Speeches by Griffiths.

“Antony, I would ask you particularly to answer, in addition, how the Government should decide which parts of the digital and technology sector it should be focusing on. We all know how many subsectors there are. Technically, there are nine, but there are a whole bunch of subsectors within that. Where should the Governm…”

“We are going to look at sector planning next. Which criteria would you use to judge the success of the Government’s forthcoming sector plan for the digital and technology sector? In which parts of the sector does the UK have a comparative advantage or the potential to build one?”

“On a scale from 0 to 10—so a one-word answer from each of you—how optimistic are you about the prospects for the UK economy over the next five to 10 years?”

“What is changing with this industrial strategy that was not already happening anyway?”

“What about from a Vodafone perspective?”

“What are those things?”

“Antony, do you want to comment more broadly?”

“Why is now the moment that quantum will be able to make the leap that you were talking about AI having made in the last five years?”

“Is it worth, for the rest of the Committee, giving a very brief overview of what is special about quantum, just in case anyone is not aware of it?”

“That last point is the key to the whole thing, is it not? It sits across the entire economy. I believe you are speaking here on quantum. Is that right?”

“The FCA suggests it is not its job to police standards of firms such as Shein seeking to float on the London stock exchange and sell shares to British savers. Do we need tougher standards for foreign firms seeking British investment?”

“So if it is not the FCA, who is it?”

“To what extent should we converge our economic security arrangements with the US? We did not block the Three/Vodafone merger, despite the evidence of close ties between Three’s owners and the Chinese state. Are we being too lax?”

“I am not sure I heard the answer to the question there, but—”

“Let’s just move on. If we fail to strengthen our economic security regime, is there any realistic chance of closer trade ties with the US?”

“Mr Carberry, many aspects of the Employment Rights Bill will be decided after the Bill reaches Royal Assent. What do you see as the risks of this approach?”

“Give me some examples of SMEs.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but if you are so confident, why have you not worked with any SMEs to develop this? Why only work with Tesco?”

“I want to go back to the earlier question to Mr Lillis about SMEs. You gave an example of Tesco, which you have worked with and which is obviously one of the largest, most successful businesses in the UK. I do not feel that you answered the question about SMEs. Could you please, in shorter sentences perhaps, tell us ho…”

“I am not the one pushing this. I am asking you to give your prescription for those businesses and what they should be doing. How do they keep their businesses viable, even in the event of not being able to manage their costs when they do not have income coming in?”