No-deal Brexit: Short Positions against the Pound Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

No-deal Brexit: Short Positions against the Pound

Jack Dromey Excerpts
Monday 30th September 2019

(5 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Simon Clarke Portrait Mr Clarke
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Would that all parts of our country were as well served as Dudley is by the hon. Gentleman, who is absolutely right: it is genuinely dispiriting that in the mother of Parliaments we find ourselves debating material that is more fit for the tinfoil hat brigade than for Parliament at a crucial time in our country’s history.

Jack Dromey Portrait Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)
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As deputy general secretary of the old Transport and General Workers Union and then Unite, I led the battle against the Kraft takeover of Cadbury. A successful and profitable British icon was taken over by a debt-laden American multinational because the hedge funds bought 31% of the shares and sold Cadbury short. Does the Minister not recognise that there is a potential conflict of interest when we have a Prime Minister prepared to sell Britain short by way of a no-deal Brexit, backed by those who make billions daily out of selling our nation short?

Simon Clarke Portrait Mr Clarke
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The short selling regulations cover the sale of shares, so that falls within the remit of the existing legislation. Clearly, we all want to see our country thrive and move forward towards a better future. That will be best done by voting for a deal, as of course many of the members of the hon. Gentleman’s former trade union will have done.