Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gerald Howarth and Greg Hands

Tuesday 19th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Greg Hands)]

The question is, I hope, about Air Ambulance Northern Ireland, and I confirm that we are working with the charity and the Northern Ireland Executive on how those funds are delivered. They will go to the air ambulance charity, which I know will be broadly welcomed across all communities in Northern Ireland.

[Sir Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con)]

In his document published yesterday, the Chancellor posed the question:

“Is our national security best served by retreating from the world?”

I hope that he is not foolish enough to suggest that those of us who wish the United Kingdom to leave the European Union want to retreat from the world, because the truth is far from that. We want the United Kingdom to break free from the sclerotic shackles of the EU and its superstate, and embrace the exciting world out there that befits the world’s fifth largest economy, a nuclear power, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.