Greece
Debate between Philip Hollobone and George Osborne(10 years, 5 months ago)
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Mr Osborne
I can assure my hon. Friend that we will go on delivering economic security for the working people of Britain. I will come back to the House on Wednesday to deliver a Budget that does just that.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
I support the comments by the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee. The Greek-Turkish border is already the leakiest part of the EU’s external frontier, and one of the biggest threats to this country from a complete social and financial collapse in Greece is thousands more migrants making their way through to Calais and trying to get into this country. Will we use our good offices within the EU, and outside the eurozone, to ensure that the EU provides all the necessary support to plug the gaps in the Greece-Turkey part of the EU external border?
Mr Osborne
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is working very actively on precisely this issue. My hon. Friend reminds us, at the end of this statement, that although this is of course a big issue for the eurozone, it is also an issue for the whole of Europe, including the United Kingdom. We want to see a resolution of this Greek crisis. Even at this eleventh hour, we want the eurozone and Greece to sit down and try to find a sustainable way forward.
Greece
Debate between Philip Hollobone and George Osborne(10 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Osborne
Over the past five years, we in this country have of course taken steps to reform our welfare system to make sure it is affordable and to reform our public sector pensions so that we can go on providing assistance to our population and help the most vulnerable in our population. The broader point is that the people who suffer when an economy fails and a Government spend more money than they have are the poorest people in the country, not the richest.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
Given their own predicament, how supportive have the Greeks been to the Prime Minister in his efforts to renegotiate Britain’s terms of membership of the EU?
Mr Osborne
To be fair to the Greeks, they have been quite preoccupied, but they have certainly not, to my knowledge, expressed any great opposition.