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Government Regulation

No, I am going to make progress. The hon. Gentleman has had a good old go. Perhaps I will give way to him in a second—or not, as the case may be. Employment is at a record high; unemployment is at its lowest levels for 30 years; UK unemployment rates are half those for France and Germany; inflation is low; interest rates are at their lowest for 50 years; 4,000 new businesses start up every week; and Britain is the No. 1 country for inward investment into the European Union. Last year saw nearly 40,000 new jobs and a record number of inward investment projects. From the picture painted by the right hon. Member for Wokingham, one could be forgiven for thinking that he had been living on a different planet. Many people believe that he does live on a different planet, but I do not want to use that gag. Clearly it will not get me much of a laugh tonight. Sadly for him, his views on the British economy are not even shared by other members of the shadow Cabinet. The Leader of the Opposition said of the British economy only recently:"““Unemployment is low. Inflation is low. We’re growing faster than many other European countries””." The right hon. and learned Member for Devizes (Mr. Ancram) said last summer:"““Quite honestly, I go to Germany now and they say to me we wish we had your unemployment””." The views of the right hon. Member for Wokingham are not even shared by business leaders in Britain. The director general of the CBI said in March this year:"““We’ve got the most successful economy in the developed world. It’s completely stable, low inflation, interest rates, virtually no unemployment and quality sustainable growth. Now America doesn’t have this with its deficit. France hasn’t got it with its very high unemployment. Germany hasn’t got it with zero growth and high unemployment.””" We have made it clear—this is one area where the right hon. Gentleman and I might agree—that if the progress is to be sustained and if British companies are to remain globally competitive, helping to create new jobs and prosperity here in the UK, Government must, of course, accept their responsibility to strip away the burden of unnecessary regulation on business. I hope that we can agree on that at least. However, I think that there is a huge difference between his approach, which would, for example, compromise standards in the workplace, and the approach that we intend to take. The measures that he put forward at the election to slash public expenditure through axing support for businesses, such as the scrapping of the Small Business Service, would hurt and not help businesses. Consistency in politics is a good thing. The right hon. Gentleman has, to give him credit, consistently talked a good fight on this issue, but has he actually delivered? I think not, and I am going to talk about his record in government. He was a very busy body indeed as a Minister in the Department of Trade and Industry. In fact, I have here just some of his handy work in the 1980s. Here it is—213 separate pages of new statutory burdens all applying to business. There are many people who would argue that the regulatory burden actually increased under the previous Conservative Government. Sadly for the right hon. Gentleman, some of them are leading Conservatives. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), referred to the subject of deregulation in The Daily Telegraph shortly after leaving office. I notice that all these reminiscences and insights occur only when Conservatives leave office. The right hon. and learned Gentleman said:"““We kept trying, we never really succeeded””" in deregulating. Mr. Michael Portillo, another leading Conservative and a former Treasury Minister, said when he left office that"““we were rather notable regulators. We passed volumes of new rules and laws interfering with almost every aspect of business and social life.””" Clearly, the right hon. Member for Wokingham comes from the ““Do as I say and not as I do”” school of political leadership. That is perhaps another reason why he is sitting on the Opposition Benches, but perhaps his biggest difficulty tonight comes in the form of the international evidence:"““The UK is at the forefront of regulatory reform””." Those are not my words, but those of the OECD. The UK is frequently shown as at or near the top of countries for the quality of regulation and ease of doing business. A survey by the World Bank published this year placed the UK at the top of the league of major countries in terms of regulatory quality. This year’s Heritage Foundation index of economic freedom—something I am fairly sure the right hon. Gentleman normally attaches a great deal of weight to— praised the UK and said that"““opening a business in the UK is easy.””" It is clear that this Government’s approach to regulatory reform has contributed to the success of the British economy and not undermined it as he claimed.