Trade, Exports, Innovation and Productivity

Debate between Drew Hendry and David Rutley

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)]

It is an honour to participate in this debate and to follow the great speeches of my hon. Friends the Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) and for Bedford (Richard Fuller), who is a great friend. It is also an honour to follow the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Drew Hendry), who gave a thoughtful speech on innovation, and that is a fact. I had better inform the House that two very important exports from Macclesfield are helping his local economy. Two players from Macclesfield Town football club are now playing for Inverness Caledonian Thistle and helping them in the Scottish premier league—good luck to them.

This has been a very thoughtful and at times serious debate, with passionate speeches by Members on both sides of the House. I congratulate the hon. Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie), with whom I served briefly on the Treasury Committee. He is a very thoughtful Member and is right to raise the subject. We have benefited from the debate. I also welcome the contribution of my right hon. Friend the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise, who brought to the debate her characteristic robustness and energy, which are absolutely needed for the work required.

Our long-term economic plan for Britain is right and fair. It provides opportunities for this country’s businesses and individuals for the years ahead. Ministers are not only ensuring that we continue to get our public finances in order, but protecting frontline services through the way in which funding is allocated. We are, of course, taking no chances with our national security or, for that matter, our national economic security. We have a clear plan not only to make sure that Britain once again lives within its means, but to deliver an economy that generates more means within which to live. Those two sides of the same coin are very important.

In the summer Budget debate, I noted the importance of rebalancing our books after Labour’s spendthrift years; of rebalancing incentives in favour of work; and of rebalancing economic geography towards a northern powerhouse. It is interesting that the Conservative Government in London are as committed to decentralising power away from Downing Street as the Scottish National party is to centralising power to Bute House, whether it relates to the police, fire services or further education.

[Drew Hendry]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Scottish Government have done a fantastic thing this week by supplying £500,000 to encourage local communities to partake in participatory budgeting, thereby allowing them to make their own decisions? That is a real example of decentralisation. Similarly, the first thing the SNP Government did was remove ring-fencing for councils, to allow them to make their own decisions.

[David Rutley]

I am pleased to hear that the SNP is rectifying its trend towards centralisation and I give it credit for doing so.