Full Employment
During Treasury Questions, Brooks Newmark challenges the Chancellor to recognise the important role that private equity plays in creating employment in this country.
Mr. Brooks Newmark (Braintree) (Con): Will the Chancellor acknowledge the important role that private equity plays in creating employment in this country? Will he press that point home to the GMB?
Mr. Brown: I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman has not been following Treasury questions. I said at the beginning that there is much evidence that the rate of job creation through private equity has been high. We have to distinguish between good companies which are long-termist and some companies that are too short-termist. I hope that he agrees that the measures that we are taking to try to increase long-term investment in the economy, based first of all on stability, are ones that he should support. That is why it is rather strange that Conservative Front Benchers want to change the macro-economic settlement that was agreed in 1997 and has given us the longest period of unprecedented growth in our history.
