Jobs and Growth

Debate between Alun Cairns and Ed Balls

Thursday 17th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[Ed Balls]

Of course I welcome that. It is good to have more jobs in Britain. The thing that worries me is the 164% rise in long-term youth unemployment in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. That is a very great concern.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

rose—

[Ed Balls]

I will make some progress.

Is it not the reality that we have an economy in recession and a Queen’s Speech that entirely failed to deliver on growth, jobs and investment? The Chancellor’s economic strategy is now in tatters, but have we had any admission in recent weeks that he got it wrong? We have had none. The Foreign Secretary says that British business needs to work harder, but it is this Chancellor who needs to work harder to get things right.

Financial Services Bill

Debate between Alun Cairns and Ed Balls

Monday 6th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Is the shadow Chancellor telling us that he accepts absolutely no part, bearing in mind his key role in the Treasury at the time, in the failure of the financial structures in the banking sector in recent years?

[Ed Balls]

I have apologised to the country and have asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to do the same. Did this Chancellor ring the alarm bell in the crisis? No, he did not. Did he worry that regulation was insufficiently tough? No; he said in 2006 that financial regulation was

“burdensome, complex and makes cross-border market penetration more difficult”

and that it

“threatens the global competitiveness of the City of London.”

If the hon. Gentleman wants to have a debate about who should apologise and who should accept responsibility, he should look at the evidence and the judgments of the past 10 years. Let us not forget that it was the Conservative party that voted against Bank of England independence and the move from self-regulation of the City by the City to statutory regulation for the first time in this country. It was this Chancellor who personally opposed the rescue of Northern Rock, saying:

“I am not in favour of nationalisation, full stop.”—[Official Report, 19 February 2008; Vol. 472, c. 186.]

It was this Chancellor who opposed the rescue of RBS; who negotiated the flawed and foolish Merlin deal; who refuses to enact proposals on transparency for bonuses of more than £1 million; who resists the reform of remuneration committees; who is selling off Northern Rock at a loss, prompting a National Audit Office investigation; and whose decision to cut the deficit too far and too fast has choked off the recovery and led to us borrowing £158 billion more. We will take no lectures on judgment from this Chancellor of the Exchequer.