Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Employment – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 April 1999.
The hon. Gentleman is well known for his views on parental choice. It is, therefore, completely hypocritical of him to stand at the Dispatch Box denying parental choice and blaming parents for choosing one setting as opposed to another for their child.
The previous Government's nursery voucher scheme began the massive threat to and decline of pre-schools. This Government, in both our years in office, have put £500,000 into support for pre-schools, and, with the support of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, have set up a review, not to find out why pre-schools are declining but to see how they can contribute to the expansion of early years education and child care places.