Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd April 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We need to make it easier for someone to take on their first employee. That is why, this Saturday, we are bringing in the £2,000 employment allowance, which comes into force on Sunday. It means that every business that employs someone will see a tax reduction of up to £2,000. That means that 55,000 businesses will be taken out of paying national insurance contributions altogether. Whereas the Labour party introduced jobs taxes, we are cutting jobs taxes.

[Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)]

Q6. At the weekend, General Sir Richard Shirreff warned that reducing the Regular Army from 102,000 to 82,000 by 2020 would weaken the armed forces and was “one hell of a risk” to take. Why does the Prime Minister think that it is not one hell of a risk?

[The Prime Minister]

It is the right thing to do because what is most important is to make sure that our armed forces have the best equipment of any armed forces anywhere in the world. I have been out to Afghanistan every year since 2006, sometimes twice a year, and I always ask the same question: “Do you have the equipment you need? Is there anything else that you want?” It is under this Government that we have seen real improvements in equipment. Yes, we will have an 82,000 Regular Army. We will also have a larger reserve force, and we are recruiting for that actively, and we will have armed forces and defence equipment that this country can be very proud of.