Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Kerr Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Alok Sharma]

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point but, as he is aware, the Department is considering the High Court judgment carefully—I have said this before in the House—and it therefore would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.

[Stephen Kerr (Stirling) (Con)]

Can the Minister confirm that, because of the Budget, there will be £4.5 billion available in additional measures over the next couple of years?

[Alok Sharma]

Yes, we set out in the last Budget that there will be £4.5 billion available, with a large amount of that obviously coming through the increase in work allowances.

--- Later in debate ---

[Amber Rudd]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the extraordinary work he did that has led in part to our announcement that there will now be prison sentences for people who commit the sort of criminal activity we have seen. I cannot be drawn on that individual case, unfortunately, but I believe we will see a different regime going forward.

[Stephen Kerr (Stirling) (Con)]

We have now had 10 consecutive months of real growth in wages. Can the Secretary of State confirm that this is the strongest real-terms wage growth in this country for 10 years?

[Amber Rudd]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing attention to that fact. It is good news for people who are earning and people living on lower incomes, and I certainly hope that it continues.