EU Council Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office
Monday 2nd July 2012

(12 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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The financial transactions tax was mentioned, because the growth compact says clearly that a number of eurozone members will go ahead with it. I do not support it and Britain will not take part, because unless there is agreement all over the world, the transactions will go to jurisdictions that do not have the tax. That would cut our jobs, our investment and our GDP. The people who would pay for such a tax would be not the bankers, but the pensioners, and I do not think that that is sensible.

Nigel Adams Portrait Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con)
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How bad does the Prime Minister think the financial damage to the UK would have been had we not got ourselves out of the euro bail-out mechanism?

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question. We can start to count the cost, because with things such as the Spanish bank bail-out, we can work out what percentage we would have paid. We have saved Britain considerable amounts of money by ensuring that we are not involved in the bail-outs.