Speeches by Maynard.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I thank the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for introducing this important debate so well and with such balance—I really appreciate it. I am proud and relieved that we live in a country with some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Obvious…”

“Yes, I am. I congratulate the Chair and members of the Work and Pensions Committee on doing all that good work; many thanks to them. Assessing the wider issues may encourage the Government to take steps beyond this welcome but narrow Bill to support children and their families who are struggling to get by from week to …”

“How clear and present is this threat?”

“I am less worried about you making the investments. I am delighted Microsoft makes them. I am more worried about what the UK does about that in terms of how safe we are when US companies have such enormous integration into the UK’s defence and government technology systems. That is my worry. I will switch to Jonathan. …”

“In January, President Trump announced he would like Greenland, and if it was not handed over there would be tariffs inflicted on eight NATO allies. Thankfully he backed away from that, but God knows what might happen tomorrow or next month. I am a huge fan of the US. I lived there for nine years and my three children w…”

“Sticking with that, what would be your countermeasure or your strategy to mitigate or manage that as best as possible if you were the UK Government?”

“In June last year, the Associated Press reported that Microsoft had cancelled the email address of Karim Khan. Microsoft disputes that, but I do not think Associated Press would have said that his email stopped working if it had not. To the point about resilience, the bottom line is the US Government have a much bigger…”

“The individual was a prosecutor of the International Criminal Court; somebody doing their job to the best of their ability. The bottom line is that he was cut off, and this could happen to us.”

“Just on that conclusion, I am not going to put the blame on you; I am going to put the blame on the politicians and the Government. The technology prosperity deal just feels like a completely rubbish, cynical exercise. It was announced in September and by December it was suspended; that is only three months. Mr Dowler,…”

“Dr Steedman, I am going to focus on you primarily because I think the other two have some potential conflict: one is in charge of a trade association and the other is a key exporter, so it is difficult to speak too openly about the Trump situation. Just to give the example of Greenland: on 17 January this year, Trump s…”

“Is there any point to any of this? Is anybody any the wiser for this technology prosperity deal? Does it gain anybody anything?”

“You mentioned 10 years, and that the UK is comparatively going backwards on investment, R&D and trials. You did not mention it, but we are 60% down in terms of clinical trials in the UK since Brexit. To what extent is it the elephant in the room? Is it Brexit as well? Try to give us a comparative scale of the damage do…”

“I apologise.”

“We have four minutes to go, including a wind-up speech. I wonder whether the Minister is going to get to my point.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello). I am going to move very quickly. I thank Sir Jon Cunliffe and all the campaigners in my constituency. I note that Blake primary school had to close on Friday because of sewage—the fourth time …”

“The National Bureau of Economic Research, in the United States.”

“I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests regarding the business that I founded in 1996, BDA partners, in which I still hold a stake but have no role or responsibility. Economically, this agreement offers some benefits. As per the Government’s impact assessment, and as the Minister sta…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent intervention. I am going to talk out of two sides of my face here, because on the one side, the UK has a lot going for it, but on the other, it does not. Since Brexit, clinical trials in the UK are down 60%, which is really bad news. That is just business logic talking. Busines…”

“I really hope I am wrong, but I don’t think I am. Moving beyond the numbers, I highlight the concerns of civil society groups, which many Members have mentioned, about clauses in the agreement on labour, the environment and human rights being characterised by a pattern of aspirational language and a lack of enforceabil…”

“I certainly like the States. While we are making comparisons with Europe, I note that under the UK’s free trade agreement 92% of our exports to India will enter tariff-free. Under the EU’s deal, 96.6% of its exports can enter India tariff-free. Perhaps there is some logic, after all, to bigger trade blocs having more l…”