Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

William Bain Excerpts
Tuesday 4th November 2014

(10 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) has worked with local employers to improve skills, and I visited a successful apprenticeship and training scheme with him. We want to ensure that local employers are involved in shaping those apprenticeships and further education courses, and that is precisely what we are now setting up.

William Bain Portrait Mr William Bain (Glasgow North East) (Lab)
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T6. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has forecast that under the Chancellor’s current policies 900,000 more children will be in relative poverty by 2020 compared with 2011. Is his real attitude towards the working poor in this country too much stick and too little carrot?

Danny Alexander Portrait The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)
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The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about child poverty, which under this Government is down. That does not in any way reduce the need for us to continue taking steps to reduce child poverty, the most important of which is having an economy that creates jobs. In the end, for most people the best route out of poverty is to get back into employment.