Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Margot James)]

rose—

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Come on!

[Margot James]

I am glad that the hon. Lady is so keen to hear my answer to this question.

We support small business growth by ensuring that small businesses can access finance and wider support. The British Business Bank is already supporting more than 54,000 smaller businesses with £3.4 billion of finance, and I am leading a taskforce to enable SMEs to accelerate their growth potential and realise their growth prospects quicker.

--- Later in debate ---

[Margot James]

I quite agree with my hon. Friend. That demonstrates the need for all businesses, especially SMEs, to take advantage of our target of 3 million apprenticeships and the huge improvement in the quality of apprenticeships that the National Apprenticeship Service supports.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

T5. Given that the Brexit negotiations are about to start, does the Secretary of State agree with his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister that no deal is better than a bad deal?

[Greg Clark]

Yes, Mr Speaker.