Education and Local Services

Debate between Justine Greening and Chris Bryant

Tuesday 27th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

That is absolutely right. It is critical that we take advantage of two opportunities. The first is the kinds of businesses and industries in my hon. Friend’s area that are creating jobs and opportunities. The second is a generation of young people who want opportunity and want a career. We should be investing in generating our home-grown talent to take advantage of those opportunities, which we all see in our local communities. Exiting the European Union provides new impetus to the focus on developing our home-grown talent.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State referred to world-class universities. We are proud of them in this country, but it is important that they are able to attract students from all around the world. Why do the Government persist with the ludicrous idea that we must cut net migration to the tens of thousands, including cutting the number of international students coming to stay in this country? They pay their own way, they improve their relationship with this country, and when they go back home they want to continue doing business with us. It is ludicrous!

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman will be delighted to know that he is entirely misinformed, because we do not have a cap on the number of international students. That will save him from having to ask that question again. We are determined to ensure that our universities sector remains open to the best and brightest talent around the world. He can scaremonger and raise fake issues all he likes, but it will not change the position. The much bigger threat to universities lies in decimating the funding going into them. That is the biggest challenge they would face if they ended up with the kind of higher education funding black hole that the Labour party would present them with.

We are shaping the curriculum for young people going into technical education into 15 technical routes, each culminating in a so-called T-level, which will become the gold standard qualification for technical excellence. That reform is matched by investment, as the Chancellor announced in the March Budget—a Budget that the CBI called

“a breakthrough Budget for skills.”

That investment would be at risk under a Labour Government because of the black hole in post-16 funding for higher education. Our new institutes of technology will also provide a path to develop excellence in higher technical skills. One problem we have had with technical education is that there has not been a ladder of steadily more challenging qualifications so that young people can better themselves.

Overseas Aid (Private Sector Contracts)

Debate between Justine Greening and Chris Bryant

Monday 11th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are talking about having a balanced approach with these countries, developing their public sector, but also helping them to develop their private sector. He is right to say that, ultimately, that is the best way to see change on the ground. I would like to see UK business and companies getting more involved with that as a means of supporting it.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

Contrary to some of the rhetoric we have heard from the Government on immigration, the vectors that lead to people from these countries coming to this country and elsewhere in Europe are not the benefit system, but poverty, famine, war and insecurity in their own countries. Surely, then, part of our argument to people who are worried about our spending money on development must be that it is in our best interests to enable people to live a decent, healthy life in their home and stay there.

[Justine Greening]

I never thought I would say this, but I agree with the hon. Gentleman!

Rail Investment

Debate between Justine Greening and Chris Bryant

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I am aware of the hon. Gentleman’s concerns, which he is going to talk through tomorrow with the Minister of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs Villiers). I assure him that no final decisions have been made. I emphasise that the HLOS investment that we are making will open up real opportunities for us to cascade rolling stock. For example, the high-speed diesel fleet that is currently on the midland main line—the Meridian stock—will be available, and we will see how we can use that effectively on other parts of the network.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

The people of the Rhondda Fawr will doubtless want to get out the bunting and skip for joy—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] They will doubtless want to do so when the Treherbert to Cardiff line has been electrified. What date should I put in my diary for the opening of that electrified line? Will it happen before the review of constituency boundaries and before Lords reform, or perhaps after?

[Justine Greening]

It is nice to know that the hon. Gentleman looks at things through such a political lens, rather than from the perspective of his local community. This investment will take place from 2014 to 2019. It will make a huge difference to communities such as his. I only wish that he could support it wholeheartedly and without reservation.

High-speed Rail

Debate between Justine Greening and Chris Bryant

Tuesday 10th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I can tell my hon. Friend that there will be 106 extra carriages serving his stretch of line, and I think that shows that this Government are committed to making sure that we get investment in our railways in the short and medium term as well as the long term.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

I am as keen on the Secretary of State for Wales as anybody else is, and I am delighted that the Secretary of State for Transport has done so much to keep her in her job, but can she be precise about the amount of money that is being spent on tunnelling in the constituency of the Secretary of State for Wales, because the total amount being spent in Wales on the railways this year is just £500 million?

[Justine Greening]

I would have thought the hon. Gentleman would be pleased, because the route that I announced today will see us spend less money in my right hon. Friend’s part of the country. The way in which he has turned what I took to be the incredibly serious issue of this line impacting local communities in an area of outstanding natural beauty into a pure political point is a disgrace. The Secretary of State for Wales, alongside other MPs, has done a damn good job in representing her constituents, and I think she has probably been a lot more effective than he has been in the past.