Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 2nd July 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think my hon. Friend is fully justified in taking a lot of credit for the work that has been done on potholes. He has raised the issue in every forum, including the House, over and over again, which is partly why Northamptonshire received £3.3 million specifically to spend on repairing roads. He will be pleased to know that that is enough to fill in a staggering 62,000 potholes. This is important, because potholes damage people’s cars, motorbikes and cycles when they are on their way to work, and mending them is good for hard-working families.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Arthur Jones, a 73-year-old Army veteran from Denbigh in my constituency, went hill-walking in Crete. He has not been seen since 19 June, and his family are frantic with worry. Will the Prime Minister ensure that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues its excellent work, and co-operates with the Greek Government to ensure that Arthur is found?

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly do everything I can to help the hon. Gentleman with his constituent. I will have discussions with the Foreign Office about all the consular assistance that is being given, and about anything else that it can do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We see today a growth in employment, a fall in the claimant count and a fall in youth unemployment. As I have said, we are losing jobs in the public sector because we had to make cuts to it, but, most importantly of all, while we lost more than 100,000 jobs in the public sector in the past year, we gained five times as many in the private sector—[Interruption.] The shadow Chancellor, as ever, wants to give a running commentary, but let me remind the House what he has said, because this is one of the most important quotations in the past 10 years of British politics. He said:

“Do I think the last Labour government spent too much, was profligate, had too”

much

“national debt? No, I don’t think there’s any evidence for that.”

That phrase will be hung around his neck for ever.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Q9. Five hundred homes in my constituency were flooded in November. Residents in my constituency are terrified that their homes and businesses are now worthless because this Government have failed to replace the flood insurance scheme. They have also cut more than £200 million from flood defence works. Why has the Prime Minister sold my constituency down the river?

[The Prime Minister]

I can give the hon. Gentleman welcome news. We had to extend the period of the scheme so that we could continue negotiations, but I am confident that we will put in place a proper successor to it. An announcement will be made quite soon.

Patrick Finucane Report

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 12th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Every organisation—every Government—has to face up to its own history and explain what it did and why. The British Government get all sorts of criticism, but I do not think anyone can criticise us for not being incredibly open about what happened. I would also say that British-Irish relations are better today than probably at any time in the last 25 years. Getting to the truth about the past really matters, of course, but so, too, does trying to secure a peaceful future for Northern Ireland, and those relations are very important for that, and I want to build on them.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

I have met the family of Pat Finucane here in Parliament and I pay tribute to them for the dignity with which they have conducted themselves in their quest for justice. Public inquiries do not have to be over-long and over-expensive, as the Baha Mousa inquiry shows. If after reading the de Silva report the family of Pat Finucane still request a public inquiry, will the Prime Minister listen to their request?

[The Prime Minister]

I myself met the Finucane family and I will always listen to what they say, but I have to say that I think that what we have done—we have taken a very open approach, putting all the information out there in public—is the right approach and is the best way to get to the truth of what happened.

The hon. Gentleman says that public inquiries do not necessarily take a long time. I refer him to the fact that the other inquiries set up after 2004 ended up costing tens of millions of pounds. The Baha Mousa inquiry was about one individual and a number of hours spent in custody, whereas this is about an issue that has had the biggest police investigation in British history—involving three separate sets of investigations and millions of documents. There would be no concept of a short inquiry for this; it would be multi-year, multi-million pound, with absolutely no guarantee that it would get closer to the truth than this extremely open and truthful document we have in front of us.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 28th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I very much enjoyed visiting his constituency with him yesterday, seeing at first hand the appalling damage done by the floods and speaking with local people, the emergency services and the Environment Agency about all the work that is being done to protect more houses in future. We need to address the insurance issue and negotiations are under way. The Minister for Government Policy, my right hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Mr Letwin) is leading for the Government. I want us to get a resolution so that insurance companies provide what they are meant to provide, which is insurance for people living in their homes who want proper protection.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

I thank the Prime Minister for his expressions of sympathy for the family of my elderly constituent who died in the floods. I join him in expressing sympathy to the families of all those—I think four people—who have died in the floods. Will the Prime Minister immediately reverse the 30% cuts he has made to flood defences in the past two years? What part will he play in the issue of flood insurance for those who live in flood risk areas?

[The Prime Minister]

Let me join the hon. Gentleman in paying tribute to his constituents, who have had to bear some truly terrible floods. The pictures of floods in St Asaph were of biblical scenes. The emergency services have performed extraordinary feats to rescue people and to help people at what is a very difficult time. On flood defence spending, the Government are planning to spend more than £2 billion in the next four years. That is 6% less than in the previous four years, but we believe that by spending the money better, and by leveraging money from private and other sectors, we can increase the level of flood defence spending. The spending that is already under way will protect an additional 145,000 homes between now and 2015, but if we can go further then of course we should.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 17th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I will certainly join my hon. Friend in that. This is an important announcement, because the new enterprise allowance gives people who become unemployed the chance to set up their own business and enterprise. Under the current rules, people must wait three months before being able to access that programme, but under our plans, they will be able to access it from day one of becoming unemployed. I want to see many more new businesses started up in our country to build on the record of last year, when more businesses were established in Britain than in any year in our recent history.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Q11. When in opposition, the Prime Minister said:“all too often, when you put the questions to the Minister, the answer is pretty much a ‘not me guv’ shrug of the shoulders…There is a serious accountability problem with our political system.”Which of his Cabinet Ministers will take responsibility for the fiasco of the west coast main line?

[The Prime Minister]

The Transport Secretary came to the House and made a full statement and gave a full apology for what had happened. I must ask the House this: can we remember a Labour Minister ever apologising for anything? Anyone? None! [Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 25th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The fact is that if one looks at the figures today, there are still families in London receiving housing benefit worth more than £50,000 a year. Each one of those families is taking up the hard-earned taxes of many working people earning far less, who could not dream of living in such houses. The point that he makes about pensioners is right, and I am proud of the fact that the Government will be increasing the basic state pension by £5 a week, starting in April, because we believe in dignity and security for our pensioners in old age.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Q10. What does the Prime Minister make of the National Audit Office’s slating of his flagship Work programme? It says that the Government have totally overestimated the number of people that it will put back to work. It is not so much a Work programme as a “doesn’t work” programme.

[The Prime Minister]

Instead of just reading the press release, the hon. Gentleman should read the NAO report, which praises the Government for introducing a scheme in such a short time. The basic point that the NAO is making is that the Work programme is not putting taxpayers’ money at risk but putting the providers at risk, and that is a different way of doing things. It is about payment by results, getting better performance and value for money—things that his Government never provided.

EU Council

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Monday 12th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I went to Brussels with one objective: to protect Britain’s national interest, and that is what I did. Let me refer to what I said to the House last Wednesday. I made it clear that if the eurozone countries wanted a treaty involving all 27 members of the European Union, we would insist on some safeguards for Britain to protect our own national interests. Some thought that the safeguards I was asking for were relatively modest. Nevertheless, satisfactory safeguards were not forthcoming, so I did not agree to the treaty. Let me be clear about exactly what happened, what it means for Britain and what I see happening next.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Où est Clegg?

--- Later in debate ---

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, which is that we are a major player in the European Union, not least because we are the second largest net contributor, which gives us a huge amount of influence. We have safeguarded the European Union and its treaties—not allowing them to be changed if we were not able to get the safeguards that we needed.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Does the Prime Minister know the whereabouts of the Deputy Prime Minister; and will their tiff lead to separation and divorce?

[The Prime Minister]

No.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 15th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I agree with my hon. Friend, but the key is to try to get rid of so much of that bureaucracy. Under the previous Government, the number of managers went up faster than the number of nurses, and our aim is to reduce that bureaucracy, get rid of that bureaucracy and put power in the hands of GPs and their patients, so that the decisions taken in our constituencies about hospitals and services are driven by the choices our constituents make, rather than by bureaucrats. That is the key to those reforms and why I hope everyone in the House will support them.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Q10. Is there any truth in the rumour that tomorrow the Liberal Democrats will move the writ for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election for 13 January, thus denying the good people of Oldham a politician-free Christmas and new year? Is that unseemly haste over the festive season a cynical attempt by the Government to avoid the wrath of the public and especially students on tuition fees, school cuts and police cuts?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chris Ruane and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point, and this policy will be road-tested on the bigger companies that must introduce it first. However, we must accept that there is a problem with only 10% of very small businesses having pension provision, so 1.2 million people will have the chance to save. We will look very carefully at the reforms, and they will not be introduced for small businesses until at least 2014.

My hon. Friend will know that I have appointed Lord Young to look at all the impacts on small businesses. We also have the one-in, one-out rule under which every new regulation must mean that another regulation is scrapped.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

Q7. Will the Prime Minister tell the House the total overall saving from reducing the overall number of elected MPs by 50, and increasing the number of unelected Lords by up to 100?

[The Prime Minister]

Let us start with the first thing: reducing the size of the House of Commons.

[Chris Ruane]

Costs.