Speeches by Bryant.

“We are going to get the best possible deal that we can out of the European Union. That is one of the reasons that I was in Brussels only yesterday alongside Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Minister for the Cabinet Office. We are getting a better deal from the European Union. We want to ensure that we have frictionless trade w…”

“I backed the national minimum wage. Because I have been here since the time of Queen Victoria, I remember a time when the Conservative party—backed by the Lib Dems, incidentally—held out completely against the idea of a national minimum wage. If we are going to build successful businesses in this country, it is importa…”

“I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend. The high street is a really important part of ensuring that we have economic growth across the whole of the United Kingdom, rather than just in some parts of it. One of the things we have been looking at is the fact that when a high street has a cinema, that often makes it a plac…”

“I can count; the hon. Member cannot. Let me remind him: growth under the Tories was 1.5%, and growth under Labour is 2.2%. Which is higher? It is higher under Labour, isn’t it? Why did we lose the vote last night? Because of 25 Tory hereditary peers. Why on earth would that be? Why do we think they might not be willing…”

“Look, we want to back British entrepreneurs and investors. That is why we addressed some of the key issues in our small business strategy, which we published earlier this year, in particular late payments. The Conservative Government refused to tackle that in any serious way across their 14 years. It is why we are also…”

“My hon. Friend makes a very good point: advanced manufacturing and the creative industries come together in this area, because it is also about broadcasting. Those are two of the sectors in our industrial strategy that we are very keen to motor on with, and one or other of us in the ministerial team will be very happy …”

“My hon. Friend is quite right to raise the issue of Llanwern; sometimes we focus on some of the other steelworks in the UK, but this is about the whole sector. I met Commissioner Šefčovič yesterday; we are very much on the case of trying to sort out precisely where we land with the EU safeguard, but we also need to ens…”

“I welcome my hon. Friend’s point, which is extremely well made. I am very happy to have a conversation with him afterwards about the precise nature of the discussions that are ongoing. Finally, I too visited one of my small businesses on small business Saturday, a great cake shop called Only Crumbs. Sadly, under the To…”

“I wish Rhiannon every success in her endeavours, not least because one of the problems provided by Brexit affects florists up and down the country. Some 80% of the flowers sold by florists in the UK come from, or through, the Netherlands, and when we sort out our sanitary and phytosanitary measures deal—which we hope t…”

“I have already said that we will not be joining Lib Dem calls, but we will try to sort out all the issues about frictionless trade that exist. The hon. Lady is right about the aviation industry. It was a delight for me to be able to go to Dubai and help support the bid from Airbus and Rolls-Royce to be able to sell pla…”

“I completely agree with the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee; this is a really good deal in many ways, not least because, as somebody who has benefited from medical advances that have happened in the past few years—I received immunotherapy that had been licensed only a week before I went to the GP with my stag…”

“Well, I will find some hearing aids for the hon. Lady, because she refused to listen to the answer I was providing. Basically, when the Conservatives left government, they had not provided a single penny to make sure the cliff edge would not affect every single small business in this country. That is the problem they s…”

“I will deal with ratification first, if that is helpful. Obviously we would like to move to ratification as soon as possible. You will know yourself that there are three stages in this whole process: first of all there is the conclusion moment, then there is the fireworks moment when somebody signs everything, then the…”

“One of the facts is that only one in 10 UK businesses presently exports, unlike France, where three out of 10 businesses do, or Germany, where four out of 10 businesses do. It is certainly true that if we were able to get those numbers up to French or German levels, that would probably be the single biggest increase in…”

“It is certainly true that as part of our reduction of the whole DBT—”

“You might have to remind me, because I am not aware of what you are saying.”

“Yes, but we have protected the team in India, precisely because we know that there is an FTA that needs to be used and exploited—in the proper sense of the word—by British businesses, and we are very keen to do so. I should also say that in my experience, quite often the FCDO is an absolutely invaluable part of our tra…”

“The trade promotion still remains with DBT. Although we have had to make significant savings across the whole of the network around the world—reducing from something like 1,600 to 1,000—we have protected—”

“We are not. I do not know where you got that from.”

“I am challenging the way you are using statistics there, because the UK has always been an open trading country. There are lots of tariff lines in the UK that are going down from 3% to nil, whereas tariff rates in India are coming down, as I just said, in relation to whisky from 150% to 75% and then to 40%. You are try…”