Oral Answers to Questions

Christopher Pincher Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Miss Smith]

Like recoveries from all deep recessions, this one has been choppy, and we are facing subdued growth, as the Office for Budget Responsibility has laid out. There are many reasons for that, one of which is that the Labour party simply turned on the taps when it came to spending and left them running. What the right hon. Gentleman has to recognise is that in policies that deal with business we do not pick ones that have an extra £20 billion price tag that cannot be sourced. Perhaps it is his leader who needs to take a lesson in understanding business, as his adviser has said that he

“doesn’t understand business…there was always something missing.”

[Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend congratulate Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, B&Q and John Lewis, among others, on driving down long-term unemployment in Tamworth by a whacking 22%? Does not that demonstrate that it is through the private sector’s developing sustainable jobs that we will build sustainable economic growth?

[Miss Smith]

I certainly will join my hon. Friend in congratulating those firms. It is exactly through the private sector that we will find a more balanced recovery. I would also like to place on record my interest in the record numbers of apprenticeships in which such firms are participating, such as 440,000 more this year—up by half on the year before.