PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

25 Debate on the Address
9 MAY 2012
Debate on the Address
26
last year. The Work programme is well under way now,
helping half a million people, and it is the biggest
back-to-work programme in this country since the 1930s.
Let me explain that there are a number of important
measures in this Queen’s Speech to promote growth and
jobs. As well as the Work programme and the youth
contract, we have the national loan guarantee scheme,
with £20 billion to get cheaper loans flowing to small
businesses. The most important work of the Government
is implementing all those schemes and programmes, but
we must do more to rebalance our economy. It is clear
what went wrong. The public sector grew too large, our
economy became unbalanced between north and south
and we ended up too dependent on financial services.
So we know what we need to do as a country. We must
revive the private sector, spread growth and jobs across
the country and make sure that financial services truly
serve the economy—not the other way around.
To expand the private sector we need to cut the
burdens on business and make it easier for employers to
take people on. That is in our enterprise Bill. To make
the most of growth in the energy sector, including gas,
nuclear and renewables, we need to reform the energy
market, and that is what the energy Bill will do. To
make the most of green investment, we need to legislate
properly for the Green investment bank, with £3 billion
of money in its coffers. That will be done through the
measures announced in the Queen’s Speech as well.
Another key issue is the need to clean up the financial
system, and I have to say to the shadow Chancellor,
who sat and did nothing while the financial sector
melted down, that he ought to focus on this part of the
Queen’s Speech. As the Governor of the Bank of England
said last week, there are three vital steps to take, and we
will be taking all of them: proper regulation at last by
the Bank of England, the banks being made to hold
enough capital to keep them safe, and a regime that
means that if they do fail they can fail without the
taxpayer picking up the bill. Those are all things that
the shadow Chancellor never did when he was the City
Minister.
Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/
Co-op): The right hon. Gentleman talks about supporting
small and medium-sized businesses, but the loan guarantee
scheme is a very small drop in the ocean, because the
banks simply will not lend to small businesses in my
constituency. If they will not lend at the current percentages,
they will not lend at lower percentages. That is the
problem. When will he wake up to the fact that Operation
Merlin did not wave a magic wand and did not work?
The Prime Minister: I make two points to the hon.
Lady. First, she may not believe that the national loan
guarantee scheme is big enough, but it is £20 billion of
lending. That is far bigger than anything contemplated
by the previous Government. Secondly, the Merlin
agreement did secure additional lending to big and
small businesses; lending went up. As ever, the shadow
Chancellor is wrong.
As well as introducing vital measures such as banking
reform and the Financial Services Bill, the Government’s
mission is to help families who work hard and do the
right thing. We have cut fuel duty and frozen council tax
and we are lifting 2 million people out of tax. In the
coming months people will see more. There will be a
benefit cap so that people cannot get more on benefits
than the average family earns; there will be higher tax
thresholds so that hard-working families keep more of
their money; and our pensions Bill, announced in the
Queen’s Speech, is set to deliver a £140 basic state
pension that will massively reduce means-testing and
reward those who work hard and save hard all their
lives.
Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con): Was the
Prime Minister as disappointed as I was that the Leader
of the Opposition again refused to support the benefits
cap, which is already at a level above the average wage
of people in Great Yarmouth who work hard? Will
my right hon. Friend confirm that the Government will
continue to make sure that it will always pay to work?
The Prime Minister: I have to say that this was about
the only interesting point in the Leader of the Opposition’s
speech. When he is asked very clearly whether he supports
a benefit cap and whether he thinks it is right that
people can get more than £26,000 a year on benefits, his
answer is that it is just fine—carry on claiming. That is
Labour’s message to the hard-working people of this
country.
As the Leader of the Opposition covered so little of
the detail, for the benefit of the House I want to run
through some of the Bills in the Queen’s Speech and the
steps we are taking. One thing we are doing is helping
the most vulnerable of all in our society—children who
do not have a family, who are stuck in the care system
and who, in too many cases, have been left there for too
long. That is why we are legislating on adoption, as set
out in this Gracious Speech. We are going to publish
detailed information on how councils perform, setting
clear time limits for cases to get through the courts and
making it illegal to turn down an adoptive family on the
basis of race. We say it is time to end the patronising,
politically correct prejudice that says that black parents
cannot bring up white children and that white parents
cannot bring up black children. It is time to make the
system colour blind.
Mr Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab): Given the recent
scandals that have engulfed the Government, why is a
lobbying Bill not included in the Queen’s Speech?
The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman’s party had
13 years to produce a register of lobbyists. We have now
published our proposals for a register of lobbyists and
we will legislate for a register of lobbyists. [Interruption.]
I hate to add to hon. Members’ misery, but we have a
Queen’s Speech for the 2012-13 Session that is packed
with great Bills and we will have one for the 2013-14
Session that is packed with great Bills. We will also have
one for the 2014-15 Session that is packed with great
Bills, and when we have beaten the rabble in opposition
at the next election, we will have another one all over
again.
Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab):
Another group of vulnerable people are the 800,000 who
struggle without care and the millions of over-burdened
carers. They will be disappointed if not angry that there
is no Bill in this Session, as promised, to legislate for a