Speeches by Bryant.

“We have had lots, and Alastair has had a lot of it, so I am going to hand over to Alastair for that. But the single point I make is it is unlikely that we would be able to persuade HMRC to change how VAT operates solely for this levy.”

“They are all part of the equation as well, and of course there is a lot of interaction between all the various parts of the ecosystem, and we are talking to them too.”

“Probably not, is the honest truth, for the reason that I just said. There might be an individual artist from overseas or whatever who might want to say, “If there is a charitable donation coming from me from my gigs it is going to go to the Amazon rainforest” or whatever it may be, and I would want to honour that. My g…”

“We have said that we want it to be a voluntary levy because it is quicker to achieve. As you know, anything that requires statute takes forever and a day. I do not know when the next King’s Speech is going to be, so I do not know when we would be able to legislate. I do not think we would be able to do it by secondary …”

“Well, in the words of Harry Styles, we are pleasing, never perfect, so I would prefer us to have achieved a lot more by now. However, I said in my letter to you—in I think November last year—that we hoped to make substantial progress by the first quarter of 2025 and we have made substantial progress. That is good. But …”

“Yes. It is not easy setting up a new charity. Lots of us have done it as MPs and end up doing things in our own constituencies. I have myself. Obviously you want to make sure that the fiduciary responsibilities of trustees are adhered to. What is good is that quite a few people who have already signed up as trustees ar…”

“That is what not what Tom Cruise told me last night.”

“Sorry, say that again. I am slightly deaf and this a really difficult room in which to hear, so if you could bellow, that would be very helpful, Dame Caroline.”

“Quite aggressive questioning.”

“It might be disbanded, you never know.”

“Did you say “hopefully”?”

“It might be disbanded, you never know.”

“Live Nation could sign up 100% and help in relation to Ticketmaster, but also in relation to any of the acts that it is representing. I don’t know whether Alastair wants to add anything to that.”

“They are all part of the equation, and I am having a bit more of the conversation here now with them.”

“The ticketing websites? Obviously, that takes us on to the secondary ticket market as well. There is a whole series of questions. I noticed the questions that were asked previously that we may want to address, and some of the conversations that we are having with them have been slightly more fraught in relation to whet…”

“Keep calm, and do not get too frustrated with the charity commissioners. They have an important job to do to make sure that everybody understands their responsibilities that they take on as a trustee. However, you do have to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. You cannot take shortcuts when it comes to getting all of this r…”

“If it loses any element of credibility, people are going to start saying, “Well, I am not going to sign up to this”.”

“And in many ways struggling as well.”

“They had better do and, to be honest, we have had such constructive conversations since I took on the role and on the back of our response to your Committee report, and I think on a couple of occasions Dame Caroline has asked me questions in the Chamber—and others have—about whether we would implement legislation. We a…”

“I am already going to Diana Ross.”