IMF

Kelvin Hopkins Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I do not agree with my right hon. Friend on this point, because if the IMF said it was never going to support a loan or undertake a programme with a eurozone country, it would, first, be walking away from one of the largest economic areas in the world. Secondly, all those eurozone countries would presumably then cease to be members of the IMF, because there would be no interest in it for them. So France, Germany and other countries would then withdraw from the IMF, and I do not think that that is what we want to see happen in the IMF. The IMF needs to support all countries that get into difficulty, provided the conditions are met and the rigour is applied to those programmes.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

The IMF was designed for a world of separate national currencies with exchange controls and properly managed national economies. Is it not time to look again at re-creating that sensible world, because it actually worked, starting with the re-creation of national currencies in Europe?

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman has, for all the time I have been in the House, consistently argued against British membership of the euro and consistently raised questions about the viability of the euro. I completely respect him for that, but to say that the IMF cannot get involved in the eurozone’s problems would be just a remarkable abnegation of the IMF’s commitment to deal with the world’s economic problems. The eurozone is at the centre of the world’s current economic problems because those involved have not been able to convince the markets that they can deal with their debts in the way that we have been able to. So I do not think it would be sensible for the IMF to just say, “There is a very important part of the world, which is at the epicentre of the world’s economic problems, but we are not going to get involved there.”