Business and the Economy

Debate between Baroness Burt of Solihull and Ronnie Campbell

Monday 14th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

I think that the Queen should have just carried on in her carriage and gone past Parliament and on to Windsor castle. She would have been better off, because she spent only 15 minutes here.

I want to raise the question of the green investment bank and the enterprise zones within it. In my constituency we asked a few months ago, at the time of the autumn statement, whether we could have an enterprise zone, because we have a big energy sector and are doing a lot of work on wind turbines and at the port of Tyne. I am a bit worried about the green investment bank, because I do not think that it has enough. There is £1 trillion of money in the green industry. I might add that our competitors are well ahead of us; Sweden, Denmark and Germany are far in advance of us on green energy, especially wind turbines. Green investment is a road to our recovery, and I am sure that we will eventually manage it, but unfortunately, because of what we have in the Bill, it will not happen.

[Lorely Burt]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman that we should give the green investment bank more powers, and those are coming. However, the Government have made £3 billion available to the bank. How much would his party contribute to a green investment bank, because it has not been forthcoming on that so far?

[Mr Campbell]

I will not know that until we get into power in 2015, so I will ask the Government then how much they will give. I do not have the answer now, because I do not have that foresight.

One of the other things I want to mention, if the Minister is listening carefully, is that at the Tyne and the port of Blyth, where these industries are up and coming, companies are coming in, having a look around and saying, “Great. We like the two ports of Tyne and Blyth.” But unfortunately for us they go up to Scotland, because they can get more money, grants, investment and incentives there. That is the problem, because Scotland is only 100 miles up the coast. Why would a company invest in the port of Blyth or the Tyne when it could go up to Scotland and get more money? That is a big problem. I would like the Government to have a very careful look at that and to find out about Scotland. Obviously, the Scottish Government are pushing money there, because Scotland is flying away with that industry, and unfortunately we cannot compete. We have had some successes, but unfortunately we know companies that have been to our area, left and gone to Scotland because there is more money in it for them there.

We have a lack of demand in the economy; that goes without saying. We can talk to any economist, but they will all say the same. We have householders who are not spending, banks that are not lending and companies that are not investing, and on top of that we have a crazy decision by the Chancellor to cut capital spending. Some 3% of the construction industry has been cut by this Chancellor. How on earth are we going to get growth when he is doing all those things?

The other week, I saw the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, and I was not sure if it was a Punch and Judy show, a Morecambe and Wise show or the Chuckle Brothers, but when I saw them at that tractor factory my mind started to boggle. I thought, “What are they doing?” and then I started to imagine. There was the Prime Minister taking his coat off, and he turned around to the Deputy Prime Minister—the Liberal Deputy Prime Minister—and said, “I beg your pardon, I didn’t promise you a rose garden,” and the Deputy Prime Minister, straight back to him, said, “Two wheels on my tractor, I’m still rolling along.” That just summed it up, because all those workers were at the back of them, with all their smiling faces. They did not tell them that they were going to sack them, cut their wages or halve their pensions if they could get away with it. That amazes me, and I do not know how those lads felt, but I have not seen a smiling face yet.

Then there is efficiency, as I said before. I jumped ahead of myself there, but on efficiency I saw the ex-Defence Minister, the right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), on the telly the other day, and he wants to cut our wages and pensions and make us work longer. I would like to see the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, because I never thought about getting the register to see how much he is making on the side. When the ex-Defence Minister says that he would like to cut the wages of working people, I would like to see what he has in his locker, in the register, and how much he is making on the side. Those are the people we should be getting at—those who have two or three jobs, especially on the Government Benches. There are one or two on the Opposition Benches, but there are more on the Government side.

We should be spending money, not cutting it like this Chancellor has because he is into austerity. I begin to wonder sometimes about austerity. I begin to wonder about democracy, too, because when I hear Government Members I wonder, “What is democracy?” Those in Greece are not having austerity, and neither are those in France—and they have all been to the ballot boxes. In Germany, after the weekend results in the local elections, the German Chancellor got toast. She got toast—[Laughter.] They even turned her down. Those countries in Europe do not want austerity. Are we not listening—never mind laughing, as this is not a laughing matter—to the people?

The Tories are hell-bent on destroying this country over the next couple of years, instead of going for growth, building houses, schools, roads, bridges and anything we want to get our hands on. Let the capital programme begin again, instead of cutting it. The argument over the cuts is not about economists or economics. It is about real people, and it is real people who we should be defending in this Chamber tonight.