Jobs and Growth

Debate between George Osborne and John Hemming

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I certainly think that a lack of airport capacity is a challenge for this country, but one of the good things that may emerge from the bmi merger is that more slots may become available at Heathrow to open up routes to those cities in China. My hon. Friend makes the very good observation that we have to do much more to expand our exports and our links with the Chinas and Indias of this world. One of the good things that has happened in the past few years is that our exports to China and India are up by a third, and we need to see more of that.

In his speech, the shadow Chancellor dismissed the Governor of the Bank of England as plain wrong. Who appointed the Governor? Did the recommendation ever come across the desk of the shadow Chancellor when he was the political adviser in the Treasury? [Interruption.] We will find out. Yesterday the Governor said:

“We have been through…the biggest downturn in world output since the 1930s, the biggest banking crisis in this country’s history, the biggest fiscal deficit in our peacetime history, and our biggest trading partner, the euro area, is tearing itself apart”.

My message to the House today is that addressing those problems is not easy, but nor is it impossible. I will come on to talk about the eurozone, but first we must put our own house in order, and we are making progress on doing so.

[John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD)]

Tony Blair says in his memoirs that from 2005 onwards Labour

“was insufficiently vigorous in limiting or eliminating the potential structural deficit”.

Does the Chancellor agree?

[Mr Osborne]

I agree with Tony Blair on that and, indeed, on his views on the shadow Chancellor.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Osborne]

I am reminded that the players used to wear “AIG” on their shirts. Perhaps it is a sign of how things are improving that they now wear the name of a major Chicago-based insurer that has chosen to move its headquarters to London. We remember all the stories of companies that moved their international headquarters from Britain a few years ago; now they are coming back.

I want briefly to say something about the eurozone crisis.

[John Hemming]

Will the Chancellor give way?

[Mr Osborne]

Of course I give way to my Liberal Democrat colleague.

[John Hemming]

In 2006, Lord Turnbull, who was at one stage Tony Blair’s Cabinet Secretary, said that borrowing

“crept up on us in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and we were still expanding public spending…You might have thought that we should be giving priority to getting borrowing under better control, putting money aside in the good years—and it didn’t happen.”

Does the Chancellor think the Opposition have learned anything since?

IMF

Debate between George Osborne and John Hemming

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The 2010 quota agreement has not come into effect because it has not been ratified by all the countries. Our bilateral loan will be made only once that quota deal has been ratified. I have listened to the hon. Gentleman for the 11 years for which I have been a Member of Parliament and I cannot believe that he really supports the decision being pursued by the shadow Chancellor. The hon. Gentleman knows from his time at the Treasury and from his broader experience that Britain has a vital interest in economic multilateralism and the institutions that support a more stable economy.

[John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD)]

Does the Chancellor find it odd, as I do, that the Opposition were happy to commit the British taxpayer to the eurozone bail-out but will betray British workers who depend on exports for their jobs by not supporting the IMF?

[Mr Osborne]

To be fair, probably most Labour MPs, in their quieter moments, support the IMF and think it is perfectly sensible that, when other countries add their resources, Britain should do so. The most remarkable thing is that the shadow Chancellor led the Labour party into voting against the implementation of the London G20 deal. Because of the change of Government, we introduced the statutory instrument that gave effect to the London G20 deal, yet the shadow Chancellor led the Opposition against it.