Speeches by Bryant.

“No, I do not think it would be fair to say that. I was not involved when that went through but I understand that, as I said earlier, because the British Government, working with the US Government, created an environment in which people felt confident to make those investments, they were able to proceed. Similarly, when…”

“Obviously there are two different ways in which economists look at balance of trade. Some, in the United States of America, for instance, would argue that having a negative balance of trade is a major long-term problem for the country. Some would also point to the fact that if we are able to access goods from elsewhere…”

“I think the Chancellor has been asked directly about it in the Chamber, so I would be inclined to go with whatever she said.”

“As Kate has just said, and so far as I am aware—I have not been in any of the rooms personally, so I am a bit hesitant about precisely what I can say—it has not been raised.”

“No. It is British legislation. We brought it in, and I think it is necessary. Indeed, we may need to go further, but it is a matter for DSIT to decide exactly how far we go.”

“Yes. I have Jimmy Maxton running through my mind from 1935. He said that if you can’t ride two horses at the same time, you better get out of the circus. The truth of the matter is that since the UK left the European Union, we have a new responsibility, which is trade, and we have to be able to ride an awful lot of hor…”

“Sorry to interrupt, but it is for the British Parliament to determine what the legislation should be in relation to that. It has not happened in this particular case, but sometimes people say, “Well, you’ve got to change this or that piece of legislation to get a deal over the line.” I often have to point out, “I’m sor…”

“Can I just go back, because you asked me another question?”

“Yes.”

“It is worth saying that we have not had any indication that going to 15% is what will happen, and that is why I wrote to you as I did.”

“There is a lot of noise, and we tend to pretty much ignore it. We just plough on with trying to get the best possible deal we can—and that is what we get from the other side as well, to be fair.”

“You did not have to coerce me.”

“I am at a bit of a disadvantage, because the first of those is a Treasury issue and the second is a DSIT issue. But having been in DSIT as a Minister for a year and a bit, my view is that the legislation introduced under the previous Government will probably not be sufficient to last three, four or five years but was n…”

“Of course. If you go back to steel, which is the classic instance, I think from memory that—I might have got these figures wrong—in 1970 we produced 27.8 million tonnes of steel in the UK. That was our peak. When we got to 2010, I think it was something like 9.4 million and now it is 4 million. The rapid fall in the la…”

“True, which is one of the reasons why we quite often focus on our services capacity. That is part of our negotiation with China at the moment—to be able to unlock much more potential with UK trade and services to China.”

“Well, no, because we think that automotives are already sorted.”

“Indeed. But also, the free flow of trade is vital to everybody.”

“It did indeed. But Norway is—well, anyway. One of the things that infuriates me is this: how on earth did we get to a place in the world where, despite the fact that critical minerals are deposited and extracted in large numbers of countries around the world, many of them are either 70%, 80%, 90% or 95% processed in on…”

“I should say first of all that we have a data adequacy agreement that is not in relation to the US; it is a bridge, as I think it is called, which is an important part of being able to allow localisation of data protection and so on. Secondly, one of the areas in which we co-operate with the US in relation to the WTO, …”

“It is certainly one of the things that we are considering and it is part of the equation. But of course the opposite applies as well, which is this: would China bother taking such an action against us on our own? Probably not.”