Oral Answers to Questions

Douglas Carswell Excerpts

Wednesday 18th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Let me try to explain to the hon. Gentleman the basic unfairness in the current system. Repairs to churches are already subject to VAT, whereas alterations to listed buildings are not subject to VAT. That means that if you repair a church, you do pay VAT, but if you put a great big swimming pool in a listed Tudor house, you do not pay VAT, so it makes sense to redraw the boundaries. But this is the crucial point: we will be putting money aside to make sure that churches that are undertaking repairs and alterations get the moneys that they need.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

A few weeks—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Let us have some order in the House. I want to hear Mr Douglas Carswell.

[Mr Carswell]

A few weeks ago in this House, I asked the Prime Minister to what extent he believed that the Whitehall machine—the Sir Humphrey factor—was frustrating reform. He assured us that it was not. According to the Financial Times, in Malaysia last week the PM said:

“I can tell you, as Prime Minister, it”—

“Yes Minister”—

“is true to life.”

Can he tell us what has happened to make him change his mind?

[The Prime Minister]

There are a few occasions when I think that my hon. Friend does need a bit of a sense of humour.

Oral Answers to Questions

Douglas Carswell Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd June 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

If the hon. Lady gives me the details of the individual case, I will certainly take it up and look at it. The fact is that we have not changed the waiting list targets that have been in place in the NHS for a long time—in particular, the 18-week target that is part of the NHS constitution. Average waiting times have actually come down in recent months. The clear lesson is this: were it not for this Government putting in an extra £11.5 billion—money that Labour does not support—we would see all waiting times going up.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

Q10. On 18 July last year, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury stated, with regard to the decision to sign Britain up to the eurozone bail-out mechanism:“While these decisions were taken by the previous Government, this Government judges them to be an appropriate response to the crisis.”Does this remain the Government’s position?

[The Prime Minister]

I know that my hon. Friend is pursuing this issue with his normal dogged tenacity. The facts of the case are very clear. The last Government—at the death, as it were, after the election but before the new Government were formed—signed us up to the European financial mechanism that we are still having to pay out under. This Government have got us out of that by tough negotiation in Brussels so that we will not have to contribute after 2013.

Oral Answers to Questions

Douglas Carswell Excerpts

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for asking that question. My heart goes out to her constituent, Nikki Blunden. We want to see these cancer drugs get to patients more quickly, without the bureaucratic wheels taking so long to turn. That is why we are establishing the cancer drugs fund, and I will discuss with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health how quickly that can be done. If possible, I want it to be done this year rather than next year. If it can be done, it will be, and if drugs can be got to people like the right hon. Lady’s constituent—we all have constituents in such a position—I will do everything that I can to make that happen.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

Q5. The Prime Minister knows that I am always and everywhere for referendums. However, will he tell the House why he is planning a referendum on the alternative vote, which was not in the manifesto of either coalition party, but not a referendum on European integration, which all three main parties were recently promising?

[The Prime Minister]

What I can promise my hon. Friend is that we will have such legislation on the referendum lock, so that it will not be possible in future for a British Government to pass powers from Westminster to Brussels without asking the British people first. That is absolutely right. The referendum on the alternative vote was part of the coalition agreement, and he will be free to campaign on whatever side of the referendum he wants. However, the referendum was part of the agreement that put together this Government, who, I believe, are rolling up their sleeves and sorting out the country’s problems.