Oral Answers to Questions
Frank Roy Excerpts(12 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Just in case anyone did not get it the first time, let me say it again:
“These strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are…going on”.
Negotiations are going on, so the Leader of the Opposition should think the strikes are wrong. He does not think that they are wrong, because he is in the pocket of the trade union leaders.
Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)
In every city and village in the country, home helps, carers, nurses and teachers are on strike for the very first time in their lives. These hard-working people—
Mr Roy
Well, we hear laughter from the Government Benches, but this is no laughing matter to hard-working families. Are these hard-working people out-of-touch left-wing trade union militants, as demonised by the two parties on the Government Benches, or are they men and women who have said to the Government, “Enough is enough”?
The Prime Minister
I know that people feel strongly about this, but we have a responsibility to deliver an affordable public sector pension system. We have rejected the idea of levelling down public sector pensions. What we will deliver on public sector pensions is a generous and fair offer that will give public sector pensioners, unlike others in our country, a defined benefit system. That is why Lord Hutton says that this is an incredibly generous offer. What a pity it is that the Labour party has left reality and will not back that view.