Trident Alternatives Review

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and Danny Alexander

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I agree with many of the things President Obama has said, including in his recent Berlin speech. I would point the hon. Lady, however, to the Government’s own threat assessment in the strategic security and defence review, which says that state-on-state nuclear attacks are a tier 2 threat. I will come to the threat analysis in a moment.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

This is the nub of matter. That is just one threat assessment, but no serious conflict with which this country has been involved over decades—extending even to the second world war—has been expected. Wars are unexpected, so why does the right hon. Gentleman rest any assurance on a single threat assessment? How does he know that that threat assessment will not have to be changed in a few days’ time, let alone in 10 or 20 years?

[Danny Alexander]

I will address that point as I move through my speech, although I am glad to have taken my hon. Friend’s intervention. All I would say is that the degree of readiness of our conventional weapons and forces is scaled to the threats of the time, and my precise proposal is that we could adopt a similar approach here.

Economic Growth

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and Danny Alexander

Wednesday 15th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I was not aware of that fact, but the House will remember what happened in 2009 and who was responsible.

The single market helps the UK to attract inward investment. As part of the largest single market in the world—it has 500 million people and is worth £11 trillion —the UK hosts more headquarters of non-EU businesses than France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. UK consumers benefit from EU regulatory standards, and the collective voice of EU member states helps to advance UK interests and influence throughout the world, as the US President said only this week.

[Mr Jenkin]

What evidence is there that the United Kingdom would be unable to negotiate a free trade agreement of its own with the United States if we were not part of the European Union and that we would not be able to negotiate a free trade agreement with the European Union if we were outside it? The treaties say that the EU would have to do that.

[Danny Alexander]

I respect the sincerity of my hon. Friend’s position. He has expressed those views for very many years and has done so coherently. As a politician, I believe, however, in breaking down barriers between peoples, not erecting new barriers, and I was making this point at the Scottish Affairs Committee today on the subject of Scottish independence. So of course it would be possible to strike these agreements, but the net effect on the UK economy of such an approach would be much less advantageous than being part of the largest single market in the world. The collective voice of the EU helps to advance UK interests.

Public Appointees (Tax Arrangements)

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and Danny Alexander

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge) for her questions. Certainly, Treasury officials will co-operate with the investigation which I gather her Committee will undertake into these matters. I welcome that because, as I said in my statement, it is important that the light of transparency is shed on the issue as much as possible. I am sure that her Committee can play an incredibly valuable role in that, as it always does. I gather that the role of HMRC may be the subject of a soon-to-be-forthcoming report from her Committee. No doubt that will speak for itself, but of course the rules that I am putting in place today and the rules that exist for managing public money should be applied by all Departments in relation to public service appointments, and I made clear my view about the particular case that she referred to when I responded to the question from the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown).

I agree that scope matters. I should say in relation to the NHS that although the review looked at board members in NHS organisations, because I wanted it to be done quickly so that we could bring forward recommendations and change the practices across the public sector, its recommendations will apply across the NHS and will need to be applied there in the same way as in any other part of the public sector.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend stress an important assurance which I think he made, that HMRC will continue to be blind as to whether they are dealing with somebody who works for the public sector or the private sector, that all people will be treated equally by HMRC, and that for the most part in his statement he was speaking as an employer? In his review of IR35, will he take great care not to catch up with musicians, artists and others who are traditionally regarded as self-employed but may have controlling roles in organisations? It would be a great mistake if we made the cost of employing those people, particularly international people, much more expensive, to the detriment of the arts in this country.

Public Service Pensions

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and Danny Alexander

Wednesday 2nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

No, this is not conditional on industrial action. Some unions are saying that they are planning strikes on 30 November. Talks on a scheme-by-scheme basis will still be going on at that time. I hope that those unions will feel that, on the basis of this offer, they no longer need to go ahead with that action. I think that would be a constructive response to what I have set out today. The offer is conditional upon an agreement being reached—an agreement by the end of the year on the heads of terms on a scheme-by-scheme basis. It is appropriate that we set out a good offer; as a Government, we want to reach agreement, but at the end of the day the trade unions need to want that, too.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

May I commend my right hon. Friend for his statement and for the tone in which he has delivered it—and, indeed, commend my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General? Will the Chief Secretary welcome the notes of conciliation in the response by Her Majesty’s official Opposition? Although our politics does not lend itself to consensus, is this not a subject on which we wish to reach a broad consensus both for the well-being of public sector pensions and for the country and economy as a whole?

[Danny Alexander]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his welcome and I agree wholeheartedly with his comments. It is precisely the sort of subject on which there should be a cross-party consensus. I think a consensus could be formed around the proposals we have made today. The shadow Chief Secretary says that she wishes to study our proposals. That is fair enough, but I hope that she will see on reflection that the proposals we are putting forward are the right way to go forward on public service pensions both for public sector workers, who are fully entitled to a proper and decent pension, and for the taxpayer as a whole.

Comprehensive Spending Review

Debate between Bernard Jenkin and Danny Alexander

Thursday 28th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I do not accept that. We have to control the welfare bill, which has risen dramatically over the past few years. I will come to that later in my speech.

[Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

It is inevitable, of course, that individual Departments will have to set out the costs of redundancies, and it is right that they should do so in due course. However, will my right hon. Friend set out how much extra interest the Government would have to pay, and therefore how much more public spending would have to be cut in future, if we did not start to make such economies now?

[Danny Alexander]

My hon. Friend asks a very good question. Over the course of the spending review period, our plans will save £5 billion in debt interest, which the Labour party was very happy to pay.