Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 9th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to highlight the importance of these changes. As a local Member of Parliament, he has a particularly important role to play in promoting them, as he has done for the businesses already taking them up. I encourage him to continue to do that and to talk to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about whether there is more we can do to get that message across.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

T5. Last week, the Chancellor said: “What I reject is the totally hyperbolic BBC coverage on spending cuts. I had all that…four years ago and has the world fallen in? No”.At my surgeries, I meet mothers dependent on food banks to feed their families, fathers desperate at lost Sure Start services, and disabled pensioners choosing between heating and eating. They tell me that their world has fallen in. Does the Chief Secretary agree with the Chancellor that they are being “hyperbolic”?

[Danny Alexander]

I am sure the hon. Lady explained to those constituents that the severe economic problems this country is experiencing and recovering from were caused on her party’s watch when it was in office. Although I share the view that these are difficult issues, I hope she would also highlight the fact that her constituency has seen 5,200 jobs created in the past 12 months.

Investing in Britain’s Future

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Danny Alexander

Thursday 27th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

It is clear that the hon. Lady’s campaigning is a model of parliamentary effectiveness and I urge her to continue with it to the further benefit of her constituents.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

In response to my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown), the Chief Secretary spoke of his “commitment to the A1”. What he actually said in his statement was:

“Any hon. Member planning a trip to Scotland…will want to see a better A1 north of Newcastle.”

Is that really his idea of a commitment? If he can say nothing more credible—I hope that he can—is it any wonder that he inspires so little confidence in the country?

[Danny Alexander]

I am sorry to hear such a curmudgeonly response to what I thought was a very positive announcement. [Interruption.] The point that I was making in my statement was that there are a number of long-standing issues on our highways network that have never been addressed. We have set aside the funding and will bring forward the plans to ensure that the improvements to that route take place between now and 2020.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I certainly share my hon. Friend’s admiration for micro-breweries: one in my constituency has recently produced a beer called Ginger Rodent, which sold out in its first run. I look forward to more sales when it is in the House of Commons bar in June. As for the rest of his question, I take it as a Budget representation.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

11. What recent estimate he has made of the extent to which the rate of increase of average earnings has kept in line with the rate of consumer price inflation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 6th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

No decision has been taken on how to use the full revenue from the 4G mobile spectrum auction, but the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was allocated an entitlement of up to, but no more than, £600 million for science projects from the fund. As I said in answer to an earlier question, on 6 September the Government announced an ambitious housing package to boost housing supply, building on our £4.5 billion investment to deliver 170,000 affordable homes over the spending review period.

[Chi Onwurah]

Perhaps the Chief Secretary is reluctant to commit because he does not trust his colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to overcome their history of delay and dither when it comes to 4G. In Newcastle, thousands of families are on the council house waiting list and thousands of construction workers are unemployed. Does he not agree with the director general of the CBI, who said that this plan was exactly what the economy needed?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

T3. The Chief Secretary justifies massive cuts to the public sector through fears of a sovereign debt crisis as the credit rating agencies downgrade our debt, but those same agencies were giving triple A ratings to junk financial instruments right up to the crash. Can he explain whether credit rating agencies, discredited as they are, or Tory ideology is driving these cuts?

[Danny Alexander]

The measures we have taken in the Budget are necessary to tackle the mess that the previous Government left. The degree of denial that the Opposition are in about the mess they created, the huge debt they built up and the fact that this country has the largest deficit in the European Union outside Ireland never fail to surprise me, although they probably should not surprise me. The measures we are taking are necessary to clean up that mess and to establish jobs and growth in the future.

Public Spending

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Danny Alexander

Thursday 17th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The Department for Transport will be in a position to provide clarity on the approvals that it has. I suggest that the hon. Lady redirect her inquiries to that Department.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

On 11 March, the Deputy Prime Minister came to Newcastle and announced an investment of half a billion pounds in wind power in the north-east. Does the fact that that project is not included in the list of cuts in industry, jobs and front-line hospitals mean that it is going ahead, or was it never intended to proceed in the first place?

[Danny Alexander]

The last Government announced a project for a competition in the area. It is still undergoing a process with the European Union involving state aid, approval and so forth. I shall not be in a position to offer approval or otherwise until that process has been completed, but once it has been completed, we shall be able to make an announcement.