Middle East: Economic Response

Lord Hintze Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

The deal to introduce the first of its kind has been signed with Rolls-Royce, and it is going to be located in north Wales. I think this is incredibly exciting technology and we want to see more of it. We want to see more private sector investment in this technology and in advanced nuclear reactors. We absolutely want to see far more investment in nuclear in this country. As I say, we have signed deals for small modular reactors, and we want to see more private and public sector investment in them.

[Lord Hintze (Con)]

My Lords, we do indeed have a great country, as the noble Lord said, and we should not be talking it down. But, that said, we should be having proper policy conversations. GDP growth by itself gets us nowhere. If we want to know about prosperity and real value for our citizens, we need to look at GDP growth per capita. I have raised this question a number of times and it has not been answered, which is disappointing to me. Why is this being ignored when all we want to do is make a political point?

The other point of which I want the House to be aware is about transfer payments, whether to farmers, businesses or whomever. As I am sure the noble Lord knows, they have zero value to GDP if they are true transfer payments. Transfer payments, whether to welfare or to whomever else, are a way to poverty.