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Mr. Clegg:
Look at what we have: we have troops in battle without proper equipment and guillotined defence budgets in a world that has changed out of all recognition since the cold war, yet the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition want to spend billions of
pounds of taxpayers' money replacing and renewing a nuclear missile system designed to flatten Moscow at the touch of a button. How are we to face the threats the country faces if Government thinking is so stuck in the past?
The Prime Minister: I give the right hon. Gentleman credit for being consistent in his policies-something that I cannot say about the Opposition. It is important for us to maintain the resources we are spending in Afghanistan and it is important to understand in our strategic defence review that we are dealing with the problem of global terrorism, which is quite different from what we have experienced before. I assure the right hon. Gentleman that we will look carefully at all the uses of equipment for the future. It is important to recognise that we want to be part of multilateral discussions for the future.
I add that it is not fair to our troops in Afghanistan to give the impression that they are not properly equipped for the job they are doing. We have spent £3.5 billion from the reserve this year and it will be even more next year. The average expenditure per member of our forces is nearly £0.5 million to ensure that they are properly equipped. More helicopters have gone into Afghanistan over the last few months, as have more vehicles. Special attention is being given to counter-terrorism and dealing with the threat of improvised explosive devices. It is completely wrong to say that our troops are not properly equipped. We are proud of them; they are professional; and they are properly equipped for the job they are doing.
Q2. [314798] Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh, North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op): Before Christmas, the Government confirmed in the pre-Budget review that funding for front-line schools, hospitals and police would be protected and increased in real terms. Neither the Tory Opposition here nor the SNP Government in Scotland have given a similar pledge. Meanwhile, in my constituency, schools are facing savage budget cuts at the hands of a Lib Dem-led council. Does this not show that only Labour can be trusted to protect front-line services?
The Prime Minister: The Scottish Administration have had a record increase in public expenditure as a result of the previous public expenditure review. It is sad that they have not made a priority of education for the young people of Scotland. They will pay a price for that failure at the ballot box. Some of the cuts having to be announced by the Scottish Administration are the result of the wrong and misleading decisions that they have made.
Mr. David Cameron (Witney) (Con): Thirteen years into government and 90 days before a general election, can the Prime Minister tell us what first attracted him to changing the voting system?
The Prime Minister:
No one on the Opposition Benches seems to understand that the politics of the last year has changed for ever the way the public view the House of Commons and our parliamentary institutions or that the status quo cannot last and has to be changed. If the Conservatives want to defend the hereditary principle in the House of Lords, if they want to postpone reform
of the House of Lords for more than 10 years and if they want to refuse the people a referendum on the alternative vote, they are making a mistake about what the British people are thinking. My message today is to the British people: we are prepared to change our constitution-and to change it for the better. We are for the alternative vote; the Opposition are for the hereditary vote.
Mr. Cameron: It is back to the bunker time with that line. I do not know whether the Prime Minister pulled the secretary out of the chair before he typed that one, but it was a lot of old rubbish. The Prime Minister talks about the hereditary principle, but there is only one leader in this House who inherited his title. What a lot of rubbish! [Interruption.] It is good of the Chancellor to have a laugh.
The reason why the Prime Minister is in favour of the alternative vote is that it is election time. This is the man who ducked the leadership election and bottled the general election, and now he is trying to fiddle with the electoral system. He must think that the whole country is stupid. Have another go! Why are you doing it?
The Prime Minister: This is the man who, at Christmas, promised us a policy-a-day blitz to show us the substance of the Conservative party if it were in government. We have had confusion over the married couples allowance, we have had chaos over public spending, we have had exaggerations about crime, and we have had the Conservatives retreating on the hereditary principle and now supporting it for the House of Lords. This is a Conservative party that is in a complete muddle and has no manifesto. The Conservatives do not have the substance to be able to govern the country. They are a shambles.
Mr. Cameron: Why do we not go over some of the history? The last Liberal leader who got suckered into this was, of course, Paddy Ashdown. He wrote this in his diary about Tony Blair:
"Time after time after time, he'd say 'Yeah Paddy, I agree, but I can't get it past Gordon.'"
"Gordon was the "primary block."
Does not real improvement mean cutting the size of the House of Commons, cutting Ministers' pay, and complete transparency on expenses, but is not the one thing that we should not change the ability, at a general election in Britain, to get rid of a tired, incompetent, useless and divided Government?
The Prime Minister: There would be no change under the Conservatives-no change at all. The right hon. Gentleman is supporting the hereditary principle in the House of Lords. He is supporting the- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker: Order. I apologise for interrupting the Prime Minister, but we must have some quiet. I want to hear the answer, and I hope that others want to hear the answer as well.
The Prime Minister:
The right hon. Gentleman's answer is about no change. It is the politics of no change at all. He supports the hereditary principle in the House of Lords. He supports no reform of the House of Lords
for a decade. He supports no referendum to allow the electorate to have a chance. This is a party that has fundamentally not changed at all. The Conservatives are the same as they always were. We will vote for the alternative vote; they are still voting for the hereditary vote.
Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) (Lab): In the context of the Prime Minister's response to the parliamentary institution, is he aware that tomorrow Sir Thomas Legg will publish his full review of MPs' allowances? Building on the creation of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and the Kelly recommendations-all of them the initiatives of the Prime Minister-can we put the sad and sorry saga of MPs' expenses behind us, and rebuild this institution called the House of Commons?
The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We must reform the system of expenses, and we must follow through with the Kelly and, now, the Kennedy reforms under IPSA. But I have to tell the House that we must do more than that. If I have a message for the whole country it is that it is not enough simply to change the expenses system; we must change the way in which we govern ourselves in this House of Commons and in the House of Lords.
I come back to the essential questions. If the Conservatives are not prepared to face up to major change in the constitution, the public will see that the Conservative party has not changed one bit.
Q3. [314799] Mr. Edward Garnier (Harborough) (Con): If what the Prime Minister told us a moment ago about defence spending was correct, why on earth did defence chiefs threaten to resign because of his proposed defence cuts, as General Walker told Chilcot this week?
The Prime Minister: I have to report to the House that defence spending was rising every year during that period. It was rising in real terms, and no one has doubted that every aspect of Iraq and Afghanistan was funded. I repeat that it was the Conservative party that went into the last election wanting to cut defence expenditure.
Mr. Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent, South) (Lab): I am sure that Members throughout the House will applaud the care and support given by the Royal British Legion to those who are serving and have served in our armed forces. The Royal British Legion is asking Members of Parliament and those wishing to be elected to the House to do our bit and keep the faith with our brave heroes. May I invite my right hon. Friend to sign the Royal British Legion pledge in support of our armed forces family?
The Prime Minister: I would be delighted to, and the Defence Secretary has already done so. I pay tribute to the outstanding work of the Royal British Legion and welcome its continued support to our armed forces and veterans. The Government support our service personnel and their families, and our services Command Paper was an attempt to show how we do so right across the services. The Green Paper published today by the Secretary of State for Defence reiterates our commitment to doing this.
Q4. [314800] John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): At the weekend, National Express Group cancelled without consultation the No. 41 bus in Birmingham, causing major problems to people in the city. This is symptomatic of a national problem. When will the rest of the country be allowed to use the same system for bus management as is used in London?
The Prime Minister: I am sure I should call an emergency Cabinet meeting to look into the situation involving the No. 41 bus. I shall look into what the hon. Gentleman has said, and write to him.
Mr. Ian Davidson (Glasgow, South-West) (Lab/Co-op): Does the Prime Minister agree that anyone who wishes to be taken seriously on defence has got to be prepared to commit, unequivocally and without reservations, to the aircraft carriers? Does he also agree that there is a party difference here, in that the aircraft carriers and the Royal Navy are safe with Labour, but they would be sunk with the Conservatives?
The Prime Minister: There is no stronger defender of the case for the aircraft carriers than the Member for the constituency in which some of them are to be built. We are committed to the aircraft carriers. The future policy of the Navy is being organised around them, and I hope all parties will support the aircraft carriers.
Q5. [314801] Mr. John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con): All Governments make mistakes, and all Prime Ministers have regrets. Which of the following does the Prime Minister regret most: (a) the collapse in adult learning, with 1.4 million places lost; (b) the fact that the latest figures show that fewer young people are starting apprenticeships; or (c) the growing gulf between the number of university applications and the number of places? For the brevity you seek, Mr. Speaker, as well as for clarity for the House and the convenience of the Prime Minister, perhaps he can restrict his answer to saying just (a), (b) or (c).
The Prime Minister: What I regret most is the Conservatives' failure to support us as we were trying to take this country through recession with more apprenticeships, more people going to university and college, and every school leaver guaranteed the chance of a job or training. All these things were resisted by the Conservative party.
Mr. David S. Borrow (South Ribble) (Lab): Does my right hon. Friend agree that investing in apprenticeships is an important way of investing in recovery? Does he therefore share my despair at the action of Tory South Ribble borough council in abandoning its apprenticeships scheme, and will he urge it to reconsider that and thereby show for once that the Tories are interested in young people and their futures?
The Prime Minister:
It is difficult to know what the Tory party policy is on anything at the moment, and such is the lack of clarity that certainly for 2010 I could not guarantee that any apprenticeships that my hon. Friend wishes to support would be supported by the Tory party. We have trebled the number of apprenticeships; there are 250,000 of them now. We want to give every young person the chance to get an apprenticeship, if
they have the qualifications to do so. Throughout the recession, we have been trying to maintain apprenticeships so that young people have the qualifications for the jobs of the future. There is only one party opposing that and opposing the expenditure on education, training and employment, and that is the Conservative party.
Q6. [314802] Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con): All those involved in the 1998 defence review know that the Prime Minister's only interest was to get a £1 billion cut from the Conservative expenditure plans, which was reduced to £500 million a year only by the intervention of the Chief of the Defence Staff. Why is it that the Prime Minister is inviting us to believe that all the distinguished servicemen and civil servants who have given evidence to Chilcot on the chaos surrounding the financing and provision of equipment in the run-up to Iraq are wrong, and he is right?
The Prime Minister: The figures show that defence expenditure was rising every year in real terms, and that they were the biggest rises for 20 years. The figures also show that every single urgent operational requirement that the Ministry of Defence asked of us for Iraq and Afghanistan has been met. I am afraid it is the Opposition who are having difficulty with figures at the moment.
Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab): My right hon. Friend has come under severe attack for not cutting the deficit fast enough or hard enough, but those who made those calls in this House seem to agree with him now. Does he think that that is what is meant by the statement that it is "a year for change" on the airbrushed Conservative poster?
The Prime Minister: It is a year for the Conservatives changing their mind every week about every single policy that they put forward. Two weeks ago, the Leader of the Opposition said that it would be "moral cowardice" not to tear up the Budget for 2010. The shadow Business Secretary then said that there would be "calamitous consequences" if that were to happen. Now the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury is boasting that he does
"not have a detailed plan".
In other words, not only do the people not know where the Conservative party stands, but the Conservative party does not know where it stands.
Q7. [314803] Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire) (LD): Thanks to the assistance of Finance Wales, the staff of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Royal Bank of Scotland, we have secured up to 100 new jobs at Regal Fayre in Montgomery. However, those are more than outweighed by 180 potential redundancies in Shop Direct's Newtown call centre. Could the Prime Minister arrange a meeting with the relevant Minister, once I have met Shop Direct's senior management tomorrow morning, to discuss this possible closure, which could cause a localised new recession in Montgomeryshire?
The Prime Minister:
I understand the concern when any jobs are lost; it is a personal tragedy for those people who have, in many cases, given their lives to one company, which is unable to continue to employ them. I shall arrange for these meetings that the hon. Gentleman asks for to take place. I can assure him that every teenager who has been unemployed for six months now
has the guarantee that they will get work or training, and that the services available to those who are unemployed are better than they have ever been. The result of that is that 300,000 people are leaving the unemployment register every month, and that employment is at a higher level and unemployment a lower level than people expected months ago.
Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab): Even though the claimant count is 48 per cent. down in my constituency, it is nevertheless a great disappointment to hear of Bowater going into administration. Will my right hon. Friend do what he can to ensure that the parent company's actions are investigated-it seems to be playing fast and loose with the British work force-and that the work force affected and the supply chain are given every possible support?
The Prime Minister: I know that the regional development agency stands ready to help my hon. Friend's constituents and the company that is in difficulty. This is clearly a difficult time for the work force. The administrators have said that in this case they will keep the business trading while they explore all options, which include looking for a buyer for the business. I can assure him that all the local agencies, including the rapid response teams at the jobcentre, will be available to help those workers in his constituency who are affected.
Q8. [314804] Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley) (Con): I am sure that the Prime Minister is aware that in percentage terms the population of the United Kingdom and Ireland is the greatest reservoir of the prion that causes the fatal and incurable human brain disease vCJD. One of the means of transmission is blood transfusion. Last October, the Government's scientific committee that is examining this issue recommended the use of a filter for blood for transfusion for children initially. When are the Government going to react to that recommendation?
The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman raises a very serious matter in great detail. That recommendation is obviously very important for the future of the blood transfusion service. I shall look at it very carefully and get back to him.
Q9. [314805] Tony Lloyd (Manchester, Central) (Lab): Can the Prime Minister confirm that inheritance tax cuts of £200,000 for the richest 3,000 families could be achieved only at the expense of spending on schools and hospitals throughout the nation? If he rejects that policy, can he guarantee that there will be no Cameronian wobble on this side of the House?
The Prime Minister: The one thing that the Conservatives have stuck to through this month of muddle and division is their policy on inheritance tax. Like their policy on hereditary peers, it will give the richest people in our society the greatest amount of additional wealth. That could be at the expense of schools, it could be at the expense of the health service and it could also be at the expense of defence. I think people should know that the Conservative party's first priority, above all others, is to reduce inheritance tax for those who are perfectly able to take care of themselves. We are for the many, they are for the few.
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