Greece

Jonathan Reynolds Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I completely respect my hon. Friend’s opinion, but it is better from my position to say that it is for the Greek people to decide in that referendum. Of course, whatever the outcome, my hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that we are there as a friend of Greece to help it at this troubled time whatever course it chooses to take.

[Jonathan Reynolds (Stalybridge and Hyde) (Lab/Co-op)]

Successive Greek Governments must take responsibility for failing to deliver a sufficiently competitive Greek economy, but does the Chancellor agree that Greece’s creditors need to look at their own behaviour, too? The bail-out five years ago has fundamentally left Greece less able to pay its debts than beforehand. Surely the IMF and the European Commission must learn those lessons, too.

[Mr Osborne]

I think that the European Union in general has not taken sufficient trouble to make the European economy more competitive, less regulatory and a place where enterprise can flourish and private sector jobs can be created. That is one of the principal arguments we are having at the moment in European Councils.