Speeches by Cooper.

“To be clear, you are talking about a couple of weeks to save your industry.”

“What can you do about this? Your product eventually goes into fuel, so is there an opportunity there, or do you fear that you are going to be undercut?”

“I have two points. The first is on hormone-treated beef. Are you confident that the UK Government can keep hormone-treated beef out? There are systems in place. Secondly, rather than worrying about cheap beef coming over here, you are concerned about the high‑end market, the so-called New York strip steak. Your …”

“I will come to you, David, first and foremost. The beef situation is complex. There is no doubt about that. My understanding is that the beef herd, both in Britain and the US, is at quite a low ebb, which has driven up prices. Prices at the moment are quite good. What is your evaluation of this beef deal? Does Britain …”

“Most military operations require an element of surprise, and the Government certainly achieved that by delivering the news of the return of tactical nuclear weapons through the medium of The Sunday Times. That marmalade-dropping moment aside, what impact will the apparent purchase of F-35 Lightning fighters from Americ…”

“Under the yoke of the SNP, Scotland already has a presumption against short sentences, and now the new Scottish commission looking at sentencing and penal policy has been accused of being packed with activists determined to keep criminals out of jail. Why is the Lord Chancellor in Westminster following this lead and fa…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman, whose tremendously adroit chairmanship of the Committee has allowed a lot of cross-party working, which has been really refreshing and very good. This is a moment of regret: the Committee did flag up how fragile coastal communities could be damaged badly by a multi-year deal on fishing…”

“As a member of the Business and Trade Committee, it has been a privilege to traverse this land from Exeter to Belfast and from Glasgow to Cardiff to speak with people on the frontline of business. They are a doughty, resilient lot, doing amazing things; Britain’s got talent, but heads are going down. The barrage of red…”

“The hon. Gentleman is right. These are not free trade agreements in the normal sense of the words: they are frittering around the edges, as he said himself. The difficulty for beef farmers in Dumfries and Galloway is that prices are rising, which is partly down to a drop in stock because of costs and things like that, …”

“The hon. Lady is a doughty campaigner on the Business and Trade Committee. Unquestionably, mistakes were made. We know that and we have been through it before, but this Government have been in charge for 10 months now, and we see inflation rising and jobs slipping away. As I said, we are through the looking glass: trad…”

“May I give the House the news that ex-special forces soldiers, including the Minister for Veterans and People, have reached the top of Everest today? Congratulations to them. We also have a mountain to climb to create growth in this country. My hon. Friend mentioned HMRC; does it not reflect the Government? The Governm…”

“13. What steps he is taking to support veterans of Operation Banner.”

“Operation Banner defeated the IRA militarily and paved the way for the Good Friday agreement, so why are this Labour Government now pushing two-tier justice, to the obvious detriment of our brave Northern Ireland veterans and to the advantage of Gerry Adams and his Sinn Féin fellow travellers? Where is the justice in t…”

“Does the Minister have any information about how much aid is being held in Hamas-controlled warehouses in Gaza? Is the key to this desperate situation our links to Tehran? At the end of the day, the Iranian regime pulls the strings of its puppet organisation, Hamas, who are holding the hostages in conditions akin to to…”

“I am John Cooper. Sorry, I do not have a name tag.”

“Industrial strategy will not do anything of itself—it is a document. One of the criticisms of industrial strategies is that they chop and change and they are quite nebulous. You cannot mark your own homework. What goals and targets are you setting to establish how you are doing? Have you set specific goals in certain a…”

“Secretary of State, thank you very much for your time. You are a busy man at the moment. Your Government have clearly set out their target for the fastest growth in the G7, but the forecasts indicate that you are trailing there. There are multiple reasons for that, I assume. We talk about headwinds, but it looks like a…”

“Very briefly, I think all of us have experienced issues like this. I had a small business that was faced with an £18,000 bill that was completely spurious. It was based on a meter that should have been disconnected and had not been. Energy bills—we all get them, whether we are in the private sector or the public sector…”

“I have got that wrong.”

“4. What discussions he has had with his US counterpart on the policy of the US Administration on Iran.”