Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 7th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan Smith]

My hon. Friend must not dare tempt me in that direction. What is really important is that we run our economy here in the UK for the benefit of citizens of the UK. We have made our position clear: we want to ensure that those who have not been here for a certain period of time and have not contributed are not able to draw upon our benefits system.

[Mr Speaker]

On the whole, because the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) is dextrous, he was just about within order, but I counsel colleagues that they should take great care, as a general principle, not to shoehorn their personal preoccupations into questions to which they do not obviously relate.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

That’s the only thing he does!

[Mr Speaker]

No, no; he is a very versatile fellow in all manner of means.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The Government’s forced U-turn on tax credits is very welcome to the families in my constituency who were set to be affected by the cut, but many people are being moved on to the universal credit system and will be similarly impacted. Young people will not qualify for the Government’s so-called national living wage. How do the Government reconcile that with the aim of making work pay?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Duncan Smith]

I missed the question, Mr Speaker. There was a lot of noise, so I did not hear it.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Lady was asking about the treatment of someone who has a third child through rape.

[Mr Duncan Smith]

My apologies to the hon. Lady. May I say to her that we will come back with our exact reasons and rationale for how we will decide that? The reality remains, however—and this is, I believe, popular among the public—that those who make choices and take responsibility for them want everyone else to do the same as well.