Oral Answers to Questions

Angus Robertson Excerpts

Wednesday 17th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. My right hon. Friend the Education Secretary set out really important education reforms yesterday. The introduction of the EBacc, which will increase rigour in our schools, will ensure that children are learning the essential subjects they need to get great jobs. Of course, today—this has not been much talked about yet, but perhaps will be later in this Session—we should reflect on the fact that unemployment is down again in our country, employment is up, and long-term unemployment is down. For the first time, wages are growing faster than since the great recession. That shows that our economic plan is working.

[Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)]

The Iraq war a decade ago and its aftermath have been an unmitigated disaster. The Chilcot inquiry into the causes of that war has now been running for six years at a cost of £10 million. Is it true that the Chilcot report has been delayed until next year?

[Mr Osborne]

The Chilcot inquiry is completely independent of Government, and we do not determine when it publishes its conclusions. I agree with the hon. Gentleman that it has been a long time coming, and people are running out of patience, as they want to see that report. I make a broader observation, which is that there was a cross-party alliance between the Scottish nationalists and the Conservative party when we called for that inquiry to be set up earlier than it actually was. If it had been, we would have the conclusions now.

[Angus Robertson]

It is worth remembering that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister both voted for the war that we were led into by the then Labour Government. Does the Chancellor feel that he has no moral or political responsibility to get to the bottom of the reasons why we went into this catastrophic war in the first place, and what is he going to do about it?

[Mr Osborne]

That responsibility was fulfilled when we voted to create an independent inquiry. We want to see the results of that independent inquiry. Those involved in Chilcot will have heard the view of the House of Commons today, and indeed the public concern, about how long the inquiry is taking, but ultimately it is an independent inquiry. If it was not independent, people would question its motives and the basis on which it had been set up. It is independent, but it should get on with it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Angus Robertson Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I know what a problem that road can be. Infrastructure investment does unlock growth. That is why, on Monday, we announced the biggest roads programme in a generation, including £2.3 billion for major roads in Yorkshire and the north-east. I am very happy to arrange a meeting between him and the Secretary of State for Transport to discuss the matter. He will know that we have substantial plans to upgrade the Hopgrove junction, where traffic from the northern ring road gets on to the A64. We believe that that will make a real difference.

[Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)]

Does the Prime Minister intend to devolve corporation tax to Northern Ireland and Scotland in tandem, or, in contrast with the vow, has he decided to veto the devolution of corporation tax to Scotland entirely?

[The Prime Minister]

We are implementing the Smith commission. That is what we believe should be implemented. The Chancellor will set out our position on Northern Ireland in a moment or two. Let us be absolutely clear about the big differences between Northern Ireland and Scotland: Northern Ireland has a land border with the Republic and had all the difficulties and troubles—

[Angus Robertson]

indicated dissent.

[The Prime Minister]

By shaking his head in that way, the hon. Gentleman shows how little the Scottish nationalists care about the rest of our United Kingdom.

Oral Answers to Questions

Angus Robertson Excerpts

Wednesday 16th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I would have thought Opposition Members would listen to the Labour-dominated Public Accounts Committee and its Labour leader, who said this:

“Over the last ten years, the productivity of NHS hospitals has been in almost continuous decline”

and

“the health service has improved as a result of this increase in spending. But the taxpayer has been getting less for each pound spent.”

That is what we have to look at, and the fact that we are not getting even the European average on cancer outcomes, and that people here are twice as likely to die from a heart attack as people in France. We have an ageing population and more expensive treatments, and the Opposition’s answer is to do absolutely nothing. How utterly, utterly feeble.

[Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)]

Today’s statistics show that unemployment has gone down in Scotland but has gone up in the rest of the UK. Will the Prime Minister ensure that the trend of lower unemployment in Scotland is not endangered by ridiculously high fuel prices and fuel duty, in what is still the largest oil-producing nation in the European Union?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for what he says. Clearly, today’s figures are a very mixed picture. The youth unemployment figures are disappointing, once again, but overall what is interesting is that employment is up and the number of claimants nationwide is actually down: the number of claimants has fallen by 32,000 since last year.

On fuel duty, the hon. Gentleman knows that we have a Budget coming up. I do not want to speculate as to what will be in it, but I know the pain that families and small businesses are feeling from the huge number of fuel duty increases put through by the previous Government. In their last Budget they put through seven fuel duty increases—one for before the election and six for afterwards. What a surprise that Labour did not even have the brass neck to raise that one today.