Global Economy

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Thursday 11th August 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I would make the observation that only every Labour Government in history have left office with unemployment higher than when they came into office.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

Is not the best way to help the hard-pressed families, taxpayers, jobseekers and pensioners mentioned by Members in all parts of the House—people who are not rioting, but getting on with the business of trying to make savings in their budgets and their family’s income—to ensure a stable economy, so that they can make sure that their living standards are maintained in the long term?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right. What we are able to provide in the Government debt market is the stability that is sadly lacking in other Government debt markets. All of us now need to rise to the challenge of removing the obstacles to growth; that will mean confronting some vested interests, pressure groups and, dare I say it, even, potentially, trade unions, but it is absolutely essential that this country wakes up to the competitive pressures of the modern world—the competitive pressures that countries such as China and Brazil present to us—and gets the private sector growing in a way that will create the sustainable jobs that were so lacking in the past 10 years.

Banking

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I just pointed out that a Lehman Brothers executive was one of the biggest donors to the shadow Chancellor’s campaign, and I think the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner) shouted at that point, “Well, I didn’t vote for him.” [Interruption.] He repeats it; in fact, he probably did not vote for the Labour party leader, because as far as I can tell virtually no Labour MP did. That brings me to this point: the key thing about the Labour party and its fundraising is that it gets money from the trade unions and changes policy as a result.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

On behalf of the small businesses and voluntary sector in my constituency, may I thank the Chancellor for his announcements about the business growth fund and the big society bank? Is not the reason why the shadow Chancellor’s statement was so empty that the Opposition realise that they did nothing so constructive during their 13 years in government?

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend makes the very good point that we need to see more support for small and medium-sized businesses in our constituencies and in our economy. The regional business fund that I talked about, to which the banks have today made a commitment of an additional £1 billion, is very important because it addresses one of the weaknesses in the British economy—the absence of support, particularly equity support, for small, expanding businesses. I think that this will make a significant contribution to that.

Equitable Life (Payments) Bill

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Tuesday 14th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms]

I will make a little more progress, and then I will gladly give way again.

The ombudsman spotted a contradiction, and wrote to every member in July making that clear. She said:

“In the light of the new Government’s commitment to implement that recommendation… the approach embodied in the Chadwick report has thus been overtaken by events and cannot provide a basis for the implementation of my recommendation.”

In opposition, the Minister and his right hon. Friends could promise the earth, but now that they are in government their promises are worthless.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

The right hon. Gentleman has not yet mentioned the impact on the public purse. He does talk, however, about how incandescent former policyholders are. They are incandescent about the fact that compensation has been delayed for so long and that the last Government left the economy in such a mess, and as a result the ombudsman has had to say that compensation will have to be limited because of the effect on the public purse. How will Opposition Members explain that to policyholders?

[Stephen Timms]

If the hon. Lady had suggested that the words she has just uttered should have been inserted into the pledge before it was signed by so many Members on the Government Benches she would be on stronger ground, but she and many others gave the impression they were signing up to it in full. Indeed, they did sign the pledge as it stood, without those caveats, so it is no good their now coming back and saying, “We didn’t quite mean what EMAG thought we meant when we signed that pledge.” Therefore, this is the situation: the ombudsman says her proposal and Chadwick are irreconcilable, EMAG backs the ombudsman, and the Minister said before the election that is what he would deliver, but now he says the opposite.

Equitable Life

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Thursday 22nd July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

Many hon. Friends have raised that issue with me in debates in recent weeks, and I have asked my officials to look carefully at it. I have also thought through very carefully how we could make such a proposal work, but I am yet to be persuaded that we can do so in a way that is fair to policyholders who might not receive an interim payment.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his announcement. Many of my constituents will be delighted at the speed with which he has tackled the matter. I noted the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s apology, but also that it was limited to Equitable Life policyholders. He did not apologise for the fact that the economic situation left behind by the previous Government has limited necessarily the payments that my constituents and others will receive. Should his apology extend to that?

[Mr Hoban]

I am not going to refer to the letter that the former Chief Secretary left for his successor, but I must say that I did not get one from him on Equitable Life.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The Office for Budget Responsibility is wholly independent. Decisions of the sort that the hon. Gentleman has described are a matter for the OBR to take on its own initiative—that is what having an independent body means.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

The issue of business start-ups and supporting small companies has been mentioned this afternoon, but many of them are finding it very difficult to access bank financing. I was wondering how the Budget proposals will assist them, because growing the private sector is essential to improving our economy.

[Mr Hoban]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of banks being in a position to lend in order to encourage the recovery. That is why in the Budget we announced an extension of the enterprise finance guarantee scheme by a further £200 million to enable the banks to lend to small businesses. We will be publishing a paper later this month on business finance, which, again, will put forward ideas about how we can continue to sustain the recovery by ensuring that the banks are in a position to lend.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for that advice on timing.

My constituents understand that, as a country, we are in a hole. The public sector makes up nearly 50% of the economy, and we have the second highest budget deficit as a percentage of national wealth of any OECD country—it is high not only relative to our competitors, but by historical standards. According to the Library, the deficit was 11.1% last year, compared with previous peaks of 7.7% in 1993-94 and 4.8% in 1980-81. This year, we are in the ludicrous position whereby almost a quarter of all the money the Government spend is being financed by more debt.

According to the OBR, things are worse than the previous Government told us. The structural deficit—the part of the deficit that will not disappear as the economy recovers—which we should focus on, is worse than predicted in the previous Budget. My constituents recognise that the structural deficit is partly the result of a global recession. They and Conservative Members also entirely understand that it is not all the fault of the previous Government, who had to respond to a recession. However, it is also partly the result of the previous Government spending more than they were willing to raise in tax over a prolonged period.

Some Labour Members seem to have convinced themselves that the recession is all the fault of bankers. It is rather ironic for them to blame bankers when we consider that the things the banks did wrong—failure to set aside money in the good years, holding liabilities off balance sheet and constantly going to the markets to raise money—are exactly the policies that Labour pursued in government. The fact is that we were running a structural deficit of nearly 3% from 2002-03 through to the beginning of the recession. We are still waiting for an apology for that mistake, which has contributed to the problem that we face. Indeed, listening to the synthetic anger of Labour Members today has been rather difficult, because the current Government are dealing with the mess they inherited from the previous regime.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

Would my hon. Friend like to comment on the fact that there is not a single Opposition Back Bencher here today? It may well be a sunny afternoon, but not a single person is here to defend Labour’s record when my hon. Friend is talking about some very serious matters.

Financial Services Regulation

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

What I said about Northern Rock was that we should have found a way to have a Bank of England-led reconstruction of that firm. The previous Government then introduced legislation in Parliament that would have allowed that to happen in the future. That is exactly how they proposed to handle future bank failures. [Interruption.] The shadow Chancellor says that we voted against it. We did not vote against the Banking Act 2009, by which he introduced the procedures for a Bank-led reconstruction. He continues to shake his head. I seem to remember that I went to his office in the autumn of 2008, pledged my support and delivered on that support.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

As someone who worked with the FSA before I was elected and had to plough through many long consultation papers and then try to help business to understand them, may I perhaps suggest to the Chancellor that the people who are working at the FSA are not the right people to be transferred to the Bank of England and that, in fact, we need people who understand the risks and working in the City of London, rather than those who have just read textbooks about that, as many of the people in the FSA appear to be?

[Mr Osborne]

Of course, it is important that we have the right people doing regulation. The FSA made mistakes, and it has been very candid about them. Lots of institutions made mistakes in the build-up to the crisis—including, of course, the British Government. The people at the FSA have worked incredibly hard in the past couple of years, and I should put on record my tribute to the work that they have done. As for the institutional arrangements that we will put in place, there will be a parliamentary statement tomorrow.

Office for Budget Responsibility

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

If they are similar to the machine tool manufacturers I have met in Birmingham in recent months, they are also very concerned about the size of the budget deficit and that, unless we get a grip on it, there will be an ever higher spiral of tax rises and interest rate increases that would do enormous damage to them and to the people whom they employ.

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

I note that the former Chief Secretary who left that infamous note for his successors is in his place. Surely the establishment of the OBR heralds a transparency and openness that we have not seen before, and will mean that such a note could never be left again.

[Mr Osborne]

It would probably have to be published, if it were—[Interruption.] Well, just the contents.

As I noted from the remarks of the shadow Chancellor, it is interesting that we have not actually heard from the Labour party about whether it supports an independent OBR. It opposed that when in government—

Economic Affairs and Work and Pensions

Baroness Morgan of Cotes Excerpts

Tuesday 8th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech during this debate, which is addressing a critical part of the new Government’s future programme. I congratulate the previous speakers, particularly those who have made their maiden speech and set the bar very high for the rest of us.

It is an honour to speak as the first female Member of Parliament for the Loughborough constituency. I pay tribute to my two immediate predecessors. One, my right hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell), is still a Member of the House. Unsurprisingly, I have been researching previous maiden speeches and it would appear that he made his maiden speech during the Budget debate following the 1979 election. Little did he think that one of his successors, 31 years later, would be speaking as the Conservatives were preparing another emergency Budget after a change of Government.

My immediate predecessor, Andy Reed, worked tirelessly for his constituents following his election in 1997. He was respected as a man of principle and resigned as a Parliamentary Private Secretary over the Iraq war. He was a committed Christian and—I hope that he will not mind my saying this—a well-known sports fanatic. Several Members on the Government Benches have already asked me whether I am going to take his place on the parliamentary rugby team. For the record, the answer is no. I hope that I will be able to serve the people in the Loughborough constituency as well as he did.

Loughborough is a wonderful mix. It sits, as my two immediate predecessors said in their maiden speeches, between Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, and that has clearly not changed. Loughborough is a town of about 50,000 people but it expands by 12,000 or so during term times thanks to our world-famous university, which is back on the map, as the football to be used at the forthcoming World cup was designed there.

Just across the M1 is the town of Shepshed, which, as I have discovered since the beginning of my candidacy six years ago, feels ignored by every tier of government. I hope that I will be able to put that right during my time as its Member of Parliament.

Finally, a number of smaller villages make up the constituency, including Hathern, Sileby, Quorn, Barrow upon Soar, Mountsorrel Castle, and some picturesque Wolds villages. The fact that I have villages in my constituency raises interesting rural issues that I hope to be able to take further forward in the House.

We have a sizeable ethnic community, and it has been my pleasure, in my six years as a candidate in the constituency, to meet and learn more about them, and to visit the Shree Ram Krishna centre, the gurdwara, the Geeta Bhawan and our two mosques.

At one time, Loughborough was renowned for its textiles and hosiery manufacturing. Now, we are known for pharmaceuticals, research and engineering, and for manufacturing bells—Taylor’s is one of the last remaining bell foundries in the country. The bells have been exported worldwide, and even hang in St Paul’s cathedral here in London.

I want to touch on the importance of supporting the manufacturing sector, as other Members have done. Much has already been said—and, I am sure, will continue to be said—about spending cuts and tax rises, but more needs to be said about supporting private sector businesses, which are the backbone of our economy. We rely on our private sector businesses to provide employment, to train apprentices, to give people skills and, of course, to supply exports.

In March in Loughborough, just before the election campaign started, we received the devastating news that AstraZeneca is to close its Charnwood site, with the loss of at least 1,200 jobs locally. I hope that I will have the opportunity in future debates to raise a number of issues relating to the closure. I am proud to be part of the taskforce, of which my predecessor Andy Reed was a vital part, that is working to fill the site and plug the gap. I hope that we will end up not with a black hole in the middle of Charnwood, but with a site that new businesses and many other industries can use, so that we can still have a full manufacturing sector in the town.

We need to support strong manufacturing businesses, particularly with regard to research and development. Although manufacturing accounts for only about 20% of our economy, it accounts for about 75% of research and development in this country. The services sector is important, but manufacturers take on apprentices and give people new skills in a way that the services sector does not necessarily do. We need both. I am delighted to see that, in the coalition agreement, the Government mentioned the need for a more balanced economy; in fact, that was mentioned earlier today, too.

With a background as a solicitor advising companies large and small on raising finance both in the City of London and outside, I hope that I will be able to use my time in the House to ensure that we have a truly business-friendly environment in Britain. That would be good for my constituents, for Loughborough, for the east midlands, for Leicestershire and for the country. I hope that we can replace the jobs that have been lost, and can ensure a burgeoning manufacturing sector by the time that this Government leave office.