AstraZeneca (Pfizer Bid)

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Vince Cable

Tuesday 6th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

That is a bizarre criticism. We have talked to Pfizer and AstraZeneca on a neutral basis. Those conversations have been conducted by Ministers. The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Minister for Universities and Science and I have all been involved. Of course the Government have civil servants to carry out their instructions. I am baffled as to why the hon. Lady regards that as a problem.

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

I commend the Secretary of State for his level-headed scrutiny of the proposed takeover. The Opposition lose their credibility when they play politics with such matters. May I ask him about his conversations with AstraZeneca? It claims that there are a number of gems in the company, which might mean that the business has been undervalued. Valuations are, of course, up to the shareholders, but those gems in the portfolio hold the prospect of R and D and jobs. What conversations has he had about those new products and what would happen to them?

[Vince Cable]

If the bid proceeds, I guess that we will need to have detailed discussions with both companies about the specifics, which would go beyond the broad commitments that Pfizer has offered in its open letter. I recognise that there is an awful lot more detail to be confronted.

Industrial Strategy

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Vince Cable

Monday 10th September 2012 Commons Chamber

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

I applaud the Secretary of State for the work he has done with the automotive sector; we have seen the benefits in Stratford-on-Avon. He is rightly not going to be picking winners, but does he agree that what we should be doing is picking sectors where we can be world beaters, and improving and supporting those sectors?

[Vince Cable]

My hon. Friend is right; we need to make that distinction. There are many examples. He chose the automotive sector, where Britain is now performing extraordinarily well. For the first time in a generation we have a trade surplus in the automotive sector, with £6 billion in new commitments of investment, but there are many other sectors whose experience also serves to illustrate the wisdom of Government and the private sector sitting down together, and one of them is the space sector, as my colleague who represents higher education, the Minister for Universities and Science, knows very well. Britain now has one of the most outstanding space sectors in the world, and a lot of that is a product of sensible collaboration.

Economic Growth and Employment

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Vince Cable

Wednesday 23rd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

It is certainly a last resort in a major economic crisis. I am sure he appreciates that we are living through an economic crisis that is unparalleled in our lifetimes. That is why not only Britain, but the United States and other countries are having to resort to unorthodox monetary policy. That is a reflection of the desperation of many western countries. Our Bank of England has been comfortable with our fiscal policy and, to that extent, has been willing to support it through monetary means.

Those are two of the three elements of the strategy. The third is rebalancing the economy. We inherited an economy that was horribly unbalanced in favour of debt-supported consumption and banking, and we are now rebalancing the economy towards exports and trade. Rapid growth is taking place at the moment in British exports. That is the strategy on which we will proceed and on which we will be judged. The alternative we have been offered is something called plan B, which I think has been renamed the “Antiques Roadshow” in respect of the shadow Chancellor. No serious business organisation is arguing that such financial irresponsibility has any prospect of success.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

In the document that I have in my hand the shadow Business Secretary says, regarding the new economy, that we need to build an economy that is

“less vulnerable to global shocks”.

How does the Secretary of State think that building an economy based on £100 billion of extra borrowing by 2015 will deliver that?

[Vince Cable]

I can give a bit of substance in answer to that. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, which has been critical of the Government in some respects, has done its own simulation. On the use of fiscal policy to support growth, which I think is what the Opposition plan B is all about, it says that in order to stimulate growth from 1% to 2% we would need to have a Government borrowing account of about 12% of GDP. Is that actually what the Opposition are proposing, because that is what their plan B—fiscal stimulus—means?

--- Later in debate ---

[Vince Cable]

UKTI has been radically reformed, thanks to the Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Green. I think that it will perform an excellent function. What I found was that British export activity in the big emerging markets, which is clearly where future growth lies, had been sorely neglected for many years. As somebody put it to me, when we turned up on the beach the Germans were already in the deckchairs. They have dominated the market in these countries and we are a marginal player. It will take years to turn that around, but that is where our emphasis lies.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

Does the Secretary of State agree that under the previous Government we exported more to Ireland than we did to Brazil, Russia, India and China put together?

[Vince Cable]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for reminding me of one of my best lines. It is partly a compliment to Ireland that we trade with it so extensively, but that fact is an appalling commentary on our neglect of the big emerging markets.

Export growth is one key focus for us. The second is people and apprenticeships. The Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning will say more about this in his summary. Despite a severely curtailed budget, we have increased apprenticeships—actual people doing training—by 50% over the past year. There are now 350,000 people in such training. We do not accept that that is the end of the road. We have to improve the quality and refocus as much as possible on younger apprentices, thereby addressing in part the problem of youth unemployment. This is a major success story and we are proud of it.

On access to finance, one of the major themes of my analysis has been that what we are dealing with is a collapsed and non-functioning banking system. It is right for Members to continue to cross-question us on the Merlin agreement, because that is at the heart of the problem. We have stopped, at least in relation to small and medium-sized enterprises, a process of rapid deleveraging. We are using Government funding through the regional growth fund and, from next year, the Green investment bank to co-finance private capital so that there is access to finance for British industry. We are taking initiatives to support equity finance. The business growth fund is not Government owned or controlled, but it is a major initiative that should have been taken decades ago to get equity finance functioning. Access to finance is a critical issue—of course we accept that. It is a consequence of the banking crisis that we are focused on it.

I want to give one final concluding thought. When I hear the Opposition speaking about the economy, I think that lying at the back of their world view is the idea that what we are currently in the middle of is a cyclical problem—we had a boom, we had a bust, we will press a few buttons, spend a bit more money, and we will get back into a boom again. This is not a cyclical problem; it is a profound, long-standing structural problem. We had the wrong model. Growth was based on fundamentally the wrong principles, it was not sustainable and it collapsed. We are now having to repair the damage.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Vince Cable

Thursday 27th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Certainly we should be doing all we can to support disabled workers. My understanding is that those decisions lie with the Department for Work and Pensions, but I would be happy to engage or help if there is a problem.

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

UK Trade & Investment has just completed a trade mission to Iraq for the Erbil international trade fair, of which I was privileged to be a part. We had 86 businesses, companies and educationalists at the British pavilion at the trade fair, whereas three years ago we had only one. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the UKTI team and our consul-general on their great work during the mission?

[Vince Cable]

Yes. UKTI does an excellent job. Like all other parts of the Government, it is having to do more with less, but it does so through refocusing and strategy. I have not yet been to that country, but I look forward to doing so.

Trade and Investment for Growth White Paper

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Vince Cable

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

As far as the single market is concerned, I meet Mr Barnier regularly, and there is now a real momentum behind trying to implement the Monti report, which sets out how the single market can be deepened. There are key areas where Britain can do well—such as low-carbon products and services in general, where there are enormous obstacles to trade—and we will focus on those.

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

May I thank my right hon. Friend, on behalf of small and medium-sized enterprises in Stratford-on-Avon, for the White Paper? His focus on exports and tackling some of the problems with the ECGD is absolutely right. I would like to bring to his attention the fact that export finance through banks is under threat from gold-plating by the Financial Services Authority and parts of Basel III. Such finance is a safe way of financing exports for our SMEs, and indeed all our businesses. The failure rate is 0.002%, yet it is in danger of being put in the same bracket as long-term finance, which would act as a disincentive for banks to fund export finance.

[Vince Cable]

As far as the ECGD is concerned, one of the things that we discovered when we investigated this matter is that Britain is far behind countries such as France—which has COFACE and other such agencies—in providing trade finance. That is the gap—the market failure—that we are trying to fill. I hear my hon. Friend’s point about banks in general—a point that the Chancellor dealt with a few moments ago. There is clearly an issue about the extent to which the FSA has overreacted in its interpretation of international rules.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Performance)

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Vince Cable

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I will proceed.

I referred to the core problem of the Budget. One difficulty we have had in debating this subject with Opposition Members is the state of denial not just about the big problem, but more specifically about the Business, Innovation and Skills budget. Our preoccupation has been to deliver for the coalition our contribution to deficit reduction. That has been our major task over the last year, and we have done that. There was a 25% cut over the spending period in the BIS spend. What makes engagement in debate with Opposition Members difficult is the fact that we know—because of the ring-fencing decisions made by the last Government and because of the Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis—that they also planned to cut the BIS budget by 25%. Whenever we hear these appeals to have more money for industrial support, more money for the regions, more money for universities and science and more money for further education, we ask this simple question: where would the money have come from in the midst of those 25% cuts? Opposition Members have a basic problem, although I am not quite sure what it is. It is either an acute problem of amnesia or one of fundamental economic illiteracy.

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

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this goes beyond mere deficit denial, as it is political opportunism of the worst kind? It is also irresponsible, because talking down our manufacturing base and all the hard-working businessmen and women in our country does no good in helping us get out of the mess that Labour left behind.

[Vince Cable]

I will come on to manufacturing in a moment. We are trying to recover from a position in which there was active de-industrialisation for the best part of a decade—[Interruption.] I shall come to the figures shortly.