Tory peer questions if UK is even in recession

The comments were reportedly made by Lord Young, who quit as the Prime Minister’s enterprise tsar two years ago after suggesting people had “never had it so good”. He was later reappointed by Mr Cameron.

During a panel discussion at the MADE Festival in Sheffield, the peer was asked whether it was a good time to start a business. According to reports, he said: “I have experienced every recession since 1955 and I have never known a recession where employment goes up and at a time when the population is growing. I am not sure the government can actually measure the economy any more…

“The internet has had such a tremendous effect on business the past few years. I’m not sure, for example, if sales through Google, eBay, ever get measured.

“One of the things I think we are doing if we are not careful is we are going to talk ourselves into a recession. From 2008 onwards, small firms have had a problem getting cash anywhere; large companies have £600 million sitting in the bank waiting to be spent.

“All we need now is confidence and on the back of the best Olympics and Paralympics ever, I think this nation should have enough confidence,  frankly, to get up and get on with it.”

Lord Young – a trade and industry secretary under Margaret Thatcher – resigned his unpaid advisory role in November  2010 after suggesting that low interest rates meant most people had “never had it so good”  since the “so-called recession” began.

Downing Street played down the significance of the peer’s latest remarks, insisting he was merely highlighting contradictions in recent economic data.