It is certainly true that unless action is taken quickly, or at least unless action is seen to be taken quickly, there is a real risk of a Sovereign Debt Crisis, with all the consequences that that brings-higher interest rates and the downgrading of credit worthiness, which is a real issue, not just a hypothetical one.

There is also danger in deferring action on the deficit in that every month we do so the risk increases of our having a Sovereign Debt Crisis and a financial collapse.

Under the headline "Markets in turmoil", City AM, which is edited by Allister Heath, who became director of research of the European Foundation, a think-tank that I happen to have the honour of chairing, states: "SHAREs worldwide plunged yesterday as fears that Europe's Sovereign Debt Crisis would lead to a fresh collapse in the banking sector.

I note that he is now taking a similarly Eurosceptic position by refusing to join the European consensus that we need to deal with Our Sovereign Debt Crisis by bringing down public expenditure.

I do not know whether the hon. Lady was reading the newspapers when she was campaigning for election to this House, but there was a Major Sovereign Debt Crisis emerging in Europe.

Since the last European Council, the problems in Greece and the scale of the Sovereign Debt Crisis have become apparent to almost everyone.

It is interesting that, following the Sovereign Debt Crisis and what has happened in Greece, the Labour party is completely isolated in Europe in not believing that we need to take early action on the deficit.

The Sovereign Debt Crisis means we need to the reduce the deficit even more quickly in order to protect our economy.

What does the hon. Lady think about the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Greece, to which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor referred in his Budget statement?

Despite having a lower debt-to-GDP ratio than us and a lower budget deficit, it is on the verge of a Sovereign Debt Crisis.

That captures beautifully the dilemma that the Government now face with a Sovereign Debt Crisis in the background.

As the shadow Chancellor knows, because he was still Chancellor then, when the election took place there was, in the background, a Major Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe.

There was a deliberate elision of the Sovereign Debt Crisis being faced by Greece and Spain and the situation in the United Kingdom.

I noticed in the Budget statement yesterday that the headline issue was dealing with the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Labour Members fail to recognise that there was a Sovereign Debt Crisis in April across Europe.

The Tories and the Liberal Democrats have justified the emergency Budget by talking about our "Sovereign Debt Crisis" as though it were the same as Greece's, or that of some other southern European country.

They assert again and again that we have left the nation's finances in a mess, and that is the context for the spectre of a Sovereign Debt Crisis.

At worst, we ran a risk of the UK being swept up in a Sovereign Debt Crisis, of a downgrading in our credit rating, of a loss of confidence by international investors, of interest rates having to rise in response, and as a consequence, of any recovery being choked off as credit became more expensive and less available.

The effect that that would have on the Sovereign Debt Crisis and the threat of rising interest rates could plunge this country into a serious economic crisis.

The Chief Secretary justifies massive cuts to the public sector through fears of a Sovereign Debt Crisis as the credit rating agencies downgrade our debt, but those same agencies were giving triple A ratings to junk financial instruments right up to the crash.

The hon. Member for Hemsworth (Jon Trickett) referred to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who, of course, told the House in the Budget debate that what changed him was a conservation he had with the Governor, who used the scary words, "Sovereign Debt Crisis", which changed the right hon. Gentleman's mind.

To continue with the existing fiscal plans would put the recovery at risk, given the scale of the challenge and the risk posed by the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe.

It is fundamental to our national interest that we are not next in line among the countries affected by the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Did she, like me, notice Lord Turnbull's appearance before the Treasury Committee this morning, when he clearly said that this country was not on the brink of bankruptcy and that there was no risk of a Sovereign Debt Crisis?

In May we announced immediate reductions in in-year spending, avoiding the Sovereign Debt Crisis that was engulfing the eurozone.

By 2010, we had the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

First, the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe has altered the balance between the merits of delay and the merits of action.

My noble friend Lord Lamont was right to draw attention to the deepening of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in the eurozone.

So in May we announced immediate reductions to in-year spending, avoiding the Sovereign Debt Crisis that was engulfing the eurozone; in June we set out our emergency Budget, returning credibility to the nation's finances; and this October we have had the spending review, bringing years of irresponsible borrowing to an end.

This was set up after the Sovereign Debt Crisis, and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and the Treasury have been fully involved.

First, there is Herman van Rompuy's report from the task force on economic governance, which was set up after the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

The Government spent six months telling us that Britain was very much like Ireland and had a Similar Sovereign Debt Crisis.

We have taken action in the UK to tackle our fiscal position to avoid a Sovereign Debt Crisis.

The hon. Gentleman ignores the fact that there was a Sovereign Debt Crisis in Greece and that we need to learn from circumstances.

We can have this and this and this, and we can keep on going until the interest rates go sky high, we lose lots more jobs and we have a Sovereign Debt Crisis".

We have talked about the three converging elements: the banking crisis, the Sovereign Debt Crisis, and how the complicating factor of Ireland's membership of the euro is exacerbating those issues.

So much complete nonsense, and dangerous nonsense, has been talked about the relationship between the euro, the banking crisis and the Sovereign Debt Crisis that we have faced over the past year or two that I feel inspired to comment on it in this debate.

The fact that this Parliament, almost alone in Europe, is not having to discuss the Sovereign Debt Crisis is in itself testament to the success that we have had.

If we have a Sovereign Debt Crisis in a eurozone member country and it is necessary for there to be a restructuring of the debt, it will logically lead to problems in the banks which own the bonds that have lost much of their face value.

Can he explain to the House how the failure of Greek banking regulation had anything to do with the Sovereign Debt Crisis, and what on earth the amendment, which is about a growth mandate, has to do with that?

The coalition Government have earned the respect of the international capital markets and have their confidence, because the combination of a tight fiscal and a loose monetary policy remains the best chance of avoiding a Sovereign Debt Crisis while ensuring acceptable increases in GDP.

I noticed that the Chancellor mentioned the risk of a continuing Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Given that we have the highest deficit in the industrialised world, we had to respond to the Sovereign Debt Crisis, which was and is pervasive in southern Europe.

Tight fiscal policy, combined with easy monetary policy and a competitive exchange rate, provides the best choice for avoiding a Sovereign Debt Crisis while ensuring acceptable increases in growth.

However, a gap emerged in the framework for managing the euro when the Sovereign Debt Crisis came about.

It would put at risk our long-term interest rates and even put us back in the danger zone of a Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Well let me tell the Chief Secretary that I know just how he feels, because the Chancellor has been indulging in pretty desperate scaremongering about the threat of a UK Sovereign Debt Crisis since his theatrically named "Emergency Budget" last June, and he has been aided and abetted by none other than the Chief Secretary.

A good example of that is the need for the treaty change, under the simplified revision procedure, to establish a European stability mechanism to deal with the Sovereign Debt Crisis in the euro area.

The Sovereign Debt Crisis that is occurring in the eurozone reminds us of the sheer power of credit rating agencies.

The Current Sovereign Debt Crisis further highlights the need for CRAs to communicate consistently and effectively their analysis to the market, and for investors to understand what ratings represent.

We have a Sovereign Debt Crisis and the eurozone in absolute crisis.

Notwithstanding what I consider to be a rather tawdry attempt to use what seems to be a political claim that a Sovereign Debt Crisis exists here in the UK to give the Liberal Democrats an excuse to ditch everything in their manifesto and support a Conservative party policy, the fact is that the plan is not working here either.

Had we not had a change of Government 14 months ago, we could have been engulfed in a Sovereign Debt Crisis of our own.

Abandoning that commitment would plunge Britain into the financial whirlpool of a Sovereign Debt Crisis at the cost of many thousands of jobs.

Abandoning that commitment would plunge Britain into the financial whirlpool of a Sovereign Debt Crisis and cost many thousands of jobs.

If we had stuck with that plan and even filled in the blank spaces, we would now be part of the Sovereign Debt Crisis whirlwind that is engulfing other countries.

” Today I could read out a whole string of comments from market participants saying that the UK has been a safe haven in This Sovereign Debt Crisis because of the decisions that we took.

Eight years is a long time, given that we are facing a Sovereign Debt Crisis across Europe and, possibly, the end of the euro in that time frame.

In Europe, there is a Sovereign Debt Crisis in the aftermath of a financial crisis, but the UK, after 13 years of Labour Government, is in a pretty strong position.

If the EFSF must also fund bank recapitalisation, will it be sufficient to give the markets confidence, and will there be funds remaining to underpin Any Sovereign Debt Crisis and prevent further contagion?

In a Sovereign Debt Crisis, where private debt has been transferred to government debt, slow growth and deflation are the biggest risks for solving debt and it will exacerbate the situation if we do not have growth.

When China is suggested as a possible solution to the problems of Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe, do we not learn the lessons of interdependence?

We are picking up the pieces of the biggest boom which became the biggest bust, and now we face a Sovereign Debt Crisis in the eurozone.

The Ongoing Sovereign Debt Crisis is having a chilling effect on our economy, too.

Cameron Clyne, the NAB's chief executive, said in his statement: “It is clear that the UK economy is likely to experience a much longer period of subdued growth with the Ongoing Sovereign Debt Crisis in the Euro-zone and the continuing austerity program by the UK government.

In the euro area, this is exacerbated by the Sovereign Debt Crisis and fragilities in the banking sector.

We are still feeling the shocks from the eurozone's Sovereign Debt Crisis.

Despite the welcome action by the European Central Bank, the impact of the Sovereign Debt Crisis on the European economy has been significant.

The excuse of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in the eurozone is of no use, because that did not begin to affect the markets and confidence until last autumn.

Before coming briefly to the purpose of the Bill-namely, the approval of an EU decision to amend Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which applies only to member states whose currency is the euro-I will stress that the decision of the member states of the euro area to replace the two temporary decisions taken to confront the Sovereign Debt Crisis with a permanent European stability mechanism is a good one.

Since the start of the Sovereign Debt Crisis, the European Central Bank has injected euros and liquidity into the system, yet monetary policy in much of the eurozone remains very tight.

Far from stabilising the eurozone, a Greek exit might serve only to deepen the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

We could not dismiss the risk of the UK being sucked into a Sovereign Debt Crisis, and it would have been complacent of us if we had done so.

The eurozone's continuing Sovereign Debt Crisis is affecting our economy and depressing demand, causing uncertainty for business, and I recognise that the west midlands manufacturing centre has not been immune to such pressures, which were pronounced under the Labour Government.

He wanted a major move made that would stabilise the Sovereign Debt Crisis in the EU.

Similarly, if it was necessary for a particular member state to recapitalise the banks, and that task was out of proportion to the financial resources of that particular member state, that would engender immediately a Sovereign Debt Crisis for that country.

The continuing Sovereign Debt Crisis in the eurozone is affecting the real economy and depressing demand, which has caused uncertainty for British businesses and damaged some of our manufacturing output.

We have done so in the face of a Sovereign Debt Crisis abroad, and at home in the face of opposition from those who got Britain into this mess in the first place and have resisted every cut, every reform, and every effort to get us out of that mess.

Before I presented my first Budget to this House, the Government were borrowing £1 in every £4 they spent, and we were faced with the threat of a Sovereign Debt Crisis.

The ECB's announcement of its outright monetary transaction mechanism and its clear commitment to stand behind the euro have clearly helped relieve the pressure from the Sovereign Debt Crisis.

At the moment of maximum danger five years ago, as much of the rest of Europe became engulfed in a Sovereign Debt Crisis, Britain faced a choice: did we have the resolve to cut our spending, cut our deficit and set a course for economic stability, or did our country go on borrowing and spending our way to economic ruin?

We all remember the events that led up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the tumultuous events of the ensuing months and years - events that changed the course of history and caused many of the troubles that the world faces today: the Sovereign Debt Crisis, chaos in the eurozone and the freezing of public and private sector investment.

Fast-forward 30 years to the recession of 2007 to 2008 and the country was running a substantial deficit, debts had been rising for years and the world economy faced the Worst Sovereign Debt Crisis in our history.

I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman is making about gilt yields, but none the less the Government's credibility because of our determination to address the public finances - with a degree of pragmatism on timing that I fully acknowledge - has helped to ensure that the UK has not been drawn into a Sovereign Debt Crisis or indeed anything like one.