Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, it is quite a remarkable pleasure and an honour to welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Moyo, to this House, and to speak immediately after her excellent maiden speech. I am not sure whether the noble Baroness remembers this, but we once shared a nice dinner in Knightsbridge. I would never have imagined that I would be stood here welcoming that particular colleague, or any colleague, to...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: I too add my congratulations and best wishes to my noble friend Lady Gohir, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Birmingham and the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe—perhaps best wishes especially to the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, for serving a second stint. Long-term economic growth is driven by two things: the growth of a country’s labour force and its productivity...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I too express my disgust at this development. It is the culmination of many years of the style of ownership that has been so permissible under the way football has evolved. I am extremely sad that my own football obsession, Manchester United, is right in the middle of it. I applaud the Government’s seemingly strong stance. In this regard, I echo the call from the noble Lord, Lord...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I give my own congratulations to the noble Lord, Lord Khan of Burnley. I particularly welcome his passion and plea for more for the northern powerhouse. In view of the short time, I will make five specific points. First, yet again this was not a normal Budget, as it was understandably geared towards Covid-related support. This makes it hard to assess the true economic priorities for...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I would like to, once more—I have done so before—compliment the Chancellor and the Treasury on their general agility in their policy response to this unpredictable, ongoing and, at times, devastating twist in the pandemic. I have two very brief questions. First, in view of the highly appropriate importance being attached to the speed of the vaccination programme, and the high...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I broadly compliment the proactive role played by the Treasury in response to this crisis, which has, sadly, been in marked contrast to the overall policy of the Government. Notwithstanding the sometimes confusing and certainly erratic policies of the Government, and possibly aided by the Treasury and the Bank of England, at least through mid-September the UK, perhaps surprisingly,...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: What is happening to this and the spending review as well as the much-talked-about Green Book review as well as the promised paper on devolution? Surely the ongoing consequences of this crisis suggest an even greater need for true levelling up rather than excuses and repeated delays.
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I would like to thank and congratulate the Chancellor and his advisers in the Treasury for speed and agility of their economic policy response. I recall that in his response to our debate on 18 March, the Minister described my proposal for a version of a people’s QE as the most radical of any that had been proposed that day, yet within two days the Government announced what were...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: I apologise—I am not sure of the appropriate convention. We do not have weeks to have this debate; we need to act now.
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I welcomed the broad spirit and nature of the Chancellor’s Budget, much of which was, of course, designed before the realities of Covid-19. It was focused on a policy to significantly boost investment spending, so-called levelling up and giving proper attention to the northern powerhouse, all of which I hugely welcome. However, there have been events. The rest of my speech will be...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, my frank answer is that I do not know, but the longer that we delay an imaginative and forceful response, the risk of what the noble Lord has just described will rise. The whole reason why I am suggesting such a very unconventional and dramatic policy approach now is to stop exactly the kind of things that he is suggesting. If we give all our people confidence that they can...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, it is a pleasure as well as an honour briefly to speak in this debate. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Howell, on securing it and join others in commending the tremendous work that he has conducted in his committee. I can only hope that his example is taken up in the commitment of others and that, in the spirit of some comments already made and a couple that I shall now reflect...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: To echo the words and spirit of the noble Lords, Lord Howell and Lord Grocott, it is exceptionally important that the UK be on the front foot at the G20, with thought and serious attention. As a final thought in the spirit of the interesting comments of the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, perhaps the UK can itself outline ways in which the G20 can start monitoring and measuring what it says at meetings.
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I want to start by flattering the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, for his very wise words early in this debate, which have given me a little more belief in my own hunches. As suboptimal as the Government’s deal is, it might be the least suboptimal of them all. Based on my experience of thinking about the world economy and world trade, I think it important to remember that the...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I, too, congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Lincoln on his excellent maiden speech. By complete coincidence, I attended a wedding last Friday at which at least half of those present came from that proud county, so I can vouch that they appear to be a rather robust bunch. With respect to the Spring Statement, I will make six—hopefully brief—points, two of which...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, despite a lot of obvious things that—understandably—worry many people around the world, in fact the world economy has strengthened quite notably in 2017. Based on many of the indicators that I have followed for a very long time, the world economy is ending 2017 on a cyclically rather strong footing. I suspect that when we look back, world GDP growth may have been in the...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I now find myself wondering whether the most passionate advocates of Brexit, some of whose arguments we have just heard the noble Lord illustrate, are secretly in favour of a second referendum on the original question. If not, I cannot see any of their logic. Brexit with no trade deal—the ultimate consequence of no transition—is anywhere from worrying to extremely bad. I shall...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, I would like to make four points. First, the decision to hold a referendum on membership of the EU in the first place was driven by politics, especially those of the party governing the country. Not a great deal of thought was given to the economics of the issue, but now that we are faced with the reality we must do so. Secondly, while the decision to leave the EU is hugely...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My Lords, as this is my first speech from these Benches, I will start by thanking the Prime Minister for allowing me to have served in her Government, as well as her predecessor for inviting me to join in the first place. It was quite a surprise at the time, as well as a huge honour. I also thank the right honourable George Osborne specifically in this regard. It was a great pleasure working...
Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Treasury does not hold information about individual EU funded projects, so the detailed information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Information about EU funded projects in the UK is in the public domain, e.g. a list of European Structural and Investment Funds beneficiaries is available on Gov.uk. In line with the Chief Secretary’s letter of 12th August, a...
