Oral Answers to Questions

David Hanson Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

Being part of the single market, on which more than 3 million jobs in this country depend, is absolutely necessary to our national self-interest. The CBI, no less, has said that it is worth about £3,000 per household in this country. Turning our back on the idea of the world’s largest borderless single market would be an act of monumental economic suicide and it is something that I would never support.

[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

T9. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with the Business Secretary that the net migration target is not helpful and will not be met?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

The Conservative party has a long-standing aspiration to reduce net immigration to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands. The Business Secretary was entirely right to point out that the Government need to be open with the British people about those factors in the immigration system over which the Government have control and those over which they do not. He rightly pointed out that the number of British people leaving Britain to live elsewhere, or those Brits living elsewhere coming back, is something that no Government can necessarily control.