Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Wales Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Susan Elan Jones Excerpts
Wednesday 18th November 2015

(9 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Stephen Crabb Portrait Stephen Crabb
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The truth is that Wales’s future prosperity depends on whether we can transform the economy, improve productivity, invest in transport infrastructure and improve our skills and education. That is where Wales’s future prosperity and success lie, and the question of whether or not we remain in the European Union is therefore a secondary one.

Susan Elan Jones Portrait Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South) (Lab)
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The Secretary of State is just a little bit shy today. Why cannot he just recognise that 191,000 Welsh jobs are totally dependent on EU trade and that Wales is a net beneficiary of EU aid? Cannot he just say—we will protect him from the Tory “Little Britain” sketch on the Benches behind him—that Wales is better off in?

Stephen Crabb Portrait Stephen Crabb
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I am not often described as shy; I am interested that I have come across in that way to the hon. Lady this morning. I do not recognise the figure that she cites. The important point is that the single market creates a really strategic opportunity for Welsh business. That is what we need to defend and extend.