Speeches by Cooper.

“1. Whether she has had discussions with the Welsh Government on the potential impact of the proposed visitor levy on the economy in Wales.”

“Professor Morgan, do you also think that the situation we are in is pretty good and we have that flexibility that if something comes along—obviously there are unknown unknowns—we can jump on that?”

“You have talked about pools of finance, which is wonderful to hear. One of the main aims of the industrial strategy is to attract international, mobile investment. You seem quite confident that we will achieve that domestically. I just wonder how confident you are that we can pull in money from outwith the UK. More sub…”

“The second part is what involvement, if any, you have had in developing this strategy.”

“You are convinced of the importance of R&D in driving that growth, but do you think that we have the right R&D institutions to ensure that the industrial strategy succeeds? If you do not, can you see any obvious gaps? Is there something that we should be filling at all?”

“Mr Godfrey, I will ask the same question to you. What are your thoughts on international finance and what involvement have you had in shaping this strategy?”

“I will be speaking to BMW later about the use of my name on their Minis. There has been a lot of discussion about competitiveness in your industry. You have all touched on various aspects that could be improved, but what specifics would you like to see in the forthcoming industrial strategy White Paper? What specifical…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.”

“I had better think of something quick. I will return to the question of fishing. It is right that we draw together with our European allies to fight and to bring this war to an end. However, it cannot be right for the French to leverage in fishing negotiations for defence spending. Will the Secretary of State press on …”

“The Minister talks about working at pace. If she wants to see what pace looks like, she might consider the Business and Trade Committee’s report on steel, which was turned around in rapid time—much faster than the snail’s pace review of steel, which has yet to emerge. Will it do so in the spring, or the summer? No one …”

“As a member of the Business and Trade Committee, I should remind the House that in March we recommended that the Government should listen harder to our recommendations. I am glad that that seems to have been taken on board, but I am slightly concerned that a lot of back patting seems to be going on, particularly about …”

“I congratulate my neighbour the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) on securing this important debate—we could almost smell the cordite in his opening remarks. My first encounter with the Special Air Service was when, just as we were getting to the good bit, the John Wayne film on TV was interrupted, and it was ov…”

“There is no question but that the hon. Members for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) and for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed)—who are sadly no longer in their places—had a difficult experience in Israel, and that is to be regretted. However, we are hearing today that that somehow makes criticism of Israel impossible in…”

“Between 1997 and 2010, about 36,000 jobs were lost in steelmaking, or about half the workforce—that was under Labour, of course. I am concerned to hear talk today about nationalisation, and I say that with due deference to my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers); the old joke is that if we wa…”

“The A77 and A75 roads are critical to the people of south-west Scotland, but they are also critical to the UK, because they service the exceptionally busy ferry port of Cairnryan, which links us with our friends in Northern Ireland. The difficulty with these roads is obvious if we ever travel them. There is another dif…”

“As the grandson of a steelworker in Corby, Northamptonshire, I understand something of the iconic nature of the industry. The hon. Lady tries to blame us Conservatives for what went wrong. Is the situation not too confused? The Government are not sending the right signals to the industry and we are not sure what we wan…”

“Looking specifically at British Steel, how close are you to reaching a deal with it? Is there any news on that?”

“The door is still open. You are still talking to British Steel.”

“Europe is also gearing up. There is no doubt about that. Germany and the EU have changed their rules so they can access finance for defence spending. Do you have any sense of where we are compared to them? What are they likely to ramp up to? Do we have any sense of that? Crucially, can that money be spent in the UK? Wi…”

“Do you see any challenges? How is it going? Can you give us any sense of where we are at?”