Informal European Council Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Informal European Council

Denis MacShane Excerpts
Tuesday 31st January 2012

(12 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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One does not need to look any further than the European Commission itself, which actually carried out an investigation into a financial transactions tax and found that it could cost 500,000 jobs in the European Union. That is why the whole idea of pursuing this at the moment is completely wrong. Of course, it would be different if the whole world was going to accept a financial transactions tax, but that is extremely unlikely to happen. That is why I do not think it is the right approach. But let us be clear: in this country, we do get our financial services to make a proper contribution. For instance, we have stamp duty on share transactions, which actually raises considerably more than the French are planning to raise with their early foray into this area.

Denis MacShane Portrait Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab)
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Will the Prime Minister confirm what I think the Chancellor has said over the past couple of days, which is that when more money is required by the IMF, Britain will not fall short?