Oral Answers to Questions

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

Given my right hon. Friend’s expertise in the area, I would be happy to talk not only to the Minister but to my right hon. Friend himself, in order to ensure that we get the balance right. There is a good opportunity before us, and managing the transition needs a little care and patience, so I shall be happy to work with my right hon. Friend.

[Mr Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

My area, in Lancashire, still does not have a local enterprise partnership. Does not that process just confirm that the Secretary of State is still losing the plot on business and growth in England’s regions? On 11 November he told the Lunar Society in Birmingham that his LEPs process was “Maoist” and “chaotic”, and he repeated that confession to reporters from The Daily Telegraph on 20 December. Meanwhile, the Department for Communities and Local Government has just put in a takeover bid for his European money, which is meant to boost regional businesses and growth. Is not his business and enterprise Minister now left like the boy standing on the burning deck, whence all but he have fled?

[Mr Prisk]

That was a very stretched literary metaphor, if I may say so. [Interruption.] No, in spite of the question, the reality is that the Government are working very closely in that area, and as we have demonstrated in the north-east, we are making good progress. I work closely with my colleagues in the Department for Communities and Local Government, as I do with other Ministers, and I am sorry that Opposition Front Benchers have nothing positive to say on this subject.