Government have an excellent record on this front.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron)]

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Alex Cunningham]

Because of this Government’s incompetent management of the NHS, 256,000 patients were forced to wait in the back of ambulances because accident and emergency departments could not admit them. Why does the Prime Minister think that the best way to deal with this is to fine hospitals £90 million for his Government’s failure?

[The Prime Minister]

This Government are putting £12.7 billion extra into the NHS—money that would be cut by Labour. Because of that extra money and because of the reforms, waiting times for in-patients and out-patients are both down, hospital-acquired infections are right down, and mixed-sex wards have almost been abolished in our NHS. That is a record we can be proud of.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 20th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am sure my hon. Friend is right about Bedford’s leadership in all things. He makes an important point, which is that we need to see more small businesses start and more enterprise. We have seen in Britain over the last three years the fastest rate of new business creation in our history, but we need to see more of it to keep the private sector going.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q8. Rising unemployment remains an issue in my Stockton North constituency. Is unemployment and recession, which grind hard-working families and the most vulnerable into the ground, a price worth paying for next month’s obscene tax cut for millionaires?

[The Prime Minister]

If the hon. Gentleman looks at the figures today, he will see that there are 131,000 more people in work over the last quarter. We have seen 600,000 more people employed compared with a year ago. That is what is actually happening in terms of employment. I have to say, when we look at the mess we were left by Labour, being given advice on economics on Budget day from Labour is like asking Enron for accountancy advice.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 30th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend can tell from the response his question has received that the concern he expresses is shared widely around the House, and, I would argue, widely around the country. The previous Government and this Government have both worked to try to increase some of the penalties associated with drivers who end up killing people through their recklessness and carelessness. I will look carefully at what my hon. Friend has said and arrange for him to have a meeting with the Justice Secretary. It is important that we give our courts a sense that when there are appalling, extraordinary crimes, they can take exemplary action. That is important in a justice system.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q12. On the subject of food safety, can the Prime Minister confirm that traces of stalking horse have been found in the Conservative party food chain?

[The Prime Minister]

Somewhere in my briefing, I had some very complicated information about the danger of particular drugs for horses entering the food chain, and I have to say the hon. Gentleman threw me completely with that ingenious pivot. The Conservative party has always stood for people who want to work hard and get on, and I am glad that all of my—all those behind me take that very seriously indeed.

European Council

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Monday 22nd October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are getting slightly ahead of ourselves. We need to use the development of the European Union to seek a fresh settlement. There must then be fresh consent for the fresh settlement. There is time to elapse before that can happen because of the immediate firefighting in the European Union, and we can go on discussing it between now and the next election.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

We have heard a lot today about protecting British interests, but will the Prime Minister set out how he expects to protect those interests from being harmed by closer European fiscal integration, when he did not even guarantee us a seat at the table for the negotiations?

[The Prime Minister]

My view is that it is inevitable that the eurozone countries will have to integrate further. As a country that is not a member of the eurozone, we must recognise that if those countries are to have a working single currency, they will have to make some changes. I therefore do not think that it would be right to stand in the way of everything that they need to do to build a currency that works. However, as that goes ahead, it is important that we safeguard our interests as a member of the European Union and, as I have said, seek a better settlement for the future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 18th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

There are a few occasions when I think that my hon. Friend does need a bit of a sense of humour.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

12. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman argued last week that rich individuals were avoiding tax by giving to charities which “don’t, in all cases, do a great deal of charitable work”.Can the Prime Minister name any of these charities?

[The Prime Minister]

The figures I gave earlier show that last year 300 people earning over £1 million in our country got their rate of tax down to 10%. Of course we must protect charities and encourage philanthropic giving, but we need to make sure that rich people are paying their fair share of taxes. I would have thought that that principle had some attraction in all parts of the House.

EU Council

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Monday 12th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I completely agree with that. We are members of the European Union, and that membership has not changed; nor have the treaties that govern the single market.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

We all know that an ill-prepared Prime Minister failed to build the alliances and friendships to ensure that Britain’s best interests were protected in Europe last week. What will he be doing on his days off, when the leaders of the other 26 EU nations are sitting around a table, working hard and discussing economics that affect countries both inside and outside the eurozone?

[The Prime Minister]

What I will be doing is sorting out the mess that the hon. Gentleman’s party left when it left office.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are committed to doing exactly that, and my hon. Friend is right to raise this issue. I think that proper immigration control and welfare reform are two sides of the same coin, and this Government are committed to controlling immigration properly, but also to putting British people back to work. The two work together.

Today, we have announced that, in terms of the illegal immigration that comes through the student route, more than 450 colleges will no longer be able to sponsor new international students, because they were not properly established to do that. Those colleges could have brought in more than 11,000 students to the UK to study each year. That is just one example of how this Government are living up to their promise to get a grip on immigration.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q7. Does the Prime Minister agree with the vast majority of people that smoking should be banned in vehicles when children are present, and will he encourage the Government to adopt the contents of my ten-minute rule Bill, which aims to put an end to it?

[The Prime Minister]

I do think the smoking ban is right. I have to admit, as a former smoker, and someone who believes strongly in liberties and who did not support it at the time, that the smoking ban has worked, and I think it is successful. I am much more nervous about going into what people do inside a vehicle. I will look carefully at what the hon. Gentleman says, but we have to have a serious think before we take that step.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 14th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 14 September.

[The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron)]

This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others and in addition to my duties in this House I shall have further such meetings later today.

[Alex Cunningham]

Grieving families on Teesside are waiting many months and sometimes many years to have inquests into the deaths of their loved ones concluded. Apparently that is much longer than the wait anywhere else in the country. They have suffered enough. Will the Prime Minister stop the messing about now and instruct the Justice Secretary to sack the incompetent Teesside coroner?

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly look at the particular case that the hon. Gentleman raises. As he knows, we have been reforming coroner services and putting money and resources into them to try to make them more effective, but I shall certainly take up the individual case that he makes.

Public Confidence in the Media and Police

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 20th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend has been extremely brave, if I may say so, Mr Speaker. As Parliament is going into recess for six weeks, perhaps that will be long enough for everyone to forget what he has just said. He is right, however, to say that we should focus as well on what is happening in the eurozone—and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and I are holding a series of meetings to make sure that we get our response right.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Does the Prime Minister agree with the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles), who told “Newsnight” viewers that this scandal was just “a little local difficulty”, so it was okay for the Prime minister to leave the country at the height of the crisis?

[The Prime Minister]

I did not watch “Newsnight”—I do not always catch it—but I think that it is important that the British Prime Minister stands up for British business, British exports and British jobs, and loads up aeroplanes with business men and goes around the world, as I have done, to China, India and Africa. To suggest that because there are issues that you have to answer at home you should cancel a trip like that is talking Britain down, and I think that the Opposition should be better than that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alex Cunningham

Wednesday 12th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly do that. I know that, outside some of the large trade unions that fund the Opposition, everyone wants to have a real celebration for the Olympics, the diamond jubilee and the royal wedding, and I think we should certainly make it easier for people to close streets and have street parties.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

Q3. I also associate myself with the tributes paid to our soldiers who have recently died in the service of our country, including our own Teesside man, Warrant Officer Charlie Wood, a fine soldier and proud Boro football supporter. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and all the families.The Prime Minister’s Business Secretary compromised himself over the BSkyB takeover bid and his Culture Secretary is a declared admirer of the Murdoch empire. Will the Prime Minister now do the right thing and order the Culture Secretary to refer the takeover bid to the Competition Commission?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman is entirely right to pay tribute to the soldier from Teesside, and he spoke about him very movingly.

On the issue of the responsibility for media mergers, there is a proper process that needs to be followed. Ministers have a quasi-judicial role in doing that, and I am confident that the arrangements that we have put in place will ensure that that happens.