Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Children, Schools and Families – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 30 November 2009.
Kevin Brennan
Minister of State (Department for Children, Schools and Families) (also Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) (Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs) (also Department for Children, Schools and Families)
2:30,
30 November 2009
Everything that the hon. Gentleman has just said is absolute rubbish. It constitutes the usual scaremongering and hyperbole from the Opposition, in an attempt to get headlines in the tabloid press, and it is not true. If he had bothered to ask a question about ContactPoint, I could have reminded him that it has the support of our national partners-including the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Barnardo's, Action for Children, Kids, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, and the Children's Society-and he ought to be supporting it.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
