Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Aidan Burley

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

First, the right hon. Lady will be aware that shortly after the UN General Assembly, there was finally a presidential statement on humanitarian access in Syria. It is incredibly important that we now see those commitments fulfilled. My discussions with Valerie Amos, who heads up the humanitarian arm of the UN, show that we are making progress, but the right hon. Lady is right to point out that it is a continuing challenge. If we cannot reach people in Syria, that is a breach of international humanitarian law.

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

T3. Many of my constituents are concerned that we still have an aid policy judged by how much we spend rather than by what the money actually delivers. Although I welcome the Secretary of State’s decision finally to end aid to India, a country that has more billionaires than Britain, will she now go further and abandon the arbitrary 0.7% of GDP target, which is equivalent to an increase of £100 a year for every family in Cannock Chase?

[Justine Greening]

I think the Government have been right to honour their promise on providing 0.7% of gross national income. The challenge that we have is to ensure that it represents 100% of our national interest. That is precisely what I am doing, working with the Home Office and the MOD on stability in countries and with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Foreign Office on economic development. That makes sense to me.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Aidan Burley

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

The right hon. Gentleman’s hearing must be suffering, because he obviously did not hear my earlier answer to the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne).

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

T4. Dr Adrian Steele, the managing director of Mercian Labels in Cannock, has just been named as one of the midlands’ most promising entrepreneurs. His company supplies labels and barcodes to the medical industry and employs 32 people. Does the Chancellor agree that it is small business entrepreneurs such as Dr Steele who will grow our economy back to strength, and will he continue to support manufacturers, who were shamefully neglected by the Labour party?

Fuel Prices and the Cost of Living

Debate between Justine Greening and Aidan Burley

Wednesday 16th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I do not think the right hon. Gentleman even believes that himself. The bottom line is that he wants—[Interruption.] The shadow Chief Secretary says that we need to take action now, but he wants us to embark on a process that took six to seven years the last time it happened. How is that taking action now?

Let me tell the House on which items the rate was changed. Here are a few of the products and services to which a reduced VAT rate is now applied in other countries:

“minor repairing of bicycles, shoes and leather goods, clothing and household linen”.

Window cleaning was also one, and hairdressing was another. The Government at that time—a Government of whom the right hon. Member for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls) was part—did not seek to add road fuel to that list. He says that that was because the previous Government never raised VAT on fuel. That is not strictly true, of course: they reduced it, but then put it back up again, as we have heard. The other reason was that, year on year—and, in the final stages, month on month—they were consistently raising fuel duty, so they had no need to use VAT as a tool. They were getting plenty of additional tax from the motorist.

[Mr Aidan Burley (Cannock Chase) (Con)]

The last Government might not have increased VAT, but they certainly increased fuel duty. When Labour came to power in ’97, duty on unleaded petrol was 36p a litre; when the last Government left office in 2010, it had risen to 57.9p a litre. Does my hon. Friend think that Labour Members should take some responsibility for increasing fuel duty by more than 20%?

[Justine Greening]

Of course they should, but as so often they never do, unfortunately.