I am very pleased to have invited to address the London One Hundred.

On top of my parliamentary work these last thirty years, I have in fact worked for Marsh and its predecessor firms, except for the time I was a Minister, since 1977.

I want, if I may, to address some broad issues this morning and as I look round this audience, as well as my friends and colleagues from Marsh, there are other friendly faces in the room with whom I have discussed some of these matters.

Firstly, it does not need me to tell you how truly significant and important the insurance industry is, employing nearly one-third of the United Kingdom’s financial services industry, and about a quarter of those employed in financial services in the City. This is a very big, very serious, very important industry which deserves the fullest consideration and respect from the Government and its agencies.

We meet today against a back drop of great uncertainty. We are all of us, living through a period of profound change which is always uncomfortable, and inevitably creates insecurity and sometimes fear.

So none of us are under any illusion. Britain is indeed at the crossroads. We are having to do two things at once.

First, we have to get back to living within our means, which means paying off a great deal of debt. Secondly, it is clear that the Government is genuinely seeking to change the culture of this country altogether, in particular through its welfare and education reform. To achieve either goal would be a considerable success.

But all of you here know that our role in the world is inextricably linked to our economic strength and our prosperity.

Never forget – we inherited a deficit bigger than Spain’s. Bigger even than Greece. This has meant taking decisions no other government had ever dreamed of taking before.

Capping welfare. Freezing child benefit. Raising the state retirement age.

Yes, we have had to put up some taxes but we’ve cut taxes on business and entrepreneurs.

Corporation tax is coming down to the lowest rate in the G7 and yes, the top rate of tax has been cut too because we cannot on the one hand say Britain’s open for business and on the other have the highest top rate of tax in the G20.

So today it is not enough just to protect our citizens in their communities and within our borders. Our whole way of life requires international trade and travel, the safe flows of goods and people, open seas, secure energy supplies, access to technology, a sustainable global economy and climate and food security. In a networked world, we need to be able to address threats before they reach our shores, and to use diplomacy, development and our intelligence assets to help avoid the need for military action which is a last resort.

In Britain this means that we need not only a strong and thriving transatlantic alliance and a leading role in Europe, but also a distinctively British approach to the building of new partnerships around the world, in North Africa, in Asia, in Latin America and in the Gulf – the parts of the world where economic opportunity increasingly lies and where solutions to pressing international challenges also need to be sought. In some cases this will be in parallel to efforts by the US and in support of common goals. In others we will act on our own in pursuit of our own national interest, which we will never neglect to do.

So the task of the Government is to take maximum advantage of this great new global super highway of trade and finance in an ambitious but orderly manner. In other words, we have to manage our risk.

We understand that the world is breathing down our neck. And we understand what British business needs.

You need us to deal with our deficit. To cut business taxes so we can compete.

To have a proper industrial strategy to get behind the growth engines of the future.

To reform education so we turn out the brightest graduates and school leavers. To reform welfare so it pays to work.

These are the essential steps to Britain thriving in this global race.

But it’s not just about policies, it’s about attitude.

Because frankly, we need the buccaneering, deal-making, hungry spirit that marked apart the old insurance industry, now more than ever.

Your business and your talented people have never had greater opportunities in terms of the emerging overseas markets: Turkey, Korea, Brazil, the Central Asian States, Mongolia, Indonesia and South East Asia generally.

And of course the much neglected but fantastic Commonwealth network, especially its countries with large high wealth components and enclaves (notably Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, India, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa). To these, with the so-called shale gas (and oil) revolution sweeping the globe, we now have to add countries either side of Africa, throughout Latin America (including Argentina) and throughout the Pacific region – each and every one of them with transformed prospects and set to become booming markets for your services.

Our companies need to increase this trade with these fast growing economies.

So we can see from this cornucopia of opportunity that it would be a major risk were the Government to listen to the siren voices which suggest that our country should pursue a policy of disengaging from financial services and thus relinquishing a global market leadership that adds much value to many sectors of the economy.

In reality, what we are talking about is an extraordinarily wide range of activities from insurance to banking, from foreign exchange to investment finance, from venture capital to hedge funds. The single feature that these very varied activities have in common is that the United Kingdom – and the City – excels at them all.

So it seems to me that it is essential that the insurance industry continue, and indeed redouble, its emphasis on innovation, on the aggressive development of global markets, and especially the importance of customer focus.

So what is the role of the Government? Well only the Government can deliver the economic revival and a better balanced economy. Governments promote advanced research, develop infrastructure projects, engage in public procurement, regulate key sectors of the economy, support exports and, through the education system, develop the skills on which U.K. businesses depend.

So it seems to me that Governments cannot afford to be agnostic but must have a strategic vision of the future shape of our economy in the medium to long-term.

The Government clearly acknowledge the great success of the financial services industry but in the regulatory regime now and for the future they must understand the need to tread with the greatest care, and it is important that they do not in the process ignore the law of unintended consequences by inadvertently undermining the City’s international competitiveness, or creating a culture of risk aversion, which restricts the flow of much needed financial support to the real economy.

So in short, the Government must be extremely careful that in responding to the crisis in the banking sector, as they must, they do not throw out the baby with the bath water.

So given the timescale, we need a broad national consensus on the way ahead in our economy and a far greater degree of Cross-Party agreement which should encompass incidentally a real enthusiasm for wealth creation and entrepreneurship, and much greater recognition for the achievements of our great scientists, engineers, industrialists and financiers.

I have to conclude by saying a few words about the European Union on a day when the Prime Minister will be negotiating in Brussels on the future of the Budget. Incidentally, he is quite right to take the line that he does but I make this point to you. The European Union, as a trading block, is the largest in the world with an economy and a population bigger than the United States. We benefit hugely from our membership of the Single Market but it is not yet complete and there are still restrictions in the services markets that need to be addressed and fixed. Indeed European regulation can be over bearing and burdensome to business and this also needs to be dealt with.

For Britain not to play a full role in the EU would in my view be an act of criminal folly and I think it is madness to trifle with it. We need to play a much greater role in the reform of the EU and to take the initiative in driving forward the change needed for the EU to come to terms with the world in which we all operate.

The way forward for the EU as a whole is not more centralisation and uniformity but flexibility and variable geometry, and we need to deploy and win arguments for a better sort of Europe and to do so in a manner which wins over rather than antagonises our allies throughout the EU.

Over the next thirty years, the world economy is projected to grow from $60 trillion to $200 trillion. That is $140 trillion of new prosperity available to claim in the new and coming generation. The opportunities in this trade and for our companies and our country are enormous, but to take advantage of it we need to compete, and we need to engage.

Our country and our companies need to build new links, new relationships and new partners.

We have less than 1% of the world’s population but its 7th largest economy. Our language is the global language. We are the only country in the world with membership of the UN Security Council, NATO, the Commonwealth, the European Union, the G20 and the G8. That is a truly remarkable network of alliances and influence that we can use to build our interests in this global market.

Therefore, in a highly dangerous world, in which we need to compete more intensively than ever, we must maximise all those new advantages which globalisation and the continuing information revolution provide.

We need to remain good and constructive Europeans: we need to remain close to and very friendly with but not, repeat not, subservient allies of the United States, at the same time as repositioning Great Britain as a global network power making use of all our relationships, connections and alliances. This is a big ask.

There is no sector in the British economy for whom lie available such golden prizes, and I wish you and your companies and all your employees every success as you take on the world.