Lord Harrington of Watford
Main Page: Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Harrington of Watford's debates with the HM Treasury
(14 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Osborne
Of course, an absolute precondition of the package being negotiated is that not just the UK but the IMF and others believe that it will work. An enormous amount of effort is going into putting together a package that will deal not just with the sovereign debt situation, but—the former Chancellor alluded to this—with the Irish banking situation. That is a key part of the package.
Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that a main cause of the problems in Ireland is the pursuit of those very policies that Labour Members would have us carry out here—borrow, borrow, borrow and spend, spend, spend?
Mr Osborne
Ireland had over-leveraged banks, and they were poorly regulated. We are all picking up the pieces of something similar in the UK.