Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Drax and George Osborne

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Lady talks about our parliamentary party. Let us look at her parliamentary party. They are like rats deserting a sinking ship. A shadow Health Minister wants to be the Mayor of Liverpool, the hon. Member for Bury South (Mr Lewis) wants to the Mayor of Manchester, and the shadow Home Secretary wants to be the Mayor of both cities. When we said we were creating job opportunities we did not mean job opportunities for the whole shadow Cabinet. They are like a parliamentary party on day release when the hon. Lady is here, but they know the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) will be back and it is four more years of hard labour.

Today, we are voting on a Queen’s Speech that delivers economic security, protects our national security and enhances life chances for the most disadvantaged. It does not matter who stands at the Dispatch Box for Labour these days. They are dismantling our defences, they are wrecking our economy and they want to burden people with debt. In their own report published this week, “Labour’s Future”—surprisingly long—they say they are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the working people of Britain.

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

Q5. What a privilege it is to be called by you, Mr Speaker. If the remain team have their day on 24 June, I shall have to apply by email to Herr Juncker to ask a question. Airbus is a wonderful example of European co-operation —European, not EU—with fuselages built in France and Germany and wings built in this country. Planes cannot fly without wings. Our remaining inside or outside the EU will have no effect on this business, for, as the Chancellor knows, it is trade and the hard work of businessmen and businesswomen that creates jobs and prosperity, not politicians and bureaucrats. It is their job to nurture growth and enterprise—[Interruption.]

[Richard Drax]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is their job to nurture and not to make threats to business, enterprise, jobs and aspiration?

[Mr Osborne]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend that jobs and enterprise are created through the ingenuity of private businesses that we in the House should support and nurture.

Spending Review and Autumn Statement

Debate between Richard Drax and George Osborne

Wednesday 25th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The OBR is forecasting a rise in household debt which is partly reflected in a rise in house prices and therefore household assets, against which the debt is secured. But of course there is a big difference from the unsecured debt that we found in 2008. The big difference we now have is a Bank of England with a Financial Policy Committee, which is able to step in when it sees debt levels reach worrying levels. The Governor of the Bank of England signalled before the Treasury Committee yesterday concern about buy-to-let prices, for example, and he is receiving the powers to do something about it. That is a big change from the situation five years ago.

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

My constituents in South Dorset will want to thank my right hon. Friend for the enterprise zone at Winfrith Green, which is going to create thousands of jobs, for looking again at the education funding, which was very unfair to Dorset, and for the incentives to take on apprenticeships, which is so important for the future economy and particularly for the young people of this country.

[Mr Osborne]

I thank my hon. Friend. Dorset is a fantastic county. The enterprise zone will be a great success. Schools in Dorset will be boosted by the announcement today on the funding formula. He is absolutely right—we want great jobs in Dorset that are available to local people, so the apprenticeship support will mean that local people have the skills to get those jobs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Richard Drax and George Osborne

Wednesday 17th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Lady speaks for the whole House in sending our sympathies to Mr Uzomah and to the pupils and staff at the school. Our hearts go out to them. The leadership in the school dealt with the situation incredibly well, and I know my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary has spoken to the headteacher. What we have done is to give teachers powers to search pupils’ bags and the like, but if there is more that we can do as we learn the lessons of this incident, of course we will.

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

Q11. Figures released today show that the number of jobseeker’s allowance claimants in my constituency has dropped over the past five years by nearly 60%. May I thank my right hon. Friend for his recent letter, and may I ask him to agree that further rail investment to Weymouth and Portland will increase jobs and prosperity in my constituency?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend has raised with me the case of the particularly slow rail service to Weymouth and Portland, and we will look into it. We are making a massive commitment to the south-west—a £7 billion programme, which is the biggest ever commitment of infrastructure to the south-west—and I will look to see what we can do to improve the rail service for his constituents so that we properly connect up the south-west.

EU Budget (Surcharge)

Debate between Richard Drax and George Osborne

Monday 10th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Of course, the shadow Chancellor estimated that it would cost £114,000 a year, which is the EU penal rate on £1.7 billion. If interest had been charged even on the rebateable amount, it would of course have been about half that figure.

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on getting half the money back? That is certainly a step in the right direction. However, does it not show that one economic cap does not fit all in the EU, and never ever will?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right. That is why previous Conservative Governments achieved things such as the opt-out from the single currency, even though the previous Labour Government toyed with the idea of joining the single currency, which reveals—