Hazel Blears
Main Page: Hazel Blears (Labour - Salford and Eccles)Department Debates - View all Hazel Blears's debates with the Cabinet Office
(15 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Deputy Prime Minister
I strongly agree with my hon. Friend. The push for greater decentralisation, after years and years of grotesque centralisation under a Labour Government, is one of the most important changes that this coalition Government will usher in in the years ahead.
Hazel Blears (Salford and Eccles) (Lab)
Four days before the general election the right hon. Gentleman asked in an interview in The Independent newspaper:
“What is this big society?”,
and then said it is
“a well-oiled PR machine, but basically it’s disguising fake change. It’s hollow. There’s nothing in it.”
Does he still hold that view about a fundamental philosophy of the Conservative party?
The Deputy Prime Minister
I hold the view, as I always have done—[Interruption.]