Speeches by Benn.

“Well, in the end we will have to work out between us—I think we are still formally waiting for the settlement letter—how we are going to do this, but let’s be quite clear: the £46 million over each of the three years is for Northern Ireland, to be spent in Northern Ireland.”

“It will be taken between the Northern Ireland Office and MHCLG, having talked to the Northern Ireland Executive.”

“Sorry, I didn’t catch the last bit of the question.”

“It will be the result of the discussions. There are three parties—”

“It will be the result of those discussions.”

“It is going to be a discussion between ourselves, MHCLG, which has the accounting officer responsibility, and the Executive.”

“I do not think you can look at the local growth fund in isolation from the other investment that the Government are making. That is why I referred to the £30 million that will be coming to Northern Ireland as part of UKRI innovation investment. The Government, as you know, had to make some really quite difficult decisi…”

“For agriculture, the funding was ringfenced previously, then it was unringfenced. In agreeing the figure that the spending review has for funding for Northern Ireland, once again, it will be funded at more than the 124%, compared with what is being spent in the UK. That was identified by the Northern Ireland Fiscal Cou…”

“Well, I expect them to begin straight away, because that is what the Chief Secretary has said he is going to do. The honest answer is that it depends on their consideration of all of the issues that will be raised. That includes the Holtham review, which arrived fairly late in the day for the spending review process, a…”

“It was a pretty good outcome, really: a record settlement, a real-terms increase over the three years and a multi-year settlement that allows the Executive to plan more than it has been able to in the recent past. I was very struck by the fact that the Finance Minister, John O’Dowd, said, “My agreement with Treasury ha…”

“Yes, my name is Hilary Benn. I am the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.”

“Two things have to happen. The first is that the legal text has to be negotiated between the UK and the EU. The second is that our legislative framework has to be brought up to date with the current rules that apply in the European Union, because, to have an SPS agreement, there has to be alignment between the UK and t…”

“Once we get this in place—assuming the negotiations go well, which I hope they will—there will be no need for SPS paperwork, no mandatory physical checks on goods moving from GB to NI, no need for NI plant health labels, an end to the prohibition on so-called high-risk plants, an end to the ban on chilled and frozen me…”

“We have to make sure that we are doing all the checks that are required. Let us take an example: citrus black spot. The EU takes very dim view, understandably, of citrus with black spot coming into Northern Ireland, as it could then potentially move on into the EU. Anyone who has an orange or lemon grove will understan…”

“Very simply, it is because, in the EU’s view, veterinary medicines are a manufactured good, not an agrifood or a plant. That would take you into a whole other area, and that is why they are not part of the negotiation, but I think we have made some real progress on them. If you go back, with the deadline coming up, peo…”

“We are making, I think, pretty considerable progress on implementing the “Safeguarding the Union” commitments. Do you have particular commitments in mind?”

“I have a chart.”

“Indeed. The longest bit on the chart says “delivered”. There is an “imminent delivery” category, and then we have “in progress”.”

“That is a very important question. First, I hugely welcome the restoration of the Executive. I think that they are getting on with the task in hand. They have big challenges. There is no justification whatsoever for the institutions to collapse again—none. Having been in the job almost a year now, I would observe that …”

“No, I understand what you mean. It is a difficult one, because if the Government take the lead, people say, “Ah, so you are anticipating”—”