Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Employment – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 December 1986.
If the hon. Gentleman had listened to the answer that I gave he would have been given part of the explanation as to why the figure upon which he relies is completely meaningless. Among the many people who have to be added to the 0·7 per cent. are those who obtain jobs after they have been on a restart course. They are not included in the figure that the hon. Gentleman cited. My hon. Friends and I have repeatedly said that it is pathetic that the Opposition should be reduced at Employment Question Time to nitpicking about all these schemes and trying to find opportunities to denigrate them instead of realising that they represent a positive programme of help for the long-term unemployed.