Greece

Lord Tunnicliffe Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tunnicliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, according to the PA:

“David Cameron will tell his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras he needs to end the stand-off with the eurozone amid fears the uncertainty could damage the British economy”.

Is that real? The Prime Minister of Greece has a crisis on his hands and has really big problems. Does he need to be lectured about the problems of the British economy? Surely our Prime Minister should be going there with constructive ideas to help Greece, not to lecture it on getting its own things sorted out. Is that not another example of the attitude to Europe—standing on the sidelines, wringing hands?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

First, I would not believe everything you see as speculation. The Prime Minister is going there with the very clear message that a settlement on this issue is in the best interests of the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. The noble Lord talks of the problems of the British economy; we would have problems if we were back in the old days when we had the worst financial crisis since World War II and the largest deficit since then. I am not sure what problems he is referring to. The fastest growth of any major country in the G7? The highest employment rate ever? The lowest inflation or lowest mortgage rates? That is a success story.