"As ever, the hon. Gentleman makes a serious and important point, and he is absolutely right that as we take tough decisions and come towards the spending review at the end of the year, we will have to try to maintain the services that we particularly value and that protect …..." David Laws - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point, and there are two answers to his question. The first is that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will make a Budget statement in this place on 22 June, when he will set out precisely the state of the public finances, and the …..." David Laws - View Speech
"We are about to embark on a strategic defence review, and all such issues will be considered as part of that. We will, of course, seek to protect the parts of the equipment budget that are particularly important, but I cannot pre-empt the review...." David Laws - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is right that the Labour party’s record on unemployment is very far from the original boasts that were made. That is why, even while we are taking tough action to bring down the deficit, we are ensuring that we invest in apprenticeships. We are also—this is the …..." David Laws - View Speech
"Both those issues are for the Secretary of State for Transport rather than for me. I suggest that if the hon. Lady is concerned about them, she should arrange to meet one of the Ministers in the Department for Transport, who, I am sure, will be delighted to receive her …..." David Laws - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need to ensure that these things take place in a fair way. He will welcome the fact that a fair share of the additional £500 million that we are investing to sustain the recovery will go to Wales...." David Laws - View Speech
"We are obviously going to allocate the apprenticeships out, but is the hon. Gentleman really suggesting that if we are advised by the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions that a part of that particular guarantee is not working, we should go on spending wastefully, in the current …..." David Laws - View Speech
"I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his comments. We quite understand the distress and concern that has been caused in the ports and elsewhere by that situation. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced earlier this week that we would freeze the existing obligations for the rest of the …..." David Laws - View Speech
"It is impossible to pick a figure out of the air, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman—he will be delighted to hear this—that Treasury officials and the Governor of the Bank of England pointed out the beneficial effects of this package in keeping interest rates down and stopping the …..." David Laws - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is staggering that we have been able to find so much waste in Government expenditure, in spite of the state of the public finances and public borrowing. We would have expected the previous Government to have taken action to eliminate some of the …..." David Laws - View Speech