Banking

Andrew Love Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I am not only disappointed by it; it has been a constraint in what we have been dealing with. It is very explicit—[Interruption.] The shadow Chancellor says this is rubbish, but that was the agreement that he and his colleagues signed up to. That is the problem on this issue, and I think that that is beginning to dawn on them. They have a past—they have a record. It is a record of letting the City get away with murder, and of the rest of us having to pick up the pieces.

[Mr Andrew Love (Edmonton) (Lab/Co-op)]

Following the statement on bankers’ bonuses, how would the Chancellor respond to the one in ten of my constituents who are unemployed and looking for work; the many low-paid workers who face real reductions in their living standards over the next few years; and the many public sector workers who face the possibility of redundancy? Please do not respond by saying, “We’re all in this together.”

[Mr Osborne]

To repeat what I said in my statement, I completely understand the anger and resentment felt by the many people who have lost their job or faced their income being squeezed because of the mess that was created in the British economy by the banking system and those who were regulating it. That is the situation we are dealing with. My priority today has been to put the economic recovery first and to ensure that we get banks to lend to small and medium-sized businesses, so that they can take on the people the hon. Gentleman is talking about. Small and medium-sized businesses are the engine of job creation in the British economy and they are crucial to our revival. It is also crucial that we rebalance the economy so that we are not as dependent as we were on the success of the financial services sector.