Queen's Speech — Debate (5th Day)

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 4:36 pm on 16 May 2012.

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Photo of Lord Razzall Lord Razzall Liberal Democrat 4:36, 16 May 2012

The noble Lord, Lord King, does not want me to go too far so I will rein that back. As noble Lords will be aware, we have not necessarily been uncritical of a number of government policies and plans. However, on these Benches we stand four-square behind the coalition on the necessity of bringing the deficit down. Now is not the time to spook financial markets. We have to look only at what is happening in the eurozone, particularly Greece, Spain and Portugal, to realise the incalculable cost to our economy if we were to lose market confidence. Look at our current borrowing rates. I think we are now selling our gilt-edged securities at a lower level than we have in modern economic history. That is a huge benefit to our public expenditure and we need to retain the confidence of the markets.

Taking the noble Baroness's point about there being nothing in the gracious Speech about growth-