"In Burnley in 2009 we were classed as a basket case—a town that was going nowhere, or going down. That was at the time that the future jobs fund was happening. Last year we were cited as the most enterprising town in the UK. We have doubled the number of …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"Is the Secretary of State as disappointed as I am by the constant deriding of manufacturing and the growth in the economy by the shadow Secretary of State, who, every time he gets up, runs the economy down? Is that the right way to give confidence to businesses to drag …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman comments on what the Conservatives have done over many years. Will he, during his speech, explain what the Labour Government did on this issue for the 13 years they were in power?..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman says that the German and US economies have done well and have not faded like our economy. Does he accept that those two countries supported their manufacturing sector while the Labour party, when it was in charge, ran our manufacturing sector down from 22% to 9% of …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the destruction or non-acceptance of careers advice in schools—by both the previous Government and, I have to say, the present Government—is not helping young people to get into apprenticeships or further education? Does he agree that if we got professional careers advice back in …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to make a contribution to the debate on the Gracious Speech, which was delivered earlier in the week. I want to talk about the economy, particularly in relation to apprenticeships and trainees.
"I can tell the hon. Gentleman that I was pleased to visit the Rolls-Royce training facility in Derby only a couple of weeks ago, and I was delighted to see the millions of pounds of investment being put into it. Rolls-Royce has picked up the story and is getting on …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I was about to move on to the oil industry, to which former members of the armed forces make a substantial contribution. I was on an oil rig in the North sea about 12 months ago and quite a number of ex-military personnel …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"Exactly; once the kit has been provided, the support comes from those companies. No company on the north coast of Scotland can build a 17,000-tonne jacket or a topside that weighs more than 45,000 tonnes for the North sea. Those pieces of kit are being built in Spain and South …..." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech
"I refer the hon. Gentleman to what I said earlier about major structures. I agree that sub-sea equipment is built here. I used to own an engineering company that still builds sub-sea equipment. However, we can no longer build major structures...." Gordon Birtwistle - View Speech