Cost of Living

Debate between Richard Graham and Sajid Javid

Wednesday 27th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

rose—

[Sajid Javid]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I give way to my hon. Friend.

[Richard Graham]

I am very grateful to the Minister for giving way—he has been gracious throughout the debate. It is appropriate that we follow Madam Deputy Speaker’s advice and listen to him carefully. I would reinforce his point from my experience in Gloucester. Under the previous Government, 6,000 people in business lost their jobs, but since the last election, 3,000 new business jobs have been created and four times the number of apprentices have been employed, and unemployment and youth unemployment are lower. Does the Minister agree that this debate should not be about the cost of living, but be about the cost of having a Labour Government to people with jobs in my constituency?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is right. Hon. Members know—I am highlighting this as much as I can in the debate—just how many lives and aspirations the Labour Government destroyed in their time in office.

The House has just heard the shadow Treasury Minister. His speech was more interesting for what was not in it than for what was. There is no talk today of plan B—[Interruption.] What the shadow Treasury did not mention was predictable. Let me say what it was, because four or five months ago, we heard what he did not say today in virtually every single speech from Labour Front Benchers. We heard no talk today of plan B. I did not hear anyone say, “Too far, too fast.” There was no mention of a double-dip, let alone of a triple-dip, because Labour Members know that there has been only one dip in recent times: Labour’s dip. They have comprehensively lost the economic argument. They have no plan and no answers for the problems they helped to create.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Graham and Sajid Javid

Tuesday 29th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I respect the hon. Lady for caring passionately about this issue. She served as a commissioner on child poverty in London and has considered the issue deeply, so I hope she agrees that there is no sense in having a measure of child poverty that just looks at relative income. It is far more important that we all come together and look at education, jobs and access to health services, and have a proper measure of child poverty if we are to truly eradicate it.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

The Minister is surely right to focus on the most important elements for our young people, which include considerable Government investment in apprenticeships and taking so many people, including many of those apprentices, out of income tax altogether. Four thousand people, including many young people in my constituency, will be taken out of income tax in April. Does he agree that it is extraordinary that no one on the Opposition Benches realises the importance of this measure?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue and the help it brings, particularly with regard to apprenticeships. In fact, in the constituency of the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali), there has been a more than 100% rise in apprenticeships because of this Government.

Beer Duty Escalator

Debate between Richard Graham and Sajid Javid

Thursday 1st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Sajid Javid)]

I congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for Burton (Andrew Griffiths) and for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) on securing what has been an excellent debate, and on the excellent work that they do through chairing the all-party beer group and the all-party save the pub group respectively. I also thank all Members who have contributed to the debate—I, too, counted 20 Back-Bench colleagues—as well as the 104,000 people who have signed the e-petition and all Members who are in the Chamber today.

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the British brewing sector, British pubs and the British people have paid a heavy price for the previous Government’s beer duty escalator? May I urge him to hold a review and then do what Treasury Ministers have done to the previous Government’s fuel duty escalator, which is to stop it? In that way, he will deserve a celebratory pint from all my constituents in Gloucester, a pint of beer from the—

NHS Risk Register

Debate between Richard Graham and Sajid Javid

Wednesday 22nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

rose—

[Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)]

rose—