Eurozone Crisis

Debate between Douglas Carswell and Mark Hoban

Tuesday 15th November 2011 Westminster Hall

[Mr Hoban]

Perhaps my hon. Friend will be patient. There are areas where the eurozone needs to tackle its competitiveness to respond to those issues. There is the question whether IMF money is conditional on structural reform to improve competitiveness. The answer is yes, because conditions are built into IMF programmes to ensure that competitiveness changes take place. Portugal, for example, has an extensive programme of privatisation, and the Portuguese Government’s right to be involved in private companies must be abolished. In Ireland, legislation has been passed to increase the state pension age to provide a significant boost to long-term fiscal stability. In Greece, the Government are discussing breaking the link between the national minimum wage and the annual inflation rate, and market reform is being promoted to allow businesses to set wages independently of collective agreements.

[Mr Carswell]

Will the Financial Secretary give way?

[Mr Hoban]

Let me continue. I have only three minutes left, and I want to ensure that I address as many of my hon. Friends’ questions as possible.

We are seeing structural reform to improve the competitiveness of economies hand in hand with IMF programmes. I hope that that will reassure my hon. Friends that reform is taking place in those countries to ensure that they meet their international obligations.

Eurozone (Contingency Plans)

Debate between Douglas Carswell and Mark Hoban

Monday 20th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that we need stability in the eurozone, but I do not think that speculation here will help to deliver that stability to the Greek economy or the wider eurozone.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

Most previous IMF rescue packages that I can think off have generally involved first a currency devaluation and secondly a debt default—or, should one prefer the term, a restructuring. Does the Minister agree that the IMF should be consistent with that approach in regard to Greece, and should not the IMF oversee a decoupling from the euro and a default on the debts, which would be consistent with its approach in other instances and rescue packages?

[Mr Hoban]

The IMF is the body best placed to decide the conditions to be attached to any rescue package that it puts forward. Strict conditionality is attached to the rescue package for Greece, including significant privatisations, tax collection reform and wider structural reforms. However, I think that this is a judgment for the IMF to make.

Finance Ministers’ Meeting (Ireland)

Debate between Douglas Carswell and Mark Hoban

Wednesday 17th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

I thought that the hon. Gentleman almost had it. The crisis in Ireland is around the banking sector, not the fiscal position. I believe that we are taking the right measures to stabilise the UK economy—the cuts we are making in public spending—to get our deficit under control and to keep interest rates as low as possible for as long as possible. Labour Members are the only ones calling for a weaker fiscal position when the world is moving to stronger fiscal stances.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

If we are to spend taxpayer money dealing with this crisis, rather than bailing out the euro should we not be helping Ireland to bale out of the euro or, at the very least, to retain her economic independence against the Van Rompuy system of pan-European economic governance?

[Mr Hoban]

I hear what my hon. Friend says about the crisis. Let me be absolutely clear: no request for support has yet come from the Irish Government. It is important that we ensure that the Irish economy is stabilised—it is in our national interests to do so.

Economic Governance (EU)

Debate between Douglas Carswell and Mark Hoban

Wednesday 27th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hoban]

As I reiterated earlier—and as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has made clear—we will not endorse a treaty that transfers sovereignty from Westminster to the EU. The hon. Lady takes a close interest in these matters, and I know that she will recognise that views among member states about the desirability of treaty changes vary, and that the UK is not the only one that is concerned about this.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con)]

In June, Ministers made a big deal of the fact that the UK Budget would not need to be submitted to EU institutions before it was brought to the House of Commons. Will the Minister confirm that, in fact, the UK pre-Budget report data are part of the European semester process, and that, while we might be exempt from sanctions, we are part of that surveillance? Will he be honest and admit that we are part of the EU fiscal scrutiny process?

[Mr Hoban]

I believe that this Parliament should hear news about this country’s finances before the EU does. We have secured that situation and that was the right thing to do.