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European Council

I will tell the right hon. Gentleman the facts. There is a limit on the amount of support that the IMF can give. It is limited by its constitution and how it has always done things. That is a matter that we will discuss with both the IMF and the eurozone at the right time. It is limited by the regulations that it has. On the right hon. Gentleman's other points, in the Budget last week we reached agreement with the banks about £92 billion of additional lending in the next year. We also reached an agreement—and said in the Budget—that proper supervision of that would be needed, so that the public and small businesses could be assured that the money was being paid to them. So we are setting up a small business mediator who will act on behalf of small businesses to try to resolve the issues that have left them without the funds that they need—[Interruption.] An Opposition Member says that that is ridiculous, but we have to protect small businesses to ensure that they can grow. As far as the banks are concerned, we are taking the necessary action. As far as directives are concerned, we did not accept the compromise proposed by the European Finance Ministers. We will therefore renegotiate that over the next period of time, because we are determined both to have proper regulation of those industries and, at the same, to allow companies to have access to the full range of countries in the internal market, and that is what we are doing. As for ludicrous policies, the right hon. Gentleman would win the race any day.