Speeches by Madders.

“Okay. I was going to ask whether you could update us after that particular visit.”

“Absolutely. Do you see any people who might be advancing a contrary view in the EU?”

“So how are you going to break that?”

“Would you say there are quite a lot of member states that would be in that place?”

“The PM’s special envoy Varun Chandra has said that we are “working through longstanding red lines on economic security, food standards, agricultural approaches and third-country interactions.” There is quite a lot in that. What are the difficulties in resolving these issues?”

“Of course it is.”

“Absolutely, but I did not really get a sense from you—other than this is just applying to everyone—as to why various parts of the sector have been excluded, and critically how we are going to win the argument that they should be back in.”

“You have already talked a bit about the Made in Europe position, and you were right to identify that on automotive, we have some more work to do. I think you suggested that fleet vehicles and one or two other areas were currently excluded. My understanding is that if you take all the areas that are not part of Made in …”

“Okay, that is fine.”

“You can give us updates on that when more information is available.”

“Okay, so are you confident that those circles can be squared?”

“Absolutely, but some investments have been cancelled. We will come on to those in a minute. Is the Department keeping track of the jobs that are going to be created to see whether the promises made are actually delivered?”

“I think that was the flavour that we got—that these were things that might have been brought forward and that had been accelerated by that deal. But we are trying to understand whether there are any specific new investments as a result of that deal?”

“We have had evidence from quite a few investors who were generally very positive about the broader conditions. There is obviously market demand, particularly for data centres, but they said that the political stability, the rule of law, and the Government focus on investment were all factors that encouraged them to mak…”

“So we can expect an announcement within the next month.”

“I have enjoyed an interesting few months on the Committee so far. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is perplexing that we do not have any understanding as to why there is not more pressure being put on Fujitsu to come up with a figure? Fujitsu keeps saying that it is waiting for the outcome of the inquiry, but it…”

“In my experience, Meta does not care about the truth. We heard from the hon. Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman) about what he experienced, and I have had the same experiences: stuff goes up, it does not meet the threshold, it carries on and the lies continue to be propagated. Meta’s indifference is a danger to our…”

“While new technologies can often be a force for good and, when used correctly, can enhance political debate, accountability and trust, in practice they are too often having the opposite effect. Social media, in particular, has helped to fuel further division and facilitated levels of distrust, threats and intimidation …”

“The truth is that we have analogue laws for a digital age, and they are simply not fit for purpose. That is exacerbated by the fact that social media companies and their entire business models rely on outrageous comments to incentivise clicks. That amplifies the distortion of our political process and encourages the co…”

“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I declare an interest: I have three sons who have huge debts from their time in education. I would be surprised if more than one of them pays off their debt in full, but that would be in line with the roughly one third of all students who fully repay their loans. Doe…”