Economic Governance (EU)

Chris Leslie Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising those points. May I just advise him that the final meeting of the taskforce took place on 18 October? I attended that taskforce, as did my right hon. Friend the Chancellor. We ensured that the language in the taskforce report guaranteed that sanctions would not apply to the UK. Paragraph 18 of the taskforce report refers

“to the specific situation of the UK in relation to Protocol 15 of the Treaties.”

In addition, paragraph 4 states that the measures set out in the taskforce report can be implemented through

“EU secondary legislation…within the existing legal framework of the European Union”,

so nothing in the report requires a treaty change. I am aware that France and Germany have suggested that there may be treaty changes, but we have yet to see the details of such proposals, which would be made to the European Council at the weekend.

[Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister explain why the Prime Minister needs a further week before he updates the House on those matters? Could that be because he has yet to figure out exactly what the Government’s position is? Surely after looking at those negotiations, he recognises that this is an embarrassing position for the Government to be in, because the coalition’s policy on new European initiatives as they are introduced is far from clear.

We are still none the wiser, even though this issue was supposed to be debated today. It remains under “Future Business” on the Order Paper under a motion tabled by the Minister, which proposes that the House

“supports the Government’s approach to improving the functioning of the eurozone and reinforcing economic stability across the EU.”

If the Government are asking us to support their approach, could the Minister tell us what his policy is? It is clear to the House that one lesson we need to learn from the financial crisis is the need for better co-operation between Governments at European and global—G20—level, obviously to ensure that we address the imbalances in the worldwide economy that were the root cause of the crisis.

Of course, the euro area needs to sort out its own difficulties. We have supported eurozone countries in that respect in the past while making it clear that the UK taxpayer cannot be expected to bear the burden, but does the Minister agree that our focus in this country needs to be on jobs, housing and growth, not further rounds of navel-gazing on European governance?

If the Government were regarded as a serious player in Europe, they would have led and not followed these developments over the weekend. There are several reports from various quarters about a set of different policy outcomes—the President of the EU says one thing, and the French President and German Chancellor look set to propose changes to the treaty—but where was the Prime Minister during those conversations?

The Government are quite clearly too scared to talk even to some of their own Back Benchers on that question, but has the Prime Minister spoken to the Deputy Prime Minister about these matters? Whatever the Minister says, there are three wings to the coalition: half of the Conservative party want to leave the EU, the Lib Dems want to go head first into the euro, and the rump of the Government, represented by the Minister, are left straddling those two positions—they are the only ones with nothing to say. Is it not clear that the Prime Minister is isolated within his own coalition? It is no wonder that he is isolated in Europe.

[Mr Hoban]

I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman has been absent from the House for some time, and he is a little rusty on some of these things, but I am sure that he will recollect that the practice followed by previous Prime Ministers was to report back to the House on the Monday after a European Council, not before. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will make the statement that would be customarily expected of him.

It is important to ensure that we learn the lessons from the financial crisis. It was clear in the run-up to that crisis that fiscal discipline was lax not just in the euro area, but in the UK and other states. We have led the way in this debate by introducing the Office for Budget Responsibility, with a clear fiscal mandate for eliminating the structural deficit by 2014-15. The fact that we have led the debate is recognised by international bodies such as the OECD, the International Monetary Fund and others. We have set our mark on the debate in Europe, which is the right thing to do. It is right that other member states should achieve the same high standards of fiscal discipline as we do. We are leading the debate in Europe, not following it. The previous Government were silent on that, so what is the Opposition’s position now?