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Opposition day on Wednesday, 23 November 2011, in the House of Commons, led by Chuka Umunna. The answering member was Vincent Cable.

Economic Growth and Employment

Unallotted opposition day debate (part one). Main question negatived on division (236 to 304).

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
536 c321-62 
Session
2010-12
Department
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 536 c337 (Link to this contribution) Order. I remind everybody that there is a five-minute limit on speeches.
John Hayes | 536 c356 (Link to this contribution) First, the previous Government inherited a boom, and then they bequeathed a bust and a massive defic...
Show all contributions (126)
Steve Rotheram | 536 c351 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not understand that there is a symbiotic relationship between the public and...
Vincent Cable | 536 c331-2 (Link to this contribution) On the level of borrowing, let us wait until next week and see what the independent forecast is in t...
Nadhim Zahawi | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is now quoting selectively. Will he tell us what the Federation of Small Business...
Andrew Bridgen | 536 c339 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman echoes the shadow Secretary of State in criticising the Government for undertakin...
Gordon Marsden | 536 c353-6 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not because there is not time. The Government failed to put Sandwich in the initial list...
David Mowat | 536 c353 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Gordon Marsden | 536 c352-3 (Link to this contribution) I thank all those who have participated in today's debate. On this side, we heard sparkling presenta...
Guto Bebb | 536 c351-2 (Link to this contribution) Not at the moment, as I wish to finish the point I am making. The valley communities in Wales have s...
Bill Esterson | 536 c351 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Guto Bebb | 536 c351 (Link to this contribution) If what we are seeing in Wales is an example of Labour economic thinking, I am very pleased that it ...
Roberta Blackman-Woods | 536 c350-1 (Link to this contribution) No; I am sorry, but I am running out of time. The RGF along with local enterprise partnerships and ...
Guto Bebb | 536 c351 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to have the opportunity to bring a Welsh perspective to this debate. The hon. Member f...
John Hayes | 536 c356 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, I will not give way. I usually do but I do not have time. The OECD says that we have a ...
John Hayes | 536 c357-8 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way again. Time does not allow. So, the first thing we have to do is deal with ...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c356 (Link to this contribution) The Minister seeks to give me a lecture on reducing the deficit. Can he explain why, as I asked the ...
John Hayes | 536 c356 (Link to this contribution) That was the ponderous exaltation of a basic economic fact: when tax yields fall because there is le...
Lord Watts | 536 c332 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State is very good at talking about the support he gets for deficit reduction. When...
Vincent Cable | 536 c332-3 (Link to this contribution) I tried to explain to that wherever I go, not just in the business community, there is an understand...
Nadhim Zahawi | 536 c332 (Link to this contribution) In the document that I have in my hand the shadow Business Secretary says, regarding the new economy...
Vincent Cable | 536 c332 (Link to this contribution) I can give a bit of substance in answer to that. The National Institute of Economic and Social Resea...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c331 (Link to this contribution) First, on borrowing, does the Business Secretary accept that the average of the independent forecast...
Vincent Cable | 536 c330-1 (Link to this contribution) Let me just finish this argument. Some of us have argued for a long time that the underlying problem...
Vincent Cable | 536 c332 (Link to this contribution) It is certainly a last resort in a major economic crisis. I am sure he appreciates that we are livin...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c332 (Link to this contribution) On that point, the Business Secretary talks about monetary policy as if it is somehow a good thing t...
Speaker | 536 c331 (Link to this contribution) Order. We must have shorter interventions.
Joan Ruddock | 536 c330 (Link to this contribution) The Prime Minister's constituency has 1.8% unemployment and mine has 7.9%, yet the Secretary of Stat...
Vincent Cable | 536 c330 (Link to this contribution) Obviously, I do not know the particular position in Deptford, but I am very happy to take up the spe...
Bill Esterson | 536 c330 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Vincent Cable | 536 c330 (Link to this contribution) Let me try to deal with this issue. We would all probably accept—I hope that the hon. Member for Str...
Bill Esterson | 536 c330 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?
Charlie Elphicke | 536 c328 (Link to this contribution) I am sure the whole House has considerable sympathy with the hon. Gentleman's position. Unfortunatel...
Julian Smith | 536 c329 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman clarify the top five deregulatory measures that his party took in the 13 yea...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c328-9 (Link to this contribution) When will Government Members take responsibility? I wish that we were still in government, but we ha...
Vincent Cable | 536 c330 (Link to this contribution) I should like to respond to the motion, which actually bears only a passing resemblance to the speec...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c329-30 (Link to this contribution) I cannot name the top five, but the whole reason the Better Regulation Executive and the Regulatory ...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c327-8 (Link to this contribution) I have given way several times, and I want to make a bit of progress. Instead of reverting to the t...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) I withdraw that comment. The hon. Gentleman asked whether business organisations were in favour of ...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) There we have a Government Member hungry to fire, as opposed to hire, workers.
Speaker | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman has had his intervention, and he should please wait for the answer. We do ...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) First, I am not quoting selectively. If the hon. Gentleman would like to go and inspect the CIPD pre...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c326-7 (Link to this contribution) I am glad that my right hon. Friend brings up the Thatcher era, because a well known noble Lord was ...
Bill Esterson | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about what Lord Heseltine said, and the evidence is that, wh...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c327 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right, and when the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development looked at the...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c325-6 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the Secretary of State will address that comment in his response. Almost one year after the...
Andrew Percy | 536 c326 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable point about ERDF delays, one of which I have drawn to the atte...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c326 (Link to this contribution) With the greatest respect to the hon. Gentleman, the question is whether the Department is doing wha...
Denis MacShane | 536 c326 (Link to this contribution) Even at the height of the Thatcher years, there was no attempt to target individual workers—their un...
Angela C Smith | 536 c325 (Link to this contribution) On that important point, the Institute of Chartered Accountants believes that one reason for the len...
Catherine McKinnell | 536 c325 (Link to this contribution) I reiterate the point about the expertise that has been lost due to the abolition of the RDAs, but a...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c325 (Link to this contribution) It is clearly the case, as we saw from the evidence of the Department's permanent secretary to the B...
Roberta Blackman-Woods | 536 c350 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry; I am running out of time. We know that the RDA helped to invest in a new generation of ...
Angela C Smith | 536 c350 (Link to this contribution) The first technology innovation centre, Sheffield's advanced manufacturing park, was established by ...
Roberta Blackman-Woods | 536 c349-50 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. We also know that as a consequence of Government policies—and according to independent forec...
Roberta Blackman-Woods | 536 c350 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has made an excellent point. It is interesting to note that before the general electi...
Stephen Metcalfe | 536 c348-9 (Link to this contribution) No I will not, I am afraid. Responsible businesses have, and recognise that they have, a duty of ca...
Steve Rotheram | 536 c348 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Bill Esterson | 536 c349 (Link to this contribution) The figures show that consumer and business confidence began to decline when the coalition Governmen...
Roberta Blackman-Woods | 536 c349 (Link to this contribution) The audacity and complacency of Government Members is truly extraordinary, given the present state o...
Stephen Metcalfe | 536 c348 (Link to this contribution) I agree that having an unsettled work force is not healthy, which is why it falls to business men to...
Bill Esterson | 536 c348 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the worst things for an employer, particularly a small bus...
Stephen Metcalfe | 536 c347-8 (Link to this contribution) I would indeed agree with that view. I believe that all Government Members, and I suspect some Oppos...
Guto Bebb | 536 c347 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend interested to hear the comments of the former Labour MEP Eluned Morgan, who is now...
Stephen Metcalfe | 536 c347 (Link to this contribution) I could not agree with my hon. Friend more. That is another problem that we have to sort out by clea...
Andrew Bridgen | 536 c347 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) talked about problems at the Inland Reven...
Stephen Metcalfe | 536 c347 (Link to this contribution) I put the two hand in hand. [Interruption.] Yes I do. The Government have a cogent plan, but as I sa...
Toby Perkins | 536 c346-7 (Link to this contribution) I think that the hon. Gentleman might have dropped his script. According to his own party, growth an...
Stephen Metcalfe | 536 c346 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak in this important debate. Th...
Siobhain McDonagh | 536 c346 (Link to this contribution) I do not want to take up too much time because I know others have things to say. I am seriously conc...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 536 c342-3 (Link to this contribution) When I read the title of this debate—about supporting business to encourage economic growth and empl...
Mark Lazarowicz | 536 c343 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady is in danger of becoming complacent about the Government's policies, which, as has bee...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 536 c343 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, and he is absolutely right to say that there is more borrowing ...
Julian Smith | 536 c343 (Link to this contribution) The exemption for micro-businesses is a key development from this Government. Does my hon. Friend th...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 536 c344 (Link to this contribution) I would not dream of criticising Opposition Members. I know that quite a number of them have run the...
Siobhain McDonagh | 536 c345-6 (Link to this contribution) It is easy to launch into a debate about the macro policy, but we all represent individual businesse...
Mark Lazarowicz | 536 c346 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend may recall that the hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith) said a few momen...
Siobhain McDonagh | 536 c346 (Link to this contribution) I agree completely with my hon. Friend. I am making this speech because I want the Government to be ...
Richard Fuller | 536 c339 (Link to this contribution) As this is a business debate, I draw Members' attention to my entry in the Register of Members' Fina...
Julian Smith | 536 c340 (Link to this contribution) Just to correct my hon. Friend slightly, this Government have done more than the previous Government...
Richard Fuller | 536 c340-1 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely true, but the challenge that we face is more immense because of 13 years of over-...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c339 (Link to this contribution) Back-handed compliments aside, it is unfair of the hon. Gentleman to say that I did not talk about t...
Richard Fuller | 536 c339-40 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate that, and I shall continue to listen intently to all the hon. Gentleman says. The chal...
Andrew Miller | 536 c341-2 (Link to this contribution) That was certainly the case with the Regulatory Reform Committee—it used the framework of the House ...
Andrew Bridgen | 536 c342 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is being mischievous by suggesting that there was a great deregulatory fervour ab...
Andrew Miller | 536 c341 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the thoughtful speech by the hon. Member for Bedford (Richard Fuller). He...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 536 c341 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman and I spent many happy hours tinkering around the edges of much regulation but we...
Andrew Miller | 536 c342 (Link to this contribution) I do not want to be tempted to comment on the review because it would breach the embargo—of course, ...
Debbie Abrahams | 536 c338 (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether my hon. Friend wants to comment on the call of the International Monetary Fund for ...
Gordon Banks | 536 c338 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. If we do not get our infrastructure right, we will not be in the positi...
Julian Smith | 536 c338 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman welcome the Government's introduction of the Work programme, which will help...
Gordon Banks | 536 c338 (Link to this contribution) My experience of the Work programme is that it is a not-working programme. The cut in VAT to 5% for...
Nadhim Zahawi | 536 c336 (Link to this contribution) Does the Secretary of State agree that under the previous Government we exported more to Ireland tha...
Vincent Cable | 536 c336-7 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for reminding me of one of my best lines. It is partly a compliment to Ir...
Gordon Banks | 536 c337-8 (Link to this contribution) I will bear in mind your comments, Mr Deputy Speaker. The problem in a debate like this is where to...
Gordon Banks | 536 c339 (Link to this contribution) I never mentioned quantitative easing—I was talking about term loans. Term loans are being offered t...
Vincent Cable | 536 c334-5 (Link to this contribution) I see that the hon. Gentleman is playing for time. Apart from this slightly mysterious bank bonus t...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c335 (Link to this contribution) The various commitments that we have made are all costed and fund themselves. The Business Secretary...
Vincent Cable | 536 c334 (Link to this contribution) No, I cannot do that, because the projects are under construction. When they are fully completed and...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c334 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to do so. I am slightly bemused that the Secretary of State should quote those figures fr...
Vincent Cable | 536 c333 (Link to this contribution) I will describe in more detail, as will the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Lear...
Adrian Bailey | 536 c333-4 (Link to this contribution) Is the Secretary of State now in a position to give me an answer that he could not give when I quest...
Barry Sheerman | 536 c333 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State knows that some of us, even on the Labour Benches, have always admired his gr...
Vincent Cable | 536 c336 (Link to this contribution) UKTI has been radically reformed, thanks to the Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Green. I thi...
Julian Smith | 536 c336 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State tell us what situation he found exports in when he arrived in his post? ...
Vincent Cable | 536 c335 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman's numbers may have been costed but they do not add up—that is the problem. As for...
Julian Brazier | 536 c323 (Link to this contribution) I am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who has shown considerable courtesy already in giving way....
Stephen Timms | 536 c323 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend recall, as I do, the Prime Minister telling the House in June of last year that ...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c323 (Link to this contribution) The market is not irrational, as the Government seem to suggest. The suggestion is that if they move...
Julian Smith | 536 c323-4 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that the Government have been listening to businesses organisation...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c323 (Link to this contribution) I completely agree with my right hon. Friend. Of course, another question for the Government is why ...
Mark Lazarowicz | 536 c324 (Link to this contribution) When businesses get in touch to tell me about the problems they are suffering from, none of them tel...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c324 (Link to this contribution) I will move on later in my speech to the Government's employment proposals, which I might add were a...
Nadhim Zahawi | 536 c325 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Chuka Umunna | 536 c324-5 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. We all know what is holding back business in taking on workers: the for...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c325 (Link to this contribution) I will in a moment. Last week I met one of the first-round bidders, who told me that on learning of...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c322 (Link to this contribution) With the greatest respect to the hon. Gentleman, the reason the Monetary Policy Committee has set ou...
Richard Fuller | 536 c322 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place on the Front Bench, which gives the Opposition the opportu...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c321-2 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes with concern that UK economic growth is flatlining and was chok...
Chuka Umunna | 536 c322-3 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for welcoming me to my post. First, if he looks at page 22 of the Governm...
Charlie Elphicke | 536 c322 (Link to this contribution) I, too, congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his much-deserved elevation and on his speech, which has ...
Subjects
Business Banks Finance Economic growth Pay Young people Trade Taxation Unemployment Regional Growth Fund BRIC countries
Link
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