EU: UK Membership

Debate between Viscount Younger of Leckie and Lord Davies of Stamford

Monday 11th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Stamford]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many jobs they think would be created by the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My Lords, the Question is based on multiple hypotheticals and intangible variables. I will do my best to deliver my response with a touch of realism. The Government’s policy on the EU is clear. It was set out most recently in the mid-term review and was confirmed in the Prime Minister’s speech, so no analysis has been made at this time of the number of jobs that might be created or, indeed, lost as a result of a UK exit.

[Lord Davies of Stamford]

My Lords, I am afraid that the Minister’s bureaucratic evasion cannot avoid the bare fact that no one has ever suggested that leaving the European Union would create a single job, but everybody knows that doing so would put at risk many jobs, both present and future, depending on future decisions about the location of investment. Against that background, why are the Government gratuitously creating this uncertainty for investors and employers? Can we have an explanation for why over the past few weeks several Cabinet Ministers have openly been talking about their willingness to leave the European Union?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

The noble Lord is right in saying that we were right to stay within the European Union. The reason that decisions have been made to get rid of the uncertainty is because questions are being asked, not only within the UK but within Europe, about our future, and it is right to settle that now. I stress that the noble Lord is right in saying that it is very important that we stay in the EU. The single market provides UK businesses with access to a market of 500 million customers worth around £11 trillion in 2011. Between 1992 and 2008, the single market is estimated to have raised EU GDP by 2.13% and to have created 2.77 million new jobs. It is estimated that those benefits could be doubled with the removal of the remaining trade barriers.