Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Thursday 17th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[John McDonnell]

I will press on, and then I will give way—[Interruption.]

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. Members may think that this noise is not loud, but it is very loud when you are in the Chair trying to listen to the shadow Chancellor. The problem is that it does not do this Chamber any good in the eyes of the public when they cannot hear either.

[John McDonnell]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker—[Interruption.}

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Did somebody wish to comment? Okay, we will carry on.

[John McDonnell]

Let me assure Members that I will give way, but let me proceed a bit further.

As I have said, perhaps the fall in productivity is unsurprising, because productivity is linked to business investment, which should be driving the recovery, but which plunged in the last quarter.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Are you sure it is?

[Mr MacNeil]

Fairly sure, Mr Deputy Speaker. This debate is about schools in this country. Clearly, “this country” is not the UK—it is England. This debate does not apply to Scotland. That is not made clear, and in the days of English votes for English laws, it should be clear.

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

That is not a point of order.

[Nicky Morgan]

We owed it to our young people to tackle the soft bigotry of low expectations and to give them the education they deserve: an education that will help them to fulfil every ounce of their potential; an education with knowledge at its core, even if that does include the shadow Chancellor’s greatest influences—self-confessed—of Lenin and Trotsky. This Budget will provide the resources to translate into reality the vision for the future of our education system in the schools White Paper that I will outline later today.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I wonder whether you can give me some guidance. I understood that when a Minister had a major announcement to make on policy, as I think the Secretary of State just said she had about education policy, they are supposed to come to the Chamber and make it first before it is reported elsewhere. Why has she not done that as part of her speech?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Of course, all statements of policy come through this Chamber.

[Nicky Morgan]

Let me just remind the hon. Gentleman that I am standing here and giving the House information about the White Paper. It is kind of him to allow me the opportunity to talk again about the White Paper that we are publishing today, setting out our vision of the school system. He can also read the written statement that I have laid before the House.