Trade, Exports, Innovation and Productivity

Debate between Jeremy Quin and Kwasi Kwarteng

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Quin]

Does my hon. Friend, like me, welcome the fact that 2 million extra jobs have been created in this country, whereas—as we heard from the hon. Member for East Lothian (George Kerevan)—there are record levels of youth unemployment elsewhere in the European Union?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I take that intervention in the spirit in which it was made. My hon. Friend makes a very good point.

It is not right or fair to argue that our friends in the eurozone have succeeded where we have failed. Their success, in terms of the current account figures, is actually a measure of failure. It is a measure of the fact that their domestic demand was completely crushed by very tight fiscal consolidation measures. Notwithstanding the political rhetoric, we have avoided much of the very severe fiscal consolidation that those countries have experienced.