Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Tuesday 25th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

T5. May I take the Chancellor back to the question posed by the shadow Chancellor and by my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Simon Danczuk)? Did Government borrowing rise in 2012-13, as compared to 2011-12?

[Mr George Osborne]

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the deficit fell from 7.8% to 7.7%, so it came down.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr George Osborne]

We are raising more in bank taxes every year of this Parliament than the previous Government raised in any one year during their time in office. My hon. Friend is right; those revenues help to support public services and deal with the deficit. We also have a better-regulated banking system, and with the arrival in April of the Bank of England’s new role as prudential regulator, and the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill currently before Parliament, we are putting right all that went wrong in the banking system.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

T3. Did the Business Secretary let the cat out of the bag yesterday? When asked on the “Today” programme whether his call for investment in infrastructure to kick-start the recovery would mean more borrowing, he replied:“Well we are already borrowing more”.

[Mr Osborne]

We are increasing capital spending more than in the plans we inherited from the Labour Government. This Government are spending more on roads than the previous Government did and, of course, the deficit has come down by 25%.

LIBOR (FSA Investigation)

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

As I say, the chief executive of Barclays needs to account for his actions, and the Treasury Committee provides the platform where he can do that, and as I said, the shadow Chancellor needs to account for his actions too.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

Across the House there is agreement on the need for better regulation of investment banks, but does the Chancellor think regulation on its own, however well designed, will be enough to deal with the rotten culture at the heart of our investment banking, which this episode has revealed? Does it not need a change in leadership to change that culture fundamentally, going forward?

[Mr Osborne]

Where I would agree with the hon. Gentleman is that regulation cannot do everything and we need the right culture of management in the banks, but there is also a job for the regulators here. One of the purposes of the Financial Services Bill is to put the Bank of England in charge and allow the regulator to exercise more judgment. As I have said before in the House, the Royal Bank of Scotland ticked every single box when it came to its takeover of ABN AMRO, yet many people were asking at the end of 2007, “Is that a sensible transaction?” We need the regulators to be empowered to make judgment calls, not just to check whether every line of the regulation has been complied with.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Tuesday 26th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

Can the Chancellor confirm that the Government are going to spend an additional £150 billion in borrowing above their plan of a year ago?

[Mr George Osborne]

The Institute for Fiscal Studies was very clear that, had we pursued the plan proposed by the previous Government, borrowing would be £200 billion more than it is today. As I have said, it is this Government’s credible fiscal plan that has brought record low interest rates and market credibility. We can see across the English channel what would happen if we did not have that credibility. That is where Labour would have put us.

Banking Commission Report

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Monday 19th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

We have made a clear commitment—Sir John Vickers set the back-stop at 2019, but we have said that we want the legislation to go through by 2015. My hon. Friend has to appreciate, and I am sure he does, that it is about passing not just the primary legislation but the secondary legislation through Parliament. That is a very complex matter, because we do not want the banks to find a way around secondary legislation and we do not want to come up with rules that turn out to be full of holes. It is detailed, technical work, but we are absolutely determined to do it and have given ourselves a clear timetable for delivering it.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

How much money has the City of London donated to the Conservative party since the general election?

[Mr Osborne]

rose—

Autumn Forecast

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I thank my hon. Friend for his initial comments. I say this about any future action that we may or may not have to take. On the bilateral loan, I said last week that there were some very specific— I stress the words “very specific”—circumstances that would lead us to support Ireland because of the interconnectedness of our economies. I also said that the European financial stability mechanism, the EU fund, was something that the previous Government had signed up to, and that the UK could not block its use because it operated under qualified majority voting. I had to deal with that situation, but by finding now what I think is a way forward that means that the mechanism disappears in 2013, we have taken a bad situation and made it a lot better.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

Has Ireland’s fiscal consolidation been successful?

[Mr Osborne]

The point that I would make—[Interruption.] Ireland has had to take some incredibly difficult decisions to deal with its fiscal deficit. Its Government have announced, with the support of all the major parties in Ireland, with the exception of Sinn Fein, that they are going to have to take further austerity measures next year and over the next three or four years. If they did not take those measures, the country’s situation would be even more difficult.

Frankly, we should have some respect for the incredibly difficult situation in which Ireland finds itself. We should take some comfort that, because of the measures that we have taken on our public finances, we in this House are able to help the country and that we are not in the firing line in the way that we would have been if the Labour party had won the election.

Financial Assistance (Ireland)

Debate between Gregg McClymont and George Osborne

Monday 22nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I agree with my hon. Friend. I make the point again that if we followed the prescription advanced by the Opposition—they suggest that tomorrow I should get up and announce a brand-new Budget, and engage in fiscal loosening at a time when we have the largest budget deficit in the G20 and at a time of heightened concern about sovereign debt—that would be a completely irresponsible path to take.

[Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (Lab)]

For the last six months the Government have wasted no opportunity to tell us that Britain’s situation is very similar to Ireland’s. Now they cannot tell us fast enough that we are in a very different situation from Ireland, because we have our own currency and control of our monetary policy. Has the Chancellor not spent the last six months talking down the British economy for naked political advantage?

[Mr Osborne]

The reason we are in a different situation is not just because we have a different currency; it is because we have a Government who have put our public finances in order.