European Council

Martin Horwood Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do not entirely disagree with the right hon. Gentleman. The problem is, though, that the people who have lent the money to Greece want their money back, and they believe that Greece should carry out a series of reforms before they give it any more money. He or I can take a different view and argue as I would, although he would not, that Greece should never have joined the eurozone in the first place. That is not the right hon. Gentleman’s view because he is a fanatic about the eurozone. None the less, as we have not lent money to Greece, we are not in that position. If he had been at the European Council he would have heard, whether from the Germans, the Dutch and the Scandinavian countries, or from the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Irish, who have all been through these painful processes, that there is very little appetite to cut Greece a lot of slack.

[Martin Horwood (Cheltenham) (LD)]

On behalf of the Liberal Democrats, I echo the Prime Minister’s congratulations to Mr Natzler. I welcome the Prime Minister’s remarks on Tunisia and Libya, where we must all still hope that the promise of the Arab awakening will be fulfilled and sympathise about the fact that uniting the Tory party on Europe really is “mission impossible”? On the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, does he agree that the UK should never ratify a treaty that would undermine the NHS?

[The Prime Minister]

Of course. But I do believe that all of us in this House who support free trade and want to see Britain as a success story in international markets should really get behind TTIP rather than listening to some non-governmental organisations that are raising entirely false fears about it. There is no way that TTIP can in any way undermine our NHS. Our NHS is determined by the policies we pass here in this House. One of the things that was so striking about the European Council was countries worrying about the so-called investor protection mechanisms, even though Britain has 94 of these things and we have never lost a case. There is an awful lot of scaremongering about TTIP. Any of us who want to see a successful British economy should get behind what could be a real jobs boost for our country.