Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Keir Starmer and Alex Baker

Wednesday 6th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As the right hon. Member will know, we made the economy the centrepiece of our Budget, and we will do everything that we need to do to ensure that our economy grows, and that is measured in living standards going up for working people across the country.

[Alex Baker (Aldershot) (Lab)]

Q5. Many families across Aldershot and Farnborough have struggled for years to get their children with special educational needs the help that they need. It is therefore shameful to read the misguided claims made by the Leader of the Opposition that autistic people“may well get better treatment”and receive economic privileges and protections. Will the Prime Minister stand with the families of autistic children, and distance the Government from those awful words?

[The Prime Minister]

I will leave the Leader of the Opposition to respond to those words. As the recent National Audit Office report exposed, children with special educational needs and disabilities were being failed by the system under the previous Government. This has come up I think five times in the last two or three weeks at PMQs. It is clearly a serious issue. Our focus will be on ensuring that every child receives the right support to succeed in their education.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Keir Starmer and Alex Baker

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alex Baker (Aldershot) (Lab)]

Q9. Our leisure centre in Farnborough was knocked down by the Conservative council, which made empty promises to replace it with an expensive civic hub, with no viable plan to pay for it. Will the Prime Minister help to secure the funding that Rushmoor borough council needs to rebuild our leisure centre, so that Labour can start delivering change after years of Tory failure?

[The Prime Minister]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her place. She is the first female and first Labour MP for Aldershot, and she is doing a superb job for her constituents. Rushmoor borough council was left with a shortfall of over £19 million over the last four years. The running down of local services has been one of the most painful features of the last 14 years. We will work hand in hand with councils, including on multi-year funding settlements, and with local leaders to develop and make sure the services that are needed are there.