Chris Bryant
Main Page: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda and Ogmore)Department Debates - View all Chris Bryant's debates with the HM Treasury
(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Hoban
My hon. Friend will of course recollect that one reason why we made a bilateral loan to Ireland was the particularly close relationship between the UK and Irish economies. That relationship did not exist with Portugal, and it does not exist with Greece, so there is a different approach. It is important to remember that Greece was bailed out by eurozone countries, and that the bail-out of Greece should continue to be done by them.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
Is not the danger of the Government’s deliberate attempts to steer as far away from any involvement whatever that the indirect, knock-on effect for British businesses and banks, and in the end for British taxpayers, will be far more significant than he is letting on? That is why many Opposition Members feel that he is being deeply complacent.
Mr Hoban
I do not think anyone is in a position to accuse this Government of being complacent. We are the Government who have taken action to tackle the fiscal deficit that we inherited from the Labour party. That has enabled the spreads between UK gilts and German bunds to narrow, reflecting market confidence in the measures that we are taking to sort out the problems in the British economy. The Labour party is failing to take its responsibilities seriously or to acknowledge the mistakes that it made when it was in government. It also fails to recognise the strength of support for the actions that this Government have taken to resolve the economic crisis in this country. Had we not taken that action, we might well have been in the firing line with Greece.