Oral Answers to Questions

Laura Sandys Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd October 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will tell the right hon. Gentleman the figures that have come out in the past fortnight: a record fall in unemployment; inflation down to a six-year low; the IMF saying that ours is the fastest-growing economy of any G7 country. That is what is happening. What we can see from Labour is failure and weakness: no economic plan, nothing to offer this country. They are, as I put it last week, simply not up to the job.

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

Q2. I have founded two small companies and know what it is like to employ people. Will the Prime Minister commend the small businesses in my constituency that have done so much to reduce unemployment by 31% this year and created 720 apprenticeships?

[The Prime Minister]

It is certainly true, as my hon. Friend says, that the reduction in unemployment that we are seeing in every region of the country—some very impressive figures, as she says—is coming about because small businesses feel more able to take people on. Part of that is the help we have given to small businesses by cutting the small business rate of tax and, through the national insurance rebate, by making sure that every small business benefits by £2,000. That is helping to give them the confidence to give people work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Laura Sandys Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am sure the hon. Gentleman, like anyone in the House, will work as hard as he can to help that family to get the therapies that they need. What that means is going to the county council and arguing the case, as many of us have had to do not only with constituents, but with our own children. One has to make the fight. We intend to produce a paper on special educational needs that will try to reform the way such things are done and make it less confrontational. I know as a parent how incredibly tough it is sometimes to get what one’s family needs.

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

I thank the Prime Minister and the Ministers who have been so helpful over the past 24 hours with regard to the Pfizer closure in my constituency in Sandwich. Will my right hon. Friend assure me and my hon. Friends from east Kent that the Government will do everything they can to secure the site, the highly skilled employees and the local economy in east Kent?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to speak out about that depressing news. Pfizer’s decision is bad news. My office has been in contact with the company and I spoke to the company again this morning. There is no doubt that the decision is being taken not because of some UK-based issue, but because the company has decided to exit some whole areas of endeavour, such as allergies and respiratory diseases. The company is keeping all the options open for what should happen to the site, including getting partner organisations to continue work there and getting other companies to come in, because it is a state of the art site and it has brilliant employees doing great work there. The Government will do everything they can, co-ordinated by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Universities and Science and the head of the Office for Life Sciences, to try and make sure that we make the best of a depressing piece of news.