Oral Answers to Questions

Alison McGovern Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

I refer the hon. Gentleman to my earlier answer, just in case he was on autopilot and asking a Whip’s question: it is not possible to fund a pledge with a bank levy that has already been spent 11 times. This Government have a clear plan for child care. Over the course of this Parliament we are spending an extra billion pounds on not just three and four-year olds, because children are not only three and four; parents need child care for children below the age of three and for children older than three and four. That is why we have a clear plan, because we have a strong economy.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

It pleases me greatly that the Minister is happy to repeat our very popular pledge of a bank levy to fund child care. Further to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), we saw another survey last week which found that 300,000 parents want to go back to work but just cannot do so because of soaring child care costs—since 2010, they have increased by 30%. Will the Minister now admit that this Government simply must do more, and accept that we need an increase in free child care?

[Mr Gyimah]

Just in case the hon. Lady was not listening, let me say that child care costs went up by 50% under the last Labour Government, whereas under the current Government child care costs have stabilised and are falling for some of the most popular forms of child care. In addition, we are saving families who have three and four-year-olds £370 a year per child; we are saving disadvantaged families £2,300 a year per child through the free entitlement for two-year-olds; and tax-free child care will save families up to £2,000 per child per year from this autumn. That is because we have a clear plan, funded because we have a strong economy. Labour’s plan is not funded.