Speeches by Bryant.

“I am terribly sorry; I am so fond of the right hon. Lady that I think of her in a commonplace way, or should I say a common-sense way? She was, of course, the Minister for common sense—although, despite that, she never took any measures to stop the import of Russian oil into the UK when she was a Minister. Oh dear.”

“The hon. Lady knows that I am very fond of her—”

“Yes.”

“The right hon. Gentleman makes a really good point. I noticed that he was commending the Government for securing the free trade agreement with India, which previous Governments were not able to secure, and he did so generously. Mr Speaker, I may have misled the House previously by suggesting that the India free trade a…”

“We are trying very much to focus on the key sectors where we know we can really deliver, which is precisely what bringing together the trade strategy, the small business strategy and the industrial strategy is designed to do. I was delighted to be at the security and policing trade event down in Farnborough yesterday, …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I commend him for supporting his constituents. Equally importantly, there are many Scottish products in respect of which we need to ensure that British businesses can take the opportunities the India FTA affords, and build on those so that we can build strong British businesses. …”

“Promoting Scottish industry overseas is one of our prime objectives. Whether it is opening up new markets such as India for Scotch whisky, securing new beef opportunities in the United States of America, securing contracts for Scottish steel in new bridges in Ukraine, or promoting financial services around the world, w…”

“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the work he has done to make sure that the UK Government have delivered in his constituency. I am glad that he has raised the Lanarkshire AI growth zone, because it is really important in trying to make sure that the industries of the future are at the heart of the jobs of the future…”

“Of course, I am happy to meet the industry body and listen to its concerns, as we do all the time. However, I just want to make the point that at the moment the DBT is concentrating on taking what we do well in this country and really ensuring we have an opportunity to do it even better. That focus is a key part of wha…”

“It is like an open goal, isn’t it, Mr Speaker? Sorry—you do not have a view. I believe that we achieve far more by our common endeavour than by going it alone. That is why I am a passionate supporter of the Union. Of course there are specific things about the Scottish economy that we want to drive forward. For instance…”

“We want to build new opportunities for start-ups and scale-ups to export around the world. That is why we are providing tailored market advice, free training through our business academy, export finance and support on the ground in international markets.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for standing up for the business in her constituency, and she is absolutely right. The Trade Remedies Authority is investigating, as she knows, and I urge industry to participate in that, although I cannot comment on the precise details of the investigation because it might eventually come to my …”

“I am happy to meet the hon. Member if she wants to take me through some of the specific issues in her constituency; I have done that for several hon. Members, and we had a roundtable last week to try to get the timelines down. Sometimes it is difficult. The median time in which we sort them out is 14 days, but if the h…”

“My hon. Friend makes a really good point by raising th4e example of London Fashion Week. She is quite right that lots of businesses in Northamptonshire are working in this field. One key thing we do through NEWGEN is to provide support to people—including, in fact, some of those she mentioned, such as Erdem and Simone …”

“There are a whole series of issues relating to hauliers where we have some concerns; I will ask Amanda to respond more fully in a moment. I have hauliers in my patch who have raised similar concerns. We are discussing the issue with Commissioner Šefčovič and his colleagues in the Commission. Another area that I know ha…”

“Sorry, Chair. If I might, I think there is actually a role for the Select Committee in relation to this. If we want to win some arguments in the European Parliament, it may be that the Select Committee here might want to speak to them.”

“We have obviously had one gain already in relation to beef—I was licked a lot by some beef cattle the other day on a farm outside Dorking. The US produces a great deal more beef than we do, but I think our product is materially different. It is for a very specific market, and I hope it is going to do very well. The DEF…”

“Yes, that’s right. He was adamant that he was going to make sure that, before the Act was published, it was going to be more sensible. I am very hopeful that he and the German Government will be yet more helpful over the next version, when it comes to going through committee and so on.”

“The draft that was published was, I think, not the version that was anticipated in December, and the draft that was anticipated in December would have excluded us from everything. That is why, notwithstanding the very significant concerns we have about the automotive sector, I was pleased last week to see the version t…”

“Poor old Elizabeth Barrett!”