Oral Answers to Questions

John Cooper Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

7. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the creation of jobs for young people.

[John Cooper (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)]

16. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the creation of jobs for young people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Peter Kyle]

The hon. Gentleman raises an incredibly important issue. It sounds as if the charity that he references is doing incredibly important work locally. We want to support that work. It is a shame that in the years running up to coming into office, apprenticeship starts had fallen by 40%. We are reinvesting in apprenticeship starts and ensuring that they are available to everyone, from every background and with every ability.

[John Cooper]

While still at school, I played my part in the creative industries by playing in bands with names as louche as Street Lethal and Cheap Sweeties. It was very lucrative.

[The Minister for Trade (Chris Bryant)]

Give us the opening line!

[John Cooper]

I’ve got it! In the modern era, that all important first job is increasingly hard to find because of the Chancellor’s jobs tax and the massive 330-page Employment Rights Act 2025. Will the Secretary of State go to the new northern powerhouse Cabinet and impress upon the Chancellor the need to save our summer jobs and cut the burden on industry?

[Peter Kyle]

I am glad to hear about the hon. Gentleman’s childhood experiences. In retirement, perhaps we will see him in the musical “Mama Mia!”. My first job was on a battery chicken farm collecting eggs, so I hope that I can take a different path when I move away from the current profession. I assure him that not only are we are investing £2.5 billion but we are working across Departments to ensure that 400,000 students in disadvantaged schools will take up AI and tech skills through the tech first programme. These are the kinds of initiatives that we are wrapping around young people so that they get support for the age in which we are living. Extending the hours for 13-year-olds is not a serious solution to the challenges we face, but that is the only answer that we have heard from Members on the Conservative Benches in recent times.