Oral Answers to Questions

Ronnie Campbell Excerpts

Wednesday 10th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I understand that the issue of business rates and the bids to which my hon. Friend has referred, from Somerset and others, are currently being assessed. A decision will be announced alongside the local government finance settlement later this year. I can tell my hon. Friend that I have already received representations from a Somerset Member of Parliament on the issue, but I am sure that Ministers in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will be willing to meet him and others to discuss it further. I am sure that they will be happy to sit down and discuss the details.

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

Q8. In 2010, after the crisis of the banks, the national debt stood at £768 billion. Now that the Tories have been in for 10 years, albeit five of them with the wishy-washy Liberals, can the Prime Minister tell the House how much the debt is today?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman has raised the issue of debt, and it is an important issue to raise. What the Government are doing is seeing that we will actually—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman does not need to ask me the question if he has the figure already. What the Government are doing is ensuring that debt is going to fall, and, crucially, we have seen a reduction in our deficit of three quarters under this Conservative Government. The hon. Gentleman should not look quite so pleased with himself when he starts to think about what a Labour Government would do to our debt in the future, which is take us back.