Oral Answers to Questions

Alun Cairns Excerpts

Wednesday 9th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My view is an entirely positive one about what this United Kingdom has achieved together in the past and what we can achieve in the future. I think the ones who take a narrow, inward-looking and rather selfish view about the future are Scottish National party Members.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

The surgeon general of the armed forces has raised concerns about the impact of longer NHS waiting times on soldiers based in Wales. Does the Prime Minister agree that NHS outcomes for my constituents, including soldiers, are simply not good enough, and that the Welsh Government could be undermining the operations of the armed forces and are potentially in breach of the military covenant?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We have seen an 8% cut to the NHS budget in Wales. The last time A and E targets were met was 2009. The last time cancer treatment targets were met was 2008. Over a third of people miss out on access to diagnostic services within eight weeks. There is a truly dreadful record when it comes to Labour’s NHS in Wales. There is a huge contrast now with the NHS in England—properly funded, well run and meeting the key targets—and the shambles in Wales.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alun Cairns Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Duncan]

Our focus on Yemen is acute, and I take charge of that personally. The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Indeed, one of the comments at the nutrition event at the weekend, attended by Ministers from Yemen, was that more than half of their children under five are stunted. We have to focus on that need, and I assure the right hon. Gentleman and the House that through our programmes in Yemen, that is exactly what we are doing.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

6. What her Department’s spending priorities are for 2012-13.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

In 2012-13, the Department focused its investment on poverty reduction through improving the lives of girls and women, boosting economic development and creating jobs, building open societies and institutions, combating climate change, responding to humanitarian emergencies, and building peaceful states and societies.

[Alun Cairns]

The Government have rightly prioritised money for some of the most deprived people around the globe, but can my right hon. Friend reassure me that the Government will also prioritise the ungoverned states in the conflict-affected areas around the world?

[Justine Greening]

I can; 30% of our bilateral aid by 2014-15 will be invested in precisely those states. When the multilateral investment is added, that comes to about half the Department’s budget.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alun Cairns Excerpts

Wednesday 30th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is that we have put in place a £30 million discretionary fund to help in particular cases such as the one that he raises, but we do have an overall situation where the housing benefit budget is now £23 billion. That is only £10 billion less than the entire defence budget, and it is not good enough for Opposition Members to oppose welfare cut after welfare cut, to propose welfare spend after welfare spend, while they realise that we are dealing with the mess they left.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Does the Prime Minister agree that when the Leader of the Opposition talks about the economy, he sounds just like a Victorian undertaker looking forward to a hard winter? Does the Leader of the Opposition not accept that we cannot get out of a debt crisis by borrowing more money?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The fact is that the economy that we inherited was completely unbalanced. It was based on housing, it was based-on finance, it was based on Government spending and it was based on immigration. Those were four incredibly unstable pillars for sustained economic growth, and what we have had to do is a major recovery operation. That operation is still under way, but given the new jobs created, the private sector businesses that are expanding, the new people setting up their businesses, we are making progress.