Andrea Leadsom - British Conservative MP HARDtalk


Andrea Leadsom - British Conservative MP

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Andrea Leadsom - British Conservative MP. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

One of Britain's foremost political magazines, the Spectator, name and

:00:18.:00:26.

my guest today as their new, of the year. She is a backbench

:00:26.:00:30.

Conservative MP. She was described as a potent mix of authority,

:00:31.:00:34.

restless this and feel it is. She has been causing trouble for the

:00:34.:00:39.

Prime Minister, putting against him on Europe and drawn up a plan on

:00:39.:00:46.

how he should repatriate powers from Europe. She has also been

:00:46.:00:49.

making suggestions on the way London's banks have been working.

:00:49.:00:59.
:00:59.:01:15.

How does she think they should Andrea leads and, welcome to

:01:15.:01:22.

HARDtalk. Thank you. -- Andrea Leadsom. American politicians said

:01:22.:01:27.

that every big trading disaster happened in London. There was a

:01:27.:01:33.

point when it did feel like that, wasn't there? There was. Obviously

:01:33.:01:38.

London is the world's leading global centre. The US has a problem

:01:38.:01:42.

with that but a lot of activity takes place here. That is because

:01:42.:01:48.

we have got the right language, a good times on and we have got

:01:48.:01:52.

London, the city poor people want to come and live. It is not

:01:52.:01:56.

surprising that this is the world's global training centre. We have had

:01:56.:02:02.

our fair share of scandals. There was JP Morgan, HSBC facing

:02:02.:02:08.

allegations that failed to stop Mexican drug money. A lot of banks

:02:08.:02:12.

have London operations in the frame. Is there a problem that the

:02:12.:02:18.

culture? There has been. The key issue has been the build-up of a

:02:18.:02:24.

huge oligopoly of banking in London. It started in the 1990s, when I was

:02:24.:02:30.

running the team at Barclays. We saw on enormous number of mergers.

:02:30.:02:35.

A lot of brand-names and fund managers as smaller banks and

:02:35.:02:39.

building societies all been bought up. We have got a real oligopoly of

:02:39.:02:45.

banks. Perhaps five major banks with 89 % of all personal current

:02:45.:02:50.

account customers. There is a great concentration in the UK. As we know,

:02:50.:02:55.

over the last decade, they have built up enormous leverage.

:02:56.:03:00.

Regulation was fairly tight. Certainly not focused on the right

:03:00.:03:05.

areas, which is the massive expansion of balance sheets and the

:03:05.:03:09.

amount of risk-taking in global markets that was going on in the UK.

:03:09.:03:15.

The position we found ourselves in, one analyst said that he had never

:03:15.:03:21.

known it so bad. Is that how you feel about the situation of her

:03:21.:03:27.

banking is in London? I think it has changed a great deal now since

:03:27.:03:31.

the financial crisis. In the build- up to the financial crisis, there

:03:31.:03:34.

was a huge amount of positions taken on which were funded by

:03:34.:03:38.

overnight loans from other banks. It was about leverage. He was

:03:38.:03:42.

talking about the scandals of the summer where particular things were

:03:42.:03:48.

going wrong in bangs. He argued it was worse than 2008, the height of

:03:48.:03:52.

the crisis. His argument was to do with some of the scandals, not

:03:52.:04:01.

least the libel. I would say that lie boar was symptomatic off a

:04:01.:04:06.

culture of making money and, therefore, perhaps, elbowing out of

:04:06.:04:10.

the way be good procedures, the good compliance officers and all of

:04:10.:04:14.

the other role of banking pictures risk-management. Certainly,

:04:14.:04:18.

anecdotally, I have heard from a number of people I have met through

:04:18.:04:22.

my work in the Treasury Select Committee and outside of that,

:04:22.:04:26.

people from my banking days, they say that risk officers were

:04:26.:04:30.

undermined because banks were making so much money that they did

:04:30.:04:33.

not need to abide by the rules. That is a big mistake, once you

:04:33.:04:39.

allow that culture to take hold. The way should explain be a talking

:04:39.:04:46.

about the rate set by the banks what interest rates are. You are on

:04:46.:04:49.

the Treasury Select Committee who looked into this. Afterwards you

:04:49.:04:53.

said that politicians are useless a getting to the truth behind the

:04:53.:04:58.

scandal, despite all your grilling and questioning of the likes of Bob

:04:58.:05:03.

Diamond. What I actually said was that on that occasion, when Bob

:05:03.:05:07.

Diamond came before us, that someone could accuse us of having

:05:07.:05:12.

been useless because we had no time to prepare. The issue with select

:05:12.:05:15.

committees is very often that they call an inquiry because something

:05:15.:05:19.

is very topical and there is not the time to get the in-depth

:05:19.:05:24.

information. Certainly for me, because I had been involved in many

:05:24.:05:28.

markets in my early twenties, it is very clear to me that in a dealing

:05:28.:05:31.

room, compliance officers us sitting there. You also have a

:05:31.:05:35.

morning meeting over the Tannoy per you talk about what is going on on

:05:35.:05:39.

the markets. We are not have the availability of any information

:05:39.:05:45.

about how things were recorded, were at their concerns about the

:05:45.:05:49.

way the rate was fixed? In terms of that first meeting, we were not

:05:49.:05:52.

prepared for it in a sense of having background information.

:05:52.:05:56.

Since then, it has been the Commission for banking standards

:05:56.:06:00.

which has looked into this. There was a suggestion from a colleague

:06:00.:06:04.

of years that you and he had been blocked from the commission,

:06:04.:06:09.

despite being, in his words, the obvious candidates for being on the

:06:09.:06:14.

commission. He seems to suggest it would be a whitewash and which were

:06:14.:06:19.

both too outspoken. Was he right? There are good people on the

:06:19.:06:25.

commission. Because it was a joint committee of the House of Lords and

:06:25.:06:29.

the House of Commons, it could only take a small number of members of

:06:29.:06:35.

each party. Would you have liked to have been on it? Of course.

:06:35.:06:39.

have experience because you were in Barclays, working in Berkeley's for

:06:39.:06:44.

25 years in the city. Barclays weren't the only culprit. Sure.

:06:45.:06:48.

Certainly there are other people with good experience. That is the

:06:48.:06:53.

way the cookie crumbles. suggestion it could end up being of

:06:53.:06:57.

white washed, that they would get to the bottom. I don't agree with

:06:57.:07:03.

that. I am feeling very satisfied. I am about to give evidence myself

:07:03.:07:10.

on the subject of bank account accountability. I think that is --

:07:10.:07:14.

portability. That is an example of how detailed they want to get.

:07:15.:07:18.

There are looking into issues around competition, which is

:07:18.:07:21.

something that we and the Treasury Select Committee have tried to

:07:21.:07:25.

highlight as one of the critical problems of planting in the UK

:07:25.:07:29.

today. You have clear ideas about what should happen. -- banking. You

:07:29.:07:33.

want to make sure we do not see these problems again. There is this

:07:33.:07:39.

idea that you could just leave your bank account. Yes. The. Macabre

:07:39.:07:45.

bank accounts is 55 % of people have never switch back to Cowes.

:07:46.:07:49.

Most people see it as complicated because you have to change your

:07:49.:07:54.

number, your details, your standing orders and so on. We have this

:07:54.:07:59.

oligopoly of banks who each have a Clearing system instead what we

:07:59.:08:05.

could do, to create a shared central utility into which every

:08:05.:08:10.

bank could hold their bank accounts. Then, in effect, you would

:08:10.:08:15.

completely remove the barriers of entry for new banks and be as

:08:15.:08:20.

customers could move bank accounts over night every day of the week if

:08:20.:08:23.

they wanted, keeping the same details. Standing orders would not

:08:23.:08:28.

have to be moved and so on. want the entrance and the market.

:08:28.:08:33.

That is the key to this. We have ended up in a position where we

:08:33.:08:37.

have too small a number of very powerful banks and the culture has

:08:37.:08:42.

been wrong. There is a custom -- custom of poor customer service.

:08:42.:08:47.

Many people are angry. It is one of our key strategic industries. It

:08:47.:08:54.

employs over one million people. It generates around 11 % of tax take.

:08:54.:08:59.

Yet, people are furious with banks because they see them as having so

:08:59.:09:05.

badly damaged the economy. I think if we saw a raft of new entrants,

:09:05.:09:12.

not just new medium-sized players, Bergin money, Metro Bank, also,

:09:12.:09:17.

some new regional banks as a new community banks, specialist lending

:09:17.:09:21.

banks and the like, that requires an absolute removal of the barriers

:09:21.:09:25.

to entry. The Independent Commission on

:09:25.:09:28.

banking has looked at this and decided not to recommend the

:09:28.:09:32.

introduction of portable accounts. Can you change their mind? That is

:09:32.:09:36.

what I am open. It was there because commission that looked at

:09:36.:09:41.

this issue of accountability. He decided to go for a 7-day switching

:09:41.:09:45.

process, which simply means you have to move your bank accounts and

:09:45.:09:50.

standing orders but you do it faster. What I am arguing, and I am

:09:50.:09:57.

not alone, is that a huge raft of the Challenger banks, the likes of

:09:57.:10:06.

bridging Money and Meadowbank, who are keen to be able to access a

:10:06.:10:10.

Clearing System and properly offer a service to their customers... At

:10:10.:10:15.

the moment, if you are a bank to clear as with RBS, when they had

:10:15.:10:19.

their problem a couple of months ago but their processing system and

:10:19.:10:24.

in they are completely packed up for two weeks, that affects all of

:10:24.:10:30.

the banks. -- system in India. For those new bands, it is essential

:10:30.:10:34.

they get direct access to systems so they can offer better service to

:10:34.:10:40.

customers. You would favour of splitting it in the retail and

:10:40.:10:46.

that has not stopped banks filling in the past. Look at Northern Rock.

:10:46.:10:52.

Why should it make a difference? don't she usually support the idea

:10:52.:11:00.

of a complete split. -- usually. What I have said is that refill

:11:00.:11:06.

ring-fencing is all very well. You get some of the disadvantages of

:11:06.:11:12.

splitting without the advantages. If you have a fenced Bank, there

:11:12.:11:16.

are ways you can push the boundaries. If you are a retail

:11:16.:11:20.

bank, if your corporate customers want to do for an exchange with you,

:11:21.:11:25.

do they have to open a new account of your investment banker not? If

:11:25.:11:30.

you have separated those two things, you don't have the grey area, you

:11:30.:11:35.

have a clear answer. You increase the risk of moral hazard. This is

:11:35.:11:39.

an argument made by the chief executive of RBS, Stephen Hester,

:11:39.:11:44.

he says you must be careful because people can be made bankrupt by the

:11:44.:11:49.

Government. If you are art retail ring-fenced banks, you are too big

:11:49.:11:54.

to fail. Two important to fail. If you are rational customer, you

:11:54.:11:59.

would want to bank with that ring- fenced bank on the grounds that she

:11:59.:12:03.

would be bailed out in the event of a problem. Inadvertently, you give

:12:03.:12:08.

even more power to those retail banks. They are the ones who would

:12:08.:12:12.

be saved in the event of a crisis. A quick thought about the sell-off.

:12:12.:12:16.

You think the Government should be selling off parts of the banks that

:12:16.:12:21.

it owns. A bizarre idea, given the struggle to sell off what they have

:12:21.:12:28.

thus far. It is all tied up in better banged competition. One of

:12:28.:12:32.

my colleagues and I have heard from a number of would-be bankers,

:12:32.:12:36.

people who want to set up a bank and have found that there are

:12:36.:12:40.

enormous regulatory hurdles to setting up a bank around things

:12:40.:12:43.

like providing capital Burgess's there uselessly that perhaps they

:12:43.:12:48.

have not got or, indeed, to demonstrate what you would do and

:12:48.:12:53.

then being turned down. -- which sits there used to sleep. The

:12:53.:12:58.

problem is, the FSA and going forward, the regulatory of

:12:58.:13:02.

authority that will regulate banks and future, neither of them has a

:13:02.:13:06.

specific competition objective. Neither has the direct incentive to

:13:06.:13:12.

enable new banks to be established. They have lots of down sides if a

:13:12.:13:16.

bike is established and then fails, they have no incentive to enable

:13:16.:13:21.

them to set up. I think it is all set-up -- tied up with Bank

:13:21.:13:28.

competition. If you can reduce the barriers to entry and divide banks

:13:28.:13:32.

backing to their original retail brands, you could actually create a

:13:32.:13:42.
:13:42.:13:46.

You have a very fixed idea. You say that you do not want to leave, you

:13:46.:13:51.

want to renegotiate. It is hard to see how you're going to get what

:13:51.:13:55.

you want. A complete negotiation on Britain's terms of his relationship

:13:55.:14:03.

with Europe. I do not think that I am a tricky to the PM. I think that

:14:03.:14:08.

he used in favour of a him?

:14:08.:14:11.

him? On the matter of whether the British people should have a

:14:11.:14:15.

referendum. That was a backbench proposal. I do think that the

:14:16.:14:22.

British people should have their say. That is vital. I had been

:14:22.:14:25.

completely in agreement with the government's approach to

:14:25.:14:28.

renegotiating Britain's relationship within the European

:14:28.:14:34.

Union. The reality is that the entire basis for establishing the

:14:34.:14:39.

EU has changed since the financial crisis. Britain is not responsible

:14:39.:14:43.

for the southern European debts and the crisis that has now ensued. We

:14:43.:14:49.

are not responsible for the problems with the euro. It is in

:14:49.:14:56.

Britain's interests that the euro survives and sort itself out. While

:14:56.:15:00.

they do wish to create a eurozone fiscal union, we would like to be

:15:00.:15:06.

able to give them that. We must also protect British interests.

:15:06.:15:11.

are setting up this idea that while they are going for federalism, we

:15:11.:15:17.

will negotiate our own specific deal for Britain. That is why the

:15:17.:15:23.

Labour MEP said that the reputable point is that the euro reformers,

:15:23.:15:30.

such as you, simply cannot deliver. They need an agreement from all 27

:15:30.:15:36.

member states. She says that you are confused. She says the work

:15:36.:15:39.

hard but will Labour is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

:15:40.:15:45.

simply does not have control over the EU in the way that you would

:15:45.:15:50.

like. I think that she is completely wrong. The Lisbon Treaty

:15:50.:15:54.

was the treaty to end all treaties. Yet we're here staring down the

:15:54.:16:00.

barrel of a new treaty to create a eurozone fiscal union at the time

:16:00.:16:04.

of the new treaty. It is entirely expected and required that the

:16:04.:16:08.

British government will come up with its own articulation of what

:16:08.:16:11.

Britain wants in return for establishing that eurozone fiscal

:16:11.:16:17.

union. I too had European ambassadors saying that I am

:16:17.:16:22.

cherry-picking. That is not the case. Look at the scale of what

:16:23.:16:30.

you're suggesting. It is a major overhaul. In fact it is, at the

:16:30.:16:35.

moment I'm working with a group of conservative colleagues to it --

:16:35.:16:42.

looking for. And number of those renegotiations are things that are

:16:42.:16:47.

already a government policy or ballet are things for which there

:16:47.:16:51.

is a lot of is a lot ofalready. For example, the repatriation of the

:16:51.:17:00.

local element of structural funds. Europe has paid over seven years

:17:00.:17:05.

$33 billion to the euro. Britain received a 9 billion of that back.

:17:05.:17:11.

We had converted 80 euros. It is then being sent back to last. Why

:17:11.:17:16.

not just keep it. You have said you were to look at employment law,

:17:16.:17:22.

farming, fishing, crime, not a structural structural hose

:17:22.:17:27.

areas, we are looking at whether we want to renegotiate. The government

:17:27.:17:33.

has already said that they are looking for an opt-out in the

:17:33.:17:36.

justice and home affairs directives. We are saying that if we do that

:17:36.:17:41.

then we should look at multilateral international agreements in

:17:41.:17:46.

exchange for signing up to EU directives. The problem with such a

:17:46.:17:50.

directive is that it comes under other European Court of Justice for

:17:50.:17:54.

arbitration. Having signed up for something that we like the look of,

:17:54.:17:58.

it then gets amended under qualified voting. We end up with

:17:58.:18:01.

something we do not like. We have the possibility of a treaty and the

:18:01.:18:06.

promise of a referendum with the new treaty. You are saying that we

:18:06.:18:12.

do it these renegotiations of these areas and at some point, quickly,

:18:12.:18:16.

in order to be able to say, let us put this referendum before the

:18:16.:18:22.

British people. These are the terms of the negotiation. T Ward in, out,

:18:22.:18:26.

or middle option? As far as I'm concerned, we will need to

:18:26.:18:32.

articulate a British vision for British relationship within the EU.

:18:32.:18:36.

The EU and not try to push us out. We are the third biggest

:18:36.:18:42.

contributor to the Budget. We are seen as exceedingly helpful.

:18:42.:18:48.

terms of how it would work, it is hard to see the process of how it

:18:48.:18:51.

would work. But you could put something before the British people

:18:51.:18:55.

that would be meaningful. As far as fresh

:18:55.:19:00.

fresh Start project that I founded and leading is not calling for a

:19:00.:19:04.

referendum at the moment. We're talking about trying to articulate

:19:04.:19:07.

a British version of our relationship with the EU that we

:19:07.:19:13.

would be calling on. We would be calling on the Conservative

:19:13.:19:22.

government to call upon the EU... in the way that we wanted to, will

:19:22.:19:27.

we be better off out? Leaving the EU is extraordinarily complicated.

:19:27.:19:31.

It is not a matter of leaving it overnight. There is a negotiation

:19:31.:19:37.

involved. It is not unknown. If we were to leave the EU, if we had a

:19:37.:19:43.

very careful and British interested renegotiation, it would be possible

:19:43.:19:48.

to leave the EU under good terms. Make no mistake, it would be

:19:48.:19:52.

extremely painful for a period of time. You cannot just leave it

:19:52.:19:57.

overnight. Every EU legislation has been enacted into British law. Even

:19:57.:20:01.

if you left it, you have a mass of laws that y laws that yecide to do

:20:01.:20:08.

something with. That would be better than staying in as we are?

:20:08.:20:13.

Exactly as we are, yes. That is why we're doing this work to

:20:13.:20:17.

renegotiating a better term for Britain. There is a spectrum along

:20:17.:20:24.

which it you achieve a percentage of it. Along this line, colleagues

:20:24.:20:29.

will say that on the basis of only achieving 30% of it, I would leave.

:20:29.:20:34.

Others would say that they would stay in on that basis. That is up

:20:34.:20:38.

to the individual. What we must do is renegotiate a better

:20:38.:20:43.

relationship for Britain. We must give it our best shot. We are in

:20:43.:20:48.

one of the most advanced democracies in the world. A year to

:20:48.:20:57.

a rare, a female Conservative MP. There is another well-known

:20:57.:21:00.

Conservative MP who recently gave up on politics because she said

:21:00.:21:05.

that in her situation, it was just too hard to balance the work life

:21:05.:21:12.

with her home life. There were particular circumstances for her.

:21:12.:21:15.

How hard it had he found it? You have children, your active

:21:15.:21:23.

politically. His is difficult? think I am older than her, sadly. I

:21:23.:21:28.

have worked all my life. My children are my priority. If I had

:21:28.:21:33.

to choose, I would drop politics for family. I think that the

:21:33.:21:39.

balance is just right for me. My children have gotten used to it.

:21:39.:21:43.

you think that people find that difficult? They are not used to men

:21:43.:21:46.

saying that. So the idea that you're saying that your children

:21:46.:21:52.

come first. I hope not. I think that I approve every day that I am

:21:52.:21:56.

completely committed to politics. I have wanted to do it since I was 13

:21:56.:22:00.

years. My children and now at the age that I was when I decided to

:22:00.:22:07.

become an MP. They're in their teens, so you knew very young?

:22:07.:22:11.

they will come into Parliament and they will sit through a debate and

:22:11.:22:15.

they will be proud of their mother. That makes me feel fantastic. They

:22:15.:22:19.

love to see it. They love to see their mother on TV and their mates

:22:19.:22:25.

at school say that I had done this or that. That is embarrassing, but

:22:25.:22:30.

we have the balance right. I am somebody who will be there at the

:22:30.:22:34.

important netball match or rugby match. I will be there at the

:22:34.:22:40.

Christmas concert and that sort of thing. You set up something called

:22:40.:22:44.

the Parent Infant partnership. It is to help mothers who have had

:22:44.:22:48.

post-natal depression. That is the starting point. You experience

:22:48.:22:54.

something like that? Yes, with my first child. Having been capable

:22:54.:22:59.

and doing well in bargaining - -- banking. It was like falling off a

:22:59.:23:06.

cliff. For me, it did not last long. I'm grateful for that. But for many

:23:07.:23:10.

people, not just post-natal depression, but also drug problems

:23:10.:23:17.

or teenage mothers, are certainly post-natal depression that leaves

:23:17.:23:22.

mothers and other family members, fathers and close relatives, you're

:23:22.:23:27.

trying to care for a baby and simply cannot. The key point in

:23:27.:23:31.

setting this up is that a baby who does not have a sympathetic,

:23:31.:23:35.

empathetic Caraher, suffers in terms of their own brain

:23:35.:23:44.

development. Between the aid of a zero and two, an infant's brain

:23:44.:23:48.

does in certain directions because of neural connections made in the

:23:48.:23:53.

early life. A baby literally learn some earliest experiences how its

:23:53.:23:58.

will haul lifelong emotional health will shape up. It is critical that

:23:58.:24:02.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS