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The Prime Minister: I think that I should correct the hon. Gentleman on what the national institute said. In fact, it said that 160,000 people had been helped off benefit and into work, that youth unemployment would have been double what it is today without the new deal and that, contrary to some reports, the new deal has been a success. I happen to know, and I suggest that the hon. Gentleman visits some of the young people who have been on the new deal. Those young people had absolutely no chance at all of getting a job. They were virtually unemployable. They have been given proper training and proper skills and they are in work. That is one of the reasons, as the national institute points out, why long-term youth unemployment has fallen by 70 per cent. Some of us remember the Government whom the hon. Gentleman used to support, who put up unemployment in this country, who said that it was a price worth paying and who turned their back on thousands of British citizens who deserve the chance to get on.
Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover): Is my right hon. Friend aware that he should not spend too much time
worrying about what the Opposition have to say about spending surpluses because they were experts in building up very large deficits? As for the account from the front, the story is that the first Labour Government did not get a full second term because they finished up with more unemployment at the end than there was at the beginning. The second Labour Government fell foul of the same problem. The third Labour Government, in which I served, finished up with more unemployment at the end than at the beginning. There is a very high prospect that this Government will end up with around 1 million more jobs than when we started. That is good news, but it is not spread evenly around the country. We need to do more for the peripheral areas where the manufacturing base has been denuded. Finally, there are about 12 or 18 months to go before my right hon. Friend calls the next general election. This annual report shows a move in the right direction. My right hon. Friend should keep listening to the Labour and trade union movement and people like Jack Jones, the pensioners leader, and he will pull it off.
The Prime Minister: On my hon. Friend's first point about the deficit, he is absolutely right. The Conservatives doubled the national debt. Indeed, when we came to office we were paying more in interest payments on the debt than we were spending on the school system. One of the reasons why my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been able to announce today that we are able to increase spending within the overall Budget figures is precisely the diminution of interest payments on the debt. That is a significant step forward. It is also significant that today the Labour party--and the Labour Government--is the party of economic competence. That is a change from many years. As for jobs, it is important that we carry on with what we are doing. My hon. Friend is right to say that we must make sure that the message on jobs and the action on jobs gets spread to every single corner of the country. Some areas have suffered big industrial change affecting mining and other traditional industries and desperately need greater help. We will make sure that they get it.
Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby): The annual report says that it is
- intended to set out what we have done . . . and what needs to be . . . done.
- I should like to reaffirm my strong personal commitment to restoring the bond of trust between the British people and their government . . . I will expect all Ministers to work within the letter and the spirit of the Code.
The Prime Minister: First, the hon. Gentleman knows that that complaint has been dismissed. However, what is interesting and significant about the Opposition today is that they are making not a squeak on schools, hospitals or
any other important matter. The House hears only pathetic little smears from a party that is not just unfit for government, but increasingly unfit for opposition.
Kali Mountford (Colne Valley): When my right hon. Friend is considering where and how to make investments such as those reported in the annual report, does he take account of the effect on the 59 million people who receive the benefits of accident and emergency departments and cancer treatments, or of computers and books in schools? The list goes on and on. Or does he take account of acts of war and of God? What is it--people or pestilence?
The Prime Minister: I assure my hon. Friend that the investment that we have announced is the investment that we will carry out.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien (Eddisbury): By happy coincidence, it is almost exactly a year since the Conservative party won the Eddisbury by-election, with an increased majority. I have spent my year travelling around the many schools in my constituency. Why does the annual report make no mention of the collapse of morale and enthusiasm among teachers as a result of initiative overload, interference and the imposition of centralisation? Is that not yet another example of spin over substance, and of the Government's contempt for the British people?
The Prime Minister: It is quite something when the Opposition have to congratulate themselves on holding seats that they managed to hold by a small margin. As for schools, nothing would harm teachers' morale more than cutting back on the extra investment that we are putting in. Does the hon. Gentleman mean to say that schools in his constituency did not welcome the extra money that they got in the Budget? I bet they did welcome it. As a result of the commitments made by the shadow Chancellor, schools know that that investment would go if a Conservative Government were elected. The hon. Gentleman is saying that the additional investment that we are making--in schools, hospitals, transport and the police--is unsustainable. [Interruption.] They have just shouted out, "Not deliverable." There it is: it is not deliverable by them, but it is deliverable by us.
Mr. Michael Clapham (Barnsley, West and Penistone): My right hon. Friend will be aware that, when this Government came to power, there were 13.4 million people living in poverty, including 4 million children. Does he agree that those figures show the previous Conservative Government's total indifference to the neediest families in the country?
The Prime Minister: The figures do show that. Poverty and social division grew and, as a result, so did welfare spending. The previous Conservative Government increased welfare spending by an average of 4 per cent. in real terms, year on year on year. In fact, they increased welfare spending more than they increased spending on schools and hospitals. Because this Government are cutting unemployment, we are getting benefit payments down. If the extra money that we have deliberately made available for pensioners and child benefit is taken out, it is clear that welfare bills are falling. What the Tories did was not just unfair, it was inefficient and went against the
basic requirement of a modern economy--that we use and develop the talents of all our people, and not just of the few.
Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome): I thought page 24 was some sort of opinion poll. Is there anything in this annual report for rural areas? It seems to me that there is not. Three and a half years into this Government, many rural areas are still saddled with a Conservative distribution formula that causes our schools and schoolchildren to lose out. When is something going to be done about that, and when will we have an annual report that says that resources are fairly distributed across the whole country?
The Prime Minister: Of course, there are things in the report for rural areas, noticeably the increased investment in transport. I was talking yesterday about the issue of rural post offices and how important that is as well. Rural areas, too, benefit from a strong economy. But I understand that we need to do more in areas such as the one that the hon. Gentleman represents. In particular, we need to do more investing in the essential infrastructure of the country. I believe that we now have the resources, through economic stability, the fall in debt repayments and the fall in unemployment benefit claimants, to put that investment in.
Madam Speaker: Order. We shall now move on.
BILL PRESENTED
Football (Disorder)
Mr. Secretary Straw, supported by the Prime Minister, Mr. Secretary Prescott, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Secretary Cook and Mr. Charles Clarke presented a Bill to make further provision for the purpose of preventing violence or disorder at or in connection with association football matches; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time and to be printed. Explanatory notes to be printed [Bill 160].
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