Greece

David Mowat Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that Britain has been a long-standing friend of Greece and the Greek people. There is huge affection in Britain for the country and its people, as evidenced by the fact that so many people choose to spend their holidays there. There is such solidarity and friendship with Greece, but Greece has to make its own decisions.

On our contacts with the Government—I was asked about them earlier—I have of course spoken over the past few months with the Greek Finance Minister and our Prime Minister spoke to the Greek Prime Minister just a week or two ago.

[David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con)]

One aspect of all this is the amount of money that the IMF might be about to lose. That money was subscribed by some of the poorest countries in the world, including countries poorer than Greece. Does the Chancellor agree that it would be quite wrong for places such as India to take a hit for any of this? Has he had any discussions to that effect with the IMF?

[Mr Osborne]

As I said earlier, the IMF has preferred creditor status and it has precautionary balances—in other words, it can withstand losses—and no one has ever lost money by providing support to the IMF, so we should bear that in mind as we have these discussions.