Speeches by Reynolds.

“I shall of course take that up with the hon. Member. I have spent a fair bit of time in his constituency, as he knows, on one matter or another. On fair trade and level playing fields, colleagues can direct their industries to the Trade Remedies Authority if they have specific concerns, but, of course, we monitor those…”

“I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for updating the House on that matter. He will know that one of the brilliant things about the UK-India deal is that it is not just for the higher-value, iconic products we are all familiar with; for bulk, there is no minimum price in the deal. The deal is incredibly strong for…”

“That is an area of concern to us all. We support and continue to implement some of the listing rules and prospective changes of the previous Government, but the bigger change from this Government is to liquidity, particularly around pensions reforms. None the less, this remains an issue of key competitiveness for the U…”

“I firmly agree with the hon. Gentleman that a level playing field is not just an economic necessity, but a matter of economic security and production in western economies like our own. Of course, if a company has a specific case to make, it should make the representation to the Trade Remedies Authority directly—I have …”

“I appreciate the hon. Member’s kind words. He will know that ensuring that everything my Department does works for Northern Ireland is a personal priority for me and for the ministerial team. In relation to exports, I can assure him that Northern Ireland will benefit from the advantageous position that the whole United…”

“The hon. Gentleman knows the Government, and the Treasury in particular, monitor the impact of all taxation. I have to be frank with colleagues: I have no idea what the Conservatives are trying to tell us today. They seem to want more spending and lower taxes—it seems like Liz Truss is still hanging around the party, t…”

“What a privilege it must be for my hon. Friend to represent a constituency with so many essential businesses doing such brilliant work for this country. On advanced manufacturing, he is right to say that a set of advantageous positions has been agreed, putting this country at a genuine competitive advantage, particular…”

“Of course, if you are the Energy Secretary, energy prices are going to be a big part of your job. Anyone trying to cite that the problem is somehow linked to the clean energy mission of this Government is obviously wrong. At the core of the problem is the gas price, our exposure to it and the role that it has in settin…”

“It is not about any one person solving it. It has to be a cross-Government piece of work.”

“It is very important, first of all, to make the distinction between the problems with gas and the problems with electricity. The heart of the problem with gas is that Europe consumed a large amount of Russian gas and we have quite rightly turned that off. That has led, across Europe, to very high gas prices. The UK is …”

“It might make me sound a bit odd, but I am obsessed by industrial energy prices.”

“That is a really interesting question, Antonia. First of all, the industrial strategy is based on an analysis of the sectors and sub-sectors that have the biggest and greatest growth opportunity for the UK. One of the things that has changed since we began this work is there have been significant changes to the global …”

“I am familiar with that literature. I have read it too and I am interested in it. Let us think about what Government need to do and to organise to have an effective industrial strategy. I believe every Government have an industrial strategy, whether they say they have one or not. They often have one by default and that…”

“No, I would not allocate a percentage or fraction to it, but it is fundamental to addressing the weaknesses that we are all familiar with, such as the low levels of investment and our productivity problems. The growth mission’s central message gets a lot of attention—having the highest growth in the G7—but the other pa…”

“There are different things. There are clearly some areas of concern—again, we have talked about them today—where, if Government were to seek any sort of intervention, it would have spending implications. That is, exactly as Spencer said, why we need to have the co-ordination between the spending review and this piece o…”

“It is important to choose the right metrics. It is very much in the public domain that I, from the beginning of Government, was very concerned about the ZEV mandate and the relative position that I felt that put our manufacturing industry in. To my mind, we cannot meet our aspirations on the electric vehicle transition…”

“I am not sure that, as Secretaries of State, our job is to hold mayors to account—their local areas will reflect and do that—but we do see them as key partners. They have been key partners in developing this strategy and some of the tools we need at a national level reflect the fact that we need things to implement som…”

“The first thing I would say, in answer to your question about how much of the industrial strategy funding pot should be devolved, is that we do not want—and no one here should want—one pot of money called “industrial strategy”. These things fail if they are judged by the input that you put into them and compare with ot…”

“That is a small business strategy broadly, yes.”

“I am absolutely interested in that. I look very much at other countries and the national branding they have around that. The Small Business Administration in the US gets a lot of attention, but there are other good examples around the world. Where other countries do it well is where they have a clear national brand tha…”