§ 8. Ms Dari Taylor (Stockton, South)If he will make a statement on the importance of markets in the European Union to firms in the north-east. [112220]
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown)It is estimated that 14,500—one in three—small and medium-sized enterprises in the north-east have links with Europe. Government policy towards the euro is to prepare and decide. Today I am placing in the House of Commons Library and publishing the second draft national changeover plan. The euro standing committee, which includes the Governor of the Bank of England and the president of the Confederation of British Industry, met on Tuesday and discussed the draft changeover plan. In the draft plan that we are publishing today, which is in the Vote Office, we itemise and update the preparations being made.
§ Ms TaylorI welcome my right hon. Friend's statement on the priority that the Government give to the changeover preparations. Will he acknowledge that more than 500 jobs in my constituency rely on a good and positive relationship with the euro? In the northern region, the figure goes up to 150,000 jobs, so it is very significant to us. Will he also acknowledge that business in the north-east sees the Tories' anti-European stance as undermining jobs and investment?
§ Mr. BrownI am grateful to my hon. Friend. I much enjoyed my visit to her constituency this week, when I met many business men and women who know the importance of our constructive links with the European Union, and know how many firms depend on the continuation of that trade.
Three million jobs depend on our links with the EU. As my hon. Friend said, our policy on the euro is consistent with our making preparations and decisions, and subjecting that policy to the economic tests that we have laid down. Unfortunately, even if it were in the national interest for us to join the euro, the Conservative party would refuse to do so for reasons of dogma.
§ Mr. Nick St. Aubyn (Guildford)By how much does the Chancellor want sterling to fall from its present level against the euro?
§ Mr. BrownThe hon. Gentleman knows very well that we do not comment on the individual movements of sterling. He also knows that I appreciate the concerns of exporters and manufacturers about what has been happening in the euro area in relation to sterling—but the manufacturers to whom I talk in the north-east know that 1182 the greatest danger would be posed to them by action to return our economy to the stop-go, boom-and-bust policies of the bad old days.