Oral Answers to Questions

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Wednesday 20th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will tell the hon. Gentleman what we are doing for young people: record numbers going to university; record numbers who are taking on apprenticeships; and record numbers in work. Actually, today, the unemployment figures show a record low in the unemployment rate among those people who have left school. I would say to the hon. Gentleman that one of the reasons why a Labour MP in the south of England is as rare as hen’s teeth is that they talk down our country and talk down opportunity in it.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

Q12. I thank the Prime Minister for launching the apprenticeship delivery board on Monday evening at No. 10. These men and women, who are expert in their sectors, are coming together to deliver 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020. Does the Prime Minister agree that it will be a great thing if, when students across our country log on to the UCAS website, they are informed about the opportunities for degree apprenticeships, as well as about more traditional degrees?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point for two reasons. One is that if you become an apprentice, that does not lock out the chance of doing a degree later in your career. Indeed, the opportunities for earning and learning are getting greater in our country. The second reason it is so important is that, in our schools, all our teachers are of course very well equipped to tell people about degree opportunities, because that is the route that they have taken—A-levels, the UCAS form and such like—but we need to improve the information in our schools so that people can see the opportunities for apprenticeships, in some cases then leading on to degrees.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think that the hon. Gentleman asks an important question, and I do not deny for one second that we have had to take difficult decisions about defence spending in our country. However, let me make this point. At £33 billion a year, we have the fourth largest defence budget anywhere in the world, and it is important that we make sure that we have the right scale and shape of armed forces, and that they have the right capabilities. That is why, in the defence review, we are investing in drones, and investing more in special forces and in key intelligence capabilities, making sure that we have the aircraft we need to ensure that we have highly mobile armed forces. I am incredibly proud of what our armed forces do, and because we are now balancing their budget, they will be better equipped for the future.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

Sixty-eight years ago this Sunday, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated. As we mark Holocaust memorial day, will the Prime Minister commit to ensuring that young people in this country always have the opportunity to learn about what took place in the darkest period in our shared history, and will he commend the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust?

[The Prime Minister]

I think that my hon. Friend speaks for the whole House, and indeed the whole country, in raising this vital issue on this day, and in praising the Holocaust Educational Trust—an absolutely brilliant charity and organisation that makes sure that young people from schools across the country have the opportunity to go and see the places where the terrible events of the holocaust took place. I had the immense privilege this week of meeting a holocaust survivor whose story was truly heroic and truly heartbreaking, but who in her 90s is still making these arguments and making this case so that future generations will learn. We should also learn, not just about the European holocaust, but from what has happened more recently in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and elsewhere that, tragically, there is far too much prejudice and persecution in our world.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Wednesday 7th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

This Government are not cutting the money that is going into disability benefits. We are replacing disability living allowance with the personal independence payment. As someone who has actually filled out the form for disability allowance and had a child with cerebral palsy, I know how long it takes to fill in that form. We are going to have a proper medical test so that people who are disabled and need that help get it more quickly.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

Q5. On Friday—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I say to the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Simon Kirby) that he will stay silent. That sort of noise is not acceptable in this forum.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

On Friday, PC Trevor Hall and PCSO Claire Miller, two of the best from Warwickshire police, came to see me about the life-threatening effects of a new legal high called black mamba on the life of a 13-year-old in my constituency. I am informed that black mamba is the latest legal high being sold on our streets in the UK. Now that we have regulations that allow us to act swiftly to ban potentially dangerous legal highs, will my right hon. Friend act on this substance immediately and—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We are grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who should resume his seat. The question is too long.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Wednesday 15th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will very happily look at the distribution of jobcentres, but the fact is that, through local government and other spending, we put a lot more money into deprived areas in our country. [Interruption.] Yes, we do. I had a little check before coming to Question Time and if we look at what is happening to grant changes—for instance, comparing my constituency with that of the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband)—the cut in grant in my constituency is 27% greater than in his. I simply do not accept that the Government are not being fair and helping those who need help the most.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

Q4. All of us in the Chamber will have had tragic cases of late diagnoses of cervical and breast cancer in our constituencies—cancers that should and can be survived. The Prime Minister promised to do more when he was in opposition. Now that we are in government, what is he doing about the unacceptably low survival rates?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. The first thing we did was to make good on our promise of a cancer drugs fund. We put money into that fund so that thousands of people who were without the drugs they needed can now get them. We want to see further improvements on cancer screening and much more focus on cancer outcomes, and unlike the Labour party we are prepared to put the money in to make sure it happens.