Business and the Economy

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Ronnie Campbell

Monday 14th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

This has been a valuable debate on Her Majesty’s Gracious Speech, with 44 speeches from the Back Benches, which reflects the concerns raised in all our constituencies about jobs, business and growth. We heard 26 speeches from the Opposition and 18 from Government Members. My hon. Friend the Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) said about 20 minutes ago that at this stage in the evening it is difficult to say anything new, given that so many people have made the points already. We have heard several thoughtful and provoking interventions. We even had a song from my hon. Friend the Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell), which livened up our afternoon.

[Mr Ronnie Campbell]

rose—[Laughter.]

[Rachel Reeves]

I am happy to take an intervention if my hon. Friend wants.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Government have serious questions to answer after this debate, because there remains concern about the stewardship of the economy. As my hon. Friends said, particularly my hon. Friends the Members for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali) and for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), my right hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr Field) and my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Roberta Blackman-Woods), there is a lack of vision, leadership and imagination in the Queen’s Speech on the economy and business. The hon. Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers), too, said that the Government needed a new narrative.

The facts are undisputed. Our economy is in recession—the first double-dip in four decades—with unemployment rates too high and business investment too low, although to listen to some speeches from Government Members we would think that the economy was booming, with businesses spoilt for choice over whether to invest. In contrast, we have heard excellent speeches from Members on both sides of the House about the concerns raised by our constituents. We heard particularly powerful contributions from my hon. Friends the Members for Llanelli (Nia Griffith), for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) and for Edinburgh East (Sheila Gilmore)—on the human stories behind the raw statistics, sound and successful businesses shutting up shop because no one is buying, families facing rising bills, rents and mortgage payments while wages are not keeping pace, school leavers and university graduates losing hope as months on the dole turn into years.

However, the Government’s legislative programme seems utterly disconnected from those realities. There was no mention of the new jobs that we need, and nothing to turn round the crisis of more than 1 million young people being out of work. The modest measures that the Government have claimed will help struggling families and businesses are turning out, under examination, to be woefully inadequate to the task with which we are confronted. Perhaps it is because, as the Foreign Secretary said yesterday, the Government think that it is just not their responsibility and that the reasons for the recession are to be found not in their own failure, but in the fact that the rest of the country is just not working hard enough. That is a view backed up by the Business Secretary, who referred to the Foreign Secretary’s remarks as “commercial diplomacy”, and by the hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen), who criticised businesses for their ill-advised criticism of Government policy. I am not surprised that the Foreign Secretary’s comments have been met with incredulity by small business owners, who are working every hour of the day to keep their books in balance.