Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

We are taking steps to reduce business taxes, when others would put them up. We are also taking steps to ensure that energy costs for manufacturers are lower; we set out a package in the Budget. Above all, we are creating a country in which people want to invest and create jobs because they have confidence in our long-term economic plan.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

The number of tax compliance inspections of companies by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is falling, rather than rising. Why is that the case?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 29th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the low interest rates put in place by the independent Bank of England have made life more difficult for savers, although, of course, the growing economy is good news for savers as well as borrowers. My hon. Friend has warmly supported what we have done in the Budget, not only to give people access to their pension pots but to introduce the new ISA. We have also introduced the new savings bond for pensioners, which will come into effect at the end of the year, with higher interest rates to help those in his constituency who have worked hard and saved hard.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Real wages have fallen by £1,600 since the election, so will the Chancellor now answer the question repeatedly asked by Opposition Members: will wages in real terms be higher or lower at the next election than they were at the last election?

[Mr Osborne]

Britain is better off because we are rescuing this country from the economic mess in which the Opposition left us. There is a complete fantasy in the Labour party, demonstrated again in the past hour, that one can have an economic policy that destroys the banks, destroys business and destroys the public finances but somehow helps the people of the country in the process. As we learned to our cost under the previous Labour Government, that is not the case. They wrecked the economy and we are recovering it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 28th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The economy has grown by 2.8 % over the past four quarters, which is the point. First, when the shadow Chancellor was in office, he predicted that there would be no more boom and bust—we had the biggest boom and the biggest bust—and secondly, he predicted that there would be no recovery unless we borrowed and spent our way into economic risk, which has turned out to be untrue. I do not know why anybody in the Labour party still listens to his predictions at all.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

rose—[Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

1. What recent comparative assessment he has made of trends in real wages in the UK and in similar economies.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

The hon. Gentleman asks about trends in real wages. The main deterioration in wages and salaries was from 2007 to 2009 when growth fell from 5.7% to minus 0.6%. This is a vivid reminder of the damage that the great recession did. The Government have taken continued action to help with the cost of living so that last year real household disposable income grew by 1.4%, the fastest growth for three years. Of course, however, these remain difficult times for families, and the only way to deliver improved living standards for the long term is a sustained, balanced economic recovery with low mortgage rates, more jobs and more income tax-free. Our economic plan is delivering that. The Opposition’s plan for more spending and more borrowing would make things worse.

[John Cryer]

Well, that is one of the most vacuous answers I have ever heard, and that is against some very stiff competition. In the past three years real wages in this country have fallen lower than in any G20 country bar one—we are second from bottom. For how long is that going to be sustainable?

[Mr Osborne]

Let us be clear: this country had one of the deepest recessions of any of the countries in the G20 or anywhere else. We had one of the biggest banking crises and our country has had to recover from that, but I point out that in the hon. Gentleman’s own constituency there are now 12,000 more people in work than at the time of the election, and unemployment is down by a third.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 21st December 2010 Commons Chamber

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

T5. Will the Chancellor tell the House whether the Treasury has made any plans for the possible collapse of the euro?

[Mr Osborne]

We monitor the European situation closely. I do not think that a collapse of the euro is remotely on the cards, but obviously stability in the eurozone is in our interests. We want to see a comprehensive solution early in the new year to some of the fundamental issues on having a currency union while not having a fiscal or political union, and we know that eurozone member states are working on those. It is also up to individual member states to do what they can to put their own economic house in order, and we would urge them to do that as well.

Financial Assistance (Ireland)

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

Of course, the support that we are providing with the bilateral loan is to the Irish Government—to the sovereign—and we have every expectation that that will be repaid.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Will the Chancellor now answer the question that the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) asked? Does he believe, as I do, that when British Ministers signed up to Maastricht and the growth and stability pact, they made a mistake?

[Mr Osborne]

To be honest, the real mistake was that countries did not pursue the policies recommended in the growth and stability pact, which was to keep control of their public finances. Year after year during the past decade, the UK was regularly warned that its deficit was growing and that it was not doing enough to deal with it. If we had listened—not necessarily to the European Commission, but to all the other people in the world who were pointing that out—we would have been in a bit better shape than we were when this Government came to office.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Lord Cryer

Tuesday 16th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

As you will remind me, Mr Speaker, I cannot speak for the policy of the Opposition or say whether they have changed their official position which is to support joining the euro, but I make it clear to my hon. Friends and others that we certainly will not join the euro while this Chancellor and this Prime Minister are in place.

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

It was this Chancellor who agreed a 2.9% increase in contributions to the EU and to cede certain powers to Brussels—that is in the papers he signed—so has he not joined that glorious list of British politicians who go to Brussels, lose their wallets and their trousers and then come back and tell us what a great deal they have got?

[Mr Osborne]

I think that the hon. Gentleman is thinking of Tony Blair rather than of this Government. We voted against the increase in the European budget, but we were outvoted because it was a qualified majority vote. We are dealing with the fact that the previous Government gave up half the budget rebate, which is why British contributions are going up, and we are very clear that, although we want fiscal rectitude across Europe, we do not propose to hand over substantive new powers to the European Union.