North East Unemployment figures are more proof the Long Term Economic Plan is working

The latest stats on unemployment rates for the quarter Nov-Jan 2015 have just been released this week and they contain more excellent economic news for the North East. The headline stats are:

• employment in the North East is now at its highest ever level
• unemployment rate in the North East fell by 1.4% on the quarter, which is the largest percentage fall of any region/country in the UK
• the fall in the unemployment rate in the North East was almost five times the national average percentage fall of 0.3%
• unemployment in the North East was 123,000 a year ago and has now fallen to 99,000—a percentage fall on the year of 17.6%
• Private Sector employment is up 60,000 in the North East since 2010
• 47,000 more people in employment in the North east than in May 2010
• 27,000 more businesses in the North East than in May 2010
• 143,780 apprenticeships started in the North east since May 2010
• 119,000 people out of income tax altogether since May 2010
• Tax threshold up from £6500 to £10,600 from 2010= tax cut for every working for millions and especially the low paid.

North East Chamber of Commerce Debate on the budget and the economy tomorrow

Venue: Raddison Blu Hotel, Durham

Timings: 12:00-12:45 - registration and buffet lunch; 12:45 – welcome, Ross Smith, NECC Director of Policy, followed by panel debate and questions from the floor. 

Participants: Chair, David Elliott, Partner – Tax, KPMG; Ross Smith, NECC; Julie Elliot, Labour MP; Ian Swales, Lib Dem MP Redcar; Myself. The audience will be NECC members - big and small businesses.

Labour MPs in the North East want to borrow more and put us further into debt

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/north-east-analysis/abandon-austerity-borrow-north-east-8526379

The Journal reports today that a group of Labour MPs do not believe we should be trying to address our debts and get the deficit down. We have halved the deficit and taken some very tough decisions in this parliament but I do not want to pass on this country’s present problems to my children. We have to balance the books

The Labour MPs for Wansbeck, Gateshead, Easington and Blaydon have made their views very clear. They are, to be fair, to the far left of the Labour Party. Their policies are that of France, and more particularly Greece.

The job count in these countries are terrible, and their growth is non existent. And one final point:

- Countries like Portugal and Greece forgot about their deficit and suffered 17% and 14% reductions in their Health Spending.

- You can only have a Strong NHS with a Strong Economy and a Long Term Economic Plan.

British economy grows again by 0.5% in Q4- long term economic plan is working

New Office for National Statistics figures show the economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the final quarter of 2014 – growing by 2.6 per cent over the year – showing our long-term economic plan is delivering a stronger economy and a more secure future for hardworking taxpayers and their families.

Today’s figures confirm that the recovery is on track and our plan is building a stronger, healthier economy, protecting Britain from the economic storm, with the fastest growth of any major economy in 2014.

That means more businesses, creating more jobs, and more people with the security of a wage to provide for their families. It means we can afford to cut the deficit while investing in the things that matter to hardworking families: schools, frontline health services and apprenticeships so young people can get on in life.

But the international climate is getting worse. With 100 days to go until the election, now is not the time to abandon our plan and return Britain to economic chaos.

Key statistics

 

·         The economy grew by 0.5 per cent in Q4 2014, following 0.7 per cent growth in Q3 – this is the first time the economy has grown for 8 quarters consecutively since the crisis.

·         The economy has grown by 2.6 per cent in 2014 – the best year since 2007.

·         The economy is now 3.4 per cent above its pre-recession peak.

·         This confirms the IMF forecast that we were fastest growing G7 economy in 2014.

This builds on other recent good economic news:

·         The IMF and OECD forecast the UK to grow at the fastest rate in the G7 in 2014.

Speech on budget responsibility, manufacturing, unemployment figures and labour tax plans

On Tuesday I gave a short speech in the House of Commons on balancing the books, and support for manufacturing and the growth of apprentices. Time was limited but I hope I made a few good points.

Guy Opperman (Hexham) (Con):

I support the charter for budget responsibility. I think it is a good thing and a vital part of the long-term economic plan. For four and a half years we have been faced with a Labour Opposition who have opposed every single budget reduction, and I have no faith in Labour choosing fiscal discipline in future years. As various Members have eloquently explained, the Labour party is effectively France in all but name. It wishes to have a socialist Government with higher taxes, and all the financial and economic consequences that that would bring.

This coalition Government have turned around manufacturing—we have seen tremendous increases in manufacturing, particularly in the north-east. We have infrastructure support, city deals, regional devolution on a scale not seen before, support for apprenticeships, fuel duty frozen, increases to the fairer funding formula on education, and reductions in unemployment in every constituency across the north-east, including by 50% in my constituency. We should be proud of that genuinely good record.

The consequences need to be addressed, too. The shadow Chancellor, as usual, did not answer my question. I put it to him that the north-east has the fastest rate of growth of private sector business in the autumn quarter and the highest growth in the value of exports, and it is the No. 1 exporter, with a positive balance of payments.

Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley) (LD):

My hon. Friend mentions manufacturing. Has he heard anything from the Opposition about how they intend to expand manufacturing? He will remember that they managed to reduce it from 22% of GDP to 11%. Has he heard anything about how they plan to reverse that trend, if they come to power?

Guy Opperman:

Absolutely nothing whatever. My hon. Friend and I are leading lights in the all-party apprenticeships group, which has seen fantastic work. I should probably make a declaration that I am the first MP to hire, train and then retain an apprentice as an office manager—not as an MP, I hasten to add—because she was doing a fantastic job.

On what the Opposition intend to do, we have to address the deficit. The Chancellor eloquently put it that the Leader of the Opposition is practising Basil Fawlty politics by not mentioning the deficit at every opportunity. We also have to look at fiscal consolidation. We all heard what the shadow Chancellor said today, but what did the Leader of the Opposition say only on Sunday on “The Andrew Marr Show”? He said that

“if we…cut our way to getting rid of this deficit, it won’t work”.

So there goes fiscal tightening in any way whatever.
To the clarification put to Miliband by Marr that:

“that requires a £30 billion fiscal tightening”,

he replied, “I don’t accept that.”

Whatever the Opposition say today, the reality will always be that the Labour party will introduce greater taxes and greater borrowing, and greater difficulties for our children.

On attempts to address the deficit, other Members have made the point, including my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), that raising the tax rate to 50% will not
increase the tax take by any margin and will actually disincrease investment. On the minimum wage, tax credits from the coalition have already addressed that in a very successful form and we intend to raise it. I heard on the BBC “Daily Politics” today the hon. Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie) proposing that his plan for addressing the deficit was an increase in gun licences. That may be laudable, I do not know, and I am sure he has fiscally costed this matter in great detail, but if that is his plan to address the entirety of the deficit, we really are in more trouble than we thought.

We were indeed fortunate to hear from the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Mark Reckless). It is always a pleasure to comment on his speech. I will not cast aspersions on his honour, but I will attack his memory and grasp of economics. He supported the coalition as we did the tough work from 2010.

Steve Baker:

Will my hon. Friend give way?

Guy Opperman:

I will not. I am so sorry, but I have zero time. Mr Reckless supported us then, but he does not support us now.

Good to make the case for the North East economy today - short speech in the Commons on NE business success story

The North East last year was the region with :
-         the most technology start-ups [300] outside of London,
-         and fastest rate of growth in private sector business nationally over the Autumn quarter:

Fact checker:

Technology start ups:
http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/policy-maker/blog/north-east-businesses-are-busting-the-%E2%80%98only-manufacturing%E2%80%99-myth.html

Private Sector Growth by PMI Output

The graph below shows the regional PMI Output Indexes for the UK. An average of the latest three months is used. All 12 UK regions registered an increase in private sector business activity on average over the third quarter of 2014. The fastest rate of growth was seen in the North East, while Scotland registered the slowest expansion: PMI = Purchasing Managers Index [Lloyds Bank]

 

And ….Worth making the point that we are also the region with the highest rise in the value of its exports

See: Highest rise in value of exports: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/north-east-exports-helping-economic-7721357

https://bdaily.co.uk/industrials/04-09-2014/north-east-exports-31-billion-worth-of-goods-in-q2/

Labour latest plan to tackle the deficit - put up gun licences from £50 to £100,000+

Will labour raise taxes? Of course they will.

What efforts will they make to cut spending? Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Leslie MP was on the Daily Politics earlier today, outlining Labour’s economic plans to tackle the deficit. His plans were twofold: raise income tax and increasing the price of gun licences. Obviously! Why hadn’t anyone thought about raking in the cash from gun licences earlier? The present cost is £50.

There are currently just over 700,000 firearm and shotgun licences on issue in England and Wales. 700,000 x 50 makes £34 million at present. Is singling out gun owners really the most constructive way of cutting the deficit that Labour can come up with?He would not say what figure he had in mind - as clearly this measure will barely make a dent. But some commentators are now saying this has to go up to £140,000?

As Andrew Neil on the BBC pointed out to Leslie, anything they’d raise from licences would be ‘tuppence’. And anyway, Labour have already promised that any money raised from gun licence changes will go towards the police budget; so that won’t do the deficit much good.

Like the bankers bonus spent 9 times over, or the Mansion Tax for Scottish nurses, it is pretty clear that Balls and co cannot add and certainly can’t run an economy. Full story and quotes here: http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/labours-latest-plan-tackling-the-deficit-through-gun-licence-fees/

The Tony Blair Question is a fair one: is Ed Mili's Labour a Left wing or centre ground party?

We are all now familiar with Tony Blair's recent statements that:

“I am still very much New Labour and Ed Miliband would not describe himself in that way, so there is obviously a difference there,” he added. “I am convinced the Labour Party succeeds best when it is in the centre ground.”

This came from his recent interview with the Economist: see here - http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/30/tony-blair-ed-miliband-general-election-labour

Blair is clear in his own mind that Ed Miliband is left wing, and offering impractical solutions to the countries big questions - but upon this voters will have to decide. Put simply, what kind of Labour Party are they being offered?
As Dan Hodges, the columnist put it:
"For the past four years. Labour has been trying to win from the Left. The New Politics. The Thirty Five Per Cent strategy. Zen Politics. Whatever you wanted to call it, the grand plan – and the philosophy underpinning it – were clear. To win, Labour had to reject the consensus, “Big Tent” politics of Blairism."

Earlier this week, in a refreshingly honest open letter to Tony Blair, Neal Lawson – a member of Ed Miliband’s early kitchen cabinet – set out the thinking behind the strategy. “In hindsight, the wrong people were voting Labour. The tent was too big and you spent the next 10 years trying to keep the wrong people in it.”

The evidence against the 2 Eds is pretty clear: Labour has formally abandoned the political centre and swung to the Left. Deficit denial. Big state interventionism. Raw anti-capitalism. Public service protectionism; a nation divided between “producers and predators”.

For my part, I well remember the 1997 General Election and the Labour Party rightly won. Blair offered a centre left party which supported business, wanted to keep taxes down as they knew high taxes stop job creation, and which had a genuine offer to Mr and Mrs Middle Ground UK. Clearly the Labour Party lost its way during their 13 years in office but their message in 1997 was clear.

Under Ed Miliband and Ed Balls their hero is the far left socialist leader, Francois Hollande of France - he of the 75% taxes, anti business laws, and pro union policies. The results in France have been catastrophic. Minimal growth, mass unemployment, entrepreneurs and job creators leaving the country in droves.

So it is a fair question, posed by a Labour leader who won three elections largely from the entre: is Ed Miliband a centre ground politician or a left wing politician? That is for voters to decide, but the evidence is pretty clear.