Oral Answers to Questions

Alec Shelbrooke Excerpts

Wednesday 7th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to look carefully at ensuring that a date is identified for when that change will be made.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

Q10. According to Library statistics, around 3,400 people in my constituency were diagnosed with cancer last year. Cancer survival rates have meant that 7,000 people are alive today who might not have been if the 2010 survival rates had stayed the same. Does my right hon. Friend see that as a testament to the NHS and the Government’s investment in it, and does she welcome that news while recognising that we need to do more?

Oral Answers to Questions

Alec Shelbrooke Excerpts

Wednesday 20th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The social mobility action plan

“will play an important role in enabling less advantaged young people to get on in life.”

That is not what I have said; it is what the Sutton Trust has said, and the Sutton Trust has a fine record in helping disadvantaged young people to get on in life. If the hon. Lady wants some more quotes, the Association of Colleges has said:

“The plan sets out an ambitious agenda to tackle longstanding and deep-seated inequalities which the education system struggles to overcome.”

It is a good plan, and it will make a real difference to young people’s lives.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

In the 1980s, Mrs Thatcher famously commented to the Vietnamese—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This is very discourteous, and very unfair on the hon. Gentleman. Let us hear the fella.

[Alec Shelbrooke]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I was saying, in the 1980s Mrs Thatcher famously asked why, if Vietnam was so wonderful, millions of people were getting into boats to leave it. With that in mind, may I ask my right hon. Friend, as she enters the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, “If World Trade Organisation rules are so wonderful, why do so many countries seek WTO trade agreements?”

[The Prime Minister]

Of course countries around the world can trade. The question is, on what terms are they trading? We want to see a free trade agreement negotiated with the European Union. We also want to see free trade agreements negotiated with countries around the rest of the world. We are believers in free trade, because we believe that it brings growth, prosperity, jobs and a secure future to this country.

European Council

Alec Shelbrooke Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I say to the hon. Gentleman that what we saw at the European Council was the EU27 moving towards their own discussions about what that deep and special partnership will be in the future.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

There are some misguided amnesiacs who think that nationalisation is good way forward. There are also some who think that we should stay in the single market. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, due to state aid rules, a country cannot nationalise if it is in the single market?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is yet another of the confusions in the Labour party that show that it really does not know where it is going.