Oral Answers to Questions

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

The hon. Lady still has not found anyone apart from herself to take up that slogan. She will know that £25 million of discretionary housing payment was made available specifically to support disabled people who are in adapted accommodation, so that the local authorities do not have to move them. That money is available, and local authorities should use it for the purpose for which it was intended.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

7. What comparative assessment he has made of unemployment rates in the UK and other European countries.

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

17. What comparative assessment he has made of unemployment rates in the UK and other European countries.

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr Iain Duncan Smith)]

The UK currently has the 3rd lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, and it has fallen faster than that of any other G7 economy in the past year. Thanks to welfare reform and our long-term economic plan, businesses are creating jobs, and 1.85 million more people are in work than in 2010. For interest, that is more than the total population of Estonia.

[Bob Blackman]

The Opposition like to ally themselves to France, so I would like my right hon. Friend to inform the House where we stand in comparison with our neighbours in France.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I do recall that the Opposition extolled the virtues of the French Government and what they were doing. It is worth bearing in mind therefore what would have happened if they had followed the French example—which I think they still plan to do. If the UK had the same employment rate as France, employment would be 3.5 million lower in this country. If the UK had the same unemployment rate as France, unemployment would be nearly 1.5 million higher. But there you go—the truth is that every time a Labour Government leave office, they leave unemployment higher than when they arrived.