Outcome of the EU Referendum

Debate between Paul Scully and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Monday 27th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I said in my statement, the Mayor of London and the London Assembly should be involved. Financial services make up 7% of our economy. Two third of the jobs are outside London, and access to the single market is vital. I hope that they make their voice heard very strongly in making sure that we seek the closest possible relationship economically with Europe.

[Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) (Con)]

Our economic priority must be to settle short-term uncertainty and to position ourselves to make the most of opportunities in the long term. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, while digesting the referendum result and commenting on a way forward, we should concentrate on our economy’s strong fundamentals and not talk our economy and our country down?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we must talk up our strengths—and they continue to be our strengths—but we do need to be realistic in meeting the challenges and difficulties that we face.

UK-EU Renegotiation

Debate between Paul Scully and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 3rd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can let the House into a little secret. The reason why there were 500 days between the announcement of the Scottish referendum and the referendum itself is that I was so determined that there was going to be one question and one question only that I granted the former First Minister, the right hon. Member for Gordon (Alex Salmond), the right to name the date. He wanted to make sure that the referendum took place after as long as possible, after the anniversary of Bannockburn, after everything—everything he could throw in. I have to say that, from my point of view, the result was still very clear.

[Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) (Con)]

Benefits as a pull factor for migration might have been blunted somewhat by these proposals but they have not been eliminated. Arguably the bigger pull factor for migration is our successful economy and job creation in the UK. Will the Prime Minister tell us what the draft proposals will do to enable the UK to control immigration from within the European Union in the long term, beyond the four years of the emergency brake?

[The Prime Minister]

On the long-term approach, we are dealing with the abuses of free movement with a more comprehensive package than ever before to deal with the fraudsters, the criminals and the sham marriages. We have the emergency brake which will deliver a four-year welfare brake, which I think is significant. Frankly, I am sure that the eurozone economies will start to recover over time; that has been one of the issues. In the long term, we need to do better at controlling immigration from outside the EU but we also need a welfare policy and a training policy inside our own country, which we increasingly have, to train up the people in this country to do the jobs that our strong economy is providing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paul Scully and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 10th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We benefit hugely from having Boris’s wisdom now back in this House. The baton that I am interested in seeing is the moment at which Boris passes the baton to another Conservative Mayor of London.

[Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) (Con)]

Manor Park primary school in Sutton has just received a well deserved “outstanding” rating from Ofsted, but can my right hon. Friend tell me how the new education Bill will benefit and improve all schools?

[The Prime Minister]

Where schools get to outstanding we should, first, be singling them out and praising them, because we want to see many more children taught in good or outstanding schools. Where we need to focus is on schools that are either failing or coasting. The education Bill in the Gracious Speech will make sure that we intervene more quickly, because if you have children at a state school, as I do, one extra term in a failing school is a term that is wasted. We should not let bureaucracy get in the way of taking over failing schools and turning them around.