Business of the House

Steven Paterson Excerpts

Thursday 20th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lidington]

If the hon. Lady looks at the record, she will see that large sums of money—I have already mentioned the £13 billion for transport in the autumn statement—are being allocated to Yorkshire, the Humber and other parts of northern England, and that more than 60% of the increase in private sector employment since the 2010 general election has been in parts of the United Kingdom outside London and the south-east. She will see that Yorkshire and Humberside are benefiting from the sound economic policies that the Government are pursuing.

[Steven Paterson (Stirling) (SNP)]

Yesterday, the Prime Minister said that in the coming election she would be

“out there campaigning in every part of the United Kingdom”.—[Official Report, 19 April 2017; Vol. 624, c. 669.]

Perhaps there will be a statement on that. May I helpfully suggest that she visit the Stirling constituency, where the presence of a hard-Brexit, hard-right, pro-austerity Prime Minister will do the SNP the world of good when it comes to winning the campaign?

[Mr Lidington]

I know that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is looking forward with relish to coming to Scotland and making the positive case for a Conservative Government. She is also looking forward to pointing out that after 10 years of SNP stewardship, there has been a decline in the national health service in Scotland and standards in Scottish schools are being overtaken by those in schools in England, Wales, Poland and Estonia.