HC Deb 18 December 1997 vol 303 cc470-1
4. Mr. Wyatt

What is the role of her Department in assisting British business to prepare for EMU. [19871]

Mrs. Beckett

My Department has been helping to prepare British business by working closely with the Treasury, both on the committees set up to prepare for economic and monetary union and in helping to produce its booklet, "Practical Information for Business". The Department will also be providing staff for the new euro preparations unit.

Mr. Wyatt

I thank my right hon. Friend. Businesses in my constituency want to join EMU tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, the day after; but the major concern, especially among small and medium enterprises, is how we can help them to understand better the implications of EMU.

Mrs. Beckett

My hon. Friend is right: it is a consequence of the previous Government's neglect of the issue that so many people in the business community, and especially in small and medium businesses, have not had the information. The Treasury has produced the "Practical Information for Business" booklet, 50,000 copies of which have already been distributed; that is a clear indication of the interest in the matter. The Bank of England, the Confederation of British Industry and the British chambers of commerce are all working on co-operative programmes to spread the information that business needs.

My hon. Friend is entirely right to identify the fact that whatever happens in terms of British participation in economic and monetary union, British business will be affected by its introduction.

Mr. Redwood

In view of previous questions put to us by Ministers, we would be very happy to answer questions for the Department of Trade and Industry in Government time, as that might be more enlightening than some of the answers that we get from them. In the meantime, we are asking the questions.

Given that a single currency would mean that interest and exchange rates, public borrowing, our overdrafts and savings, and our economic policy would be settled by an offshore bureaucracy rather than by our democracy, what caused the President of the Board of Trade to change her mind from her principled opposition to the European Community and all its works, for which she was famous, to strong support for full economic and monetary union?

Mr. Skinner

You did the opposite. You are a Johnny-come-lately.

Mrs. Beckett

I rather share my hon. Friend's view. I recall very recently sitting at dinner next to someone who said that he had been a Euro-sceptic since 1992, to which my response was, "Too late." What changed my mind was 25 years, two referendums and the experience of the British people, who clearly chose, by a democratic decision, to remain in the European Union. In my view it is now the case that all our interests are irrevocably bound up with our membership of that body, and it is absolutely essential for Britain's future to make the best that we can of our membership and to work co-operatively with our European Union partners.

The classic example of that is economic and monetary union itself. I do not know whether the right hon. Gentleman is suggesting, as he seemed to imply, that the Conservative party has now decided that it does not want to participate in economic and monetary union at any point, but I can tell him that that would be disastrous for British business and for our economy.

Dr. Palmer

In view of the welcome interest shown by Opposition Front Benchers in corporate accounts, will my right hon. Friend urge them to publish their own accounts soon, so that the Department can assist them in studying the impact on their foreign revenues of the introduction of EMU?

Mrs. Beckett

My hon. Friend makes an important and interesting point. He is right. The Conservative party should be encouraged to publish proper accounts and should recognise that there are a number of examples of cases in which, for a variety of reasons, various individuals and companies have been given time to prepare proper accounts, including some which might be rather closer to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) than the example that he gave.