Debate on the Address

Debate between Brandon Lewis and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 9th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I make two points to the hon. Lady. First, she may not believe that the national loan guarantee scheme is big enough, but it is £20 billion of lending. That is far bigger than anything contemplated by the previous Government. Secondly, the Merlin agreement did secure additional lending to big and small businesses; lending went up. As ever, the shadow Chancellor is wrong.

As well as introducing vital measures such as banking reform and the Financial Services Bill, the Government’s mission is to help families who work hard and do the right thing. We have cut fuel duty and frozen council tax and we are lifting 2 million people out of tax. In the coming months people will see more. There will be a benefit cap so that people cannot get more on benefits than the average family earns; there will be higher tax thresholds so that hard-working families keep more of their money; and our pensions Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech, is set to deliver a £140 basic state pension that will massively reduce means-testing and reward those who work hard and save hard all their lives.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

Was the Prime Minister as disappointed as I was that the Leader of the Opposition again refused to support the benefits cap, which is already at a level above the average wage of people in Great Yarmouth who work hard? Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the Government will continue to make sure that it will always pay to work?

[The Prime Minister]

I have to say that this was about the only interesting point in the Leader of the Opposition’s speech. When he is asked very clearly whether he supports a benefit cap and whether he thinks it is right that people can get more than £26,000 a year on benefits, his answer is that it is just fine—carry on claiming. That is Labour’s message to the hard-working people of this country.

As the Leader of the Opposition covered so little of the detail, for the benefit of the House I want to run through some of the Bills in the Queen’s Speech and the steps we are taking. One thing we are doing is helping the most vulnerable of all in our society—children who do not have a family, who are stuck in the care system and who, in too many cases, have been left there for too long. That is why we are legislating on adoption, as set out in this Gracious Speech. We are going to publish detailed information on how councils perform, setting clear time limits for cases to get through the courts and making it illegal to turn down an adoptive family on the basis of race. We say it is time to end the patronising, politically correct prejudice that says that black parents cannot bring up white children and that white parents cannot bring up black children. It is time to make the system colour blind.

Ministerial Code (Culture Secretary)

Debate between Brandon Lewis and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Monday 30th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do not accept that, because I think that we have done right by S4C and that broadcasting in Wales is a great success. Let me just make this point, which perhaps will get some all-party agreement. All media companies have their great causes and lobbies, and I would say, after seven years of being leader of the Conservative party, that one gets as much pressure from the BBC, from regional newspapers and from other papers about things that they are concerned about. It is worth putting that on the record.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

Having had a statement less than one week ago, and with the facts having remained unchanged since then, does the Prime Minister agree that, rather than listening to flip-flopping from the Leader of the Opposition, we should remember that just a week ago he himself said, quite rightly, that we should let Leveson do its job?

[The Prime Minister]

That is exactly what the right hon. Gentleman said. Let me just remind him. He said:

“I think…it’s right that the Leveson Inquiry takes its course.”

That is what he said—just a week ago. The trouble is that he was bounced by the deputy leader of the Labour party, who thought that this issue would get a good headline, 23 minutes after the evidence had come out, and because he has no judgment he backed it.

Public Confidence in the Media and Police

Debate between Brandon Lewis and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 20th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

On the first point, we have the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is independent of the police. There are two questions, both of which my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has addressed. First, we must ensure that it has the resources and ability to investigate the police, and secondly, we must look at whether we call in an outside police force swiftly enough when there is evidence, or allegations, of wrongdoing so that people can see that the process is being carried out effectively.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

Last week we heard an impassioned speech by Gordon Brown in which he outlined his concerns about hacking and his desire for an inquiry. However, in yesterday’s Select Committee evidence we heard that he had never raised that subject, despite a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch. Will the Prime Minister help me to reconcile those two issues?

[The Prime Minister]

I am afraid that I cannot, but I think that the evidence speaks for itself.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Brandon Lewis and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 12th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

Q10. Great Yarmouth has been approved as one of the pathfinder schemes for GP practitioners. The local health teams are excited by the prospects that that offers. What support can the Government give to ensure that we deliver successfully on this project?

[The Prime Minister]

I am delighted that my hon. Friend’s constituency is taking part in the pathfinder project. Those people who say that somehow NHS reform is being introduced in one big start are completely wrong: 25% of GPs are going forward to make this work. There is huge enthusiasm among GPs to get this moving, and I think that it will show real benefits in patient choice. What I would say to everyone in this House is this. The idea that somehow there is a choice of a simple life—where we do not reform the NHS, and when we have rising drug and treatment bills and, frankly, a record in this country of not being ahead in Europe on cancer, stroke and heart outcomes—is not sensible. It is right to go ahead with this modernisation. It will be this coalition driving it forward and the Opposition just digging in and defending an unacceptable status quo.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Brandon Lewis and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 15th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise this specific case, and I will go away and look at it. In the Budget, while we did make difficult decisions, and some spending reductions were made, we actually put some money back into college building projects because so many schemes had suffered from the overspending and lack of control over the past couple of years. I will certainly look at her case and see whether a Minister can meet her to see what progress can be made.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

In Great Yarmouth, one of our Labour legacies is that we still have one of the more deprived wards in the country. Will the Prime Minister outline the plans he has to deal with one of the legacies he has inherited, which is the shocking breach in the achievement levels of deprived schoolchildren?

[The Prime Minister]

There are many things we need to do to tackle deprivation. We have spoken today about the importance of tackling long-term unemployment and joblessness that goes back through generations. Clearly, one of the other things is making sure that children from less well-off backgrounds are getting access to the best schools available. My right hon. Friend the Education Secretary has announced this week how we are going to try to help children on free school meals to get access to the very best schools in our country, and we want to expand the number of good schools by allowing academies and free schools to go forward. I hope that Labour Members will back those plans. The problem we have is that there are not enough good school places. It does not matter how many different schemes are devised for lotteries or anything else for getting kids into good schools, we need more good school places, not least in Great Yarmouth.