European Council

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think my colleagues in Europe well know my views about the euro. My point—I made it at the European Council—is that we need a combination of structural reforms to improve the performance of labour markets, the benefit of which we have seen here in the UK; setting and meeting targets on reducing budget deficits; and an active monetary policy, which has been hugely helpful here and in America. The steps we have seen in Europe are welcome but, frankly, I would like to see more.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

I congratulate the Prime Minister on standing up for Britain in Brussels. Did he hear Pierre Lellouche, the former Europe Minister for France, say on BBC Radio 4 yesterday that it was crazy for the European Commission to reward a failing socialist French Government for their economic failure while penalising the UK’s Conservative Government for their economic success?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I was so surprised when I heard that statement that I got together a clear copy. Pierre Lellouche says that the unemployment rate in Britain

“has gone down to half what it is in France. The growth rate is four times what it is in France—and we go and punish the British? It’s madness.”

This is a huge outbreak of good, sound thinking across the channel.