IMF

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

This money comes out of Britain’s foreign exchange reserves and is swapped for an IMF loan. It is therefore not money that we would otherwise spend on public services or use to cut taxes. My hon. Friend is being a little unfair to the countries that are having to undertake difficult structural reforms. For example, Spain has recently passed significant reforms to its labour laws to make its employment market more flexible and Italy has made difficult pension reforms. People will remember the scenes in Italy when those reforms were announced a few months ago. Britain is also having to make difficult reforms and take difficult decisions to make our economy more competitive and to deal with the problems in our public finances.

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

The Australian Government made their decision with the backing of the Opposition. Will the Chancellor confirm that his decision will not be affected by the shadow Chancellor’s flip-flopping?

[Mr Osborne]

There is not much danger of my being influenced by the shadow Chancellor’s flip-flopping. My hon. Friend draws to our attention the interesting point that the Australian Liberal party, which is hardly the most Europhile party in the world, understands that Australia has obligations to the international community and to the IMF. Given that Australia is prepared to make a contribution, it would be quite odd if Britain was not.