William Bain
Main Page: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)Department Debates - View all William Bain's debates with the Cabinet Office
(11 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberI am grateful, as ever, for my hon. Friend’s advice, which is always candid and straightforward. I will make sure that he gets a copy of my speech in the middle of January and he will able to study it closely.
The Council conclusions call upon member states to pursue “growth-friendly, fiscal consolidation”. Does the Prime Minister accept that with our economy shrinking this year, the eurozone economy predicted to shrink next year, and 25 million people across the EU out of work, the plan is not working over there and it certainly is not working here?
I think the reference to growth-friendly consolidation is right. That is why, for instance, in the autumn statement, we have put more money into capital spending in the immediate years, and also taken some difficult decisions on welfare spending—decisions which I know the hon. Gentleman’s party is unprepared to support—to make sure that we can focus on those things that will help with growth. But when we look across Europe, we can see that because we set out a long-term plan for getting on top of the problems in our public finances, we are able to take it in reasonable stages and at a reasonable pace—one of the advantages of not being trapped in a system where we are told what to do by the European Commission.