Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 11th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

There is no bluff, bluster or bullying on this issue. Businesses, the Treasury and the political parties are making it clear that, on the basis of the evidence, a currency union would be bad for Scotland and bad for the rest of the United Kingdom. The hon. Gentleman rightly lists a range of businesses that have looked at their business models and recognised the damaging effect that independence would have on them. It is important that those businesses feel able to speak out to explain to their shareholders and workers how they see it, because people in Scotland should have every bit of information we need when we cast our votes in the referendum in September.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I commend my right hon. Friend’s answer. Does he agree that anybody who thinks that a currency union between sovereign states is a good idea should make an early visit to southern Europe?

[Danny Alexander]

It is striking how little the Scottish National party appears to have learned from what has happened in the eurozone. The truth is that when setting up a new country, the last thing anyone wants to do is to abandon all the levers that control the economy. The first few decades of independence would be a risky, dangerous and uncertain phase, and embarking on it without the ability to control interest rates or an exchange rate that can, for example, adjust to oil price fluctuations, and with your hands bound on tax and spending—one of the lessons of the eurozone crisis—is an utterly ridiculous proposition.

Trident Alternatives Review

Debate between Julian Brazier and Danny Alexander

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I certainly hear the point my hon. Friend is making. The veterans clearly played an important role in the development of the deterrent, and I am sure that the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Mr Dunne), who is going to reply to the debate, will be able to add something more on that in his comments.

The review was tasked to answer three questions. First, are there credible alternatives to submarine-based deterrence; secondly, are there credible submarine-based alternatives to the current proposal; and, thirdly, are there alternative nuclear postures that could maintain credibility? The review has been thorough, detailed, extensive and objective. The analysis looks in detail at specific combinations of platform, delivery vehicle and warhead design, but excludes technologies that could not be ready by 2035. Variants of the current successor programme are included.

As for alternative platforms, the review considered large aircraft, combat jets, surface ships and multiple types of submarine, including those with a dual role. As for alternative delivery systems, the final analysis was focused on two types of potential future cruise missile—a subsonic stealthy cruise missile and a supersonic cruise missile, each carrying one warhead. Warhead design issues were considered and were important in the review.

An assessment of our ability to deliver alternative options showed that producing the warhead and its integration into a cruise missile or bomb would be the critical challenge. The reality is that the UK nuclear warhead programme is highly optimised around producing and maintaining warheads for the Trident missile. The review found that moving towards an alternative would add technical, financial and schedule risk to the programme. Delivering a warhead for an alternative system would therefore take at least 24 years—deliverable with some risk by about 2040. The crucial point is that the review judged this warhead time scale to be longer than the Vanguard submarines can safely be operated for. There are, of course, options to bridge the gap, but when we look at the cost of alternative systems, it becomes clear that each cruise missile-based option includes an extra £10 billion on its price tag because of the need to bridge the gap.

The bottom line is this, and I quote from the review:

“The analysis has shown that there are alternatives to Trident that would enable the UK to be capable of inflicting significant damage such that most potential adversaries around the world would be deterred.”

The analysis shows that cruise missile-based options are militarily credible, but, because of the gap, my conclusion is that a replacement nuclear deterrent based on the current Trident system is the most cost-effective for the period we are considering.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way and I welcome his conclusion on submarines, but will he accept that continuous-at-sea deterrence is rather like pregnancy—nature admits of no middle position?

[Danny Alexander]

I will come to that, but I do not accept the point; that may be an accurate description of pregnancy, but not of deterrent postures.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. That is the purpose of a number of the schemes I mentioned earlier. The funding for lending scheme is designed to get banks to lend more to small businesses, and a complaints process has been put in place, allowing independent adjudication when cases go wrong. I encourage the hon. Gentleman to refer constituents to the scheme, which has overturned bank decisions in a large number of cases.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

In welcoming the funding for lending scheme and the other measures my right hon. Friend mentioned, may I urge him to break up and sell off as soon as possible the publicly owned banks, so that we have more competition on the high street, and constituents of mine who are unable to borrow on good projects have more to choose from?

[Danny Alexander]

It is right that we own large chunks of two banks, because that was necessary to clear up the mess of the under-regulated, overheated banking system that was created under the present Opposition when the shadow Chancellor was City Minister. We are working as hard as we can to get those banks in good order and we are making progress in the direction that my hon. Friend suggests.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 11th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

Before asking that question the hon. Gentleman should have reflected on the fact that the policy of his party’s Front Benchers is to increase borrowing yet further. They recently announced a new approach, known as pre-distribution. We now know what that means: spend money before it has arrived, in the hope that it might arrive in future. That is the policy that failed this country for 13 years and we will not go back to it.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the 900,000 extra private sector jobs that have been created since the last election will go a considerable way towards easing the fiscal position, as well as cast some doubt over the output figures of the Office for National Statistics?

[Danny Alexander]

I certainly would not wish to question the integrity of the ONS’s figures. However, I join my hon. Friend in highlighting the excellent record of many private sector businesses in creating jobs in all parts of the country over the past two years.