Speeches by Western.

“Do you think that the Government fully appreciated the opportunity and the value that this investment would have brought in socioeconomic value to the region and the UK?”

“How many?”

“You had existing workforce there. It was just building or supplying into an existing facility, not necessarily additional employment?”

“Could you have gone to a vaccine site in Europe or do you not have any vaccine sites in Europe?”

“Why did you think of Speke in the first instance? What was the opportunity presented by Speke?”

“That particular process that you are describing may be relative to future seasons but, for whatever reason, you just think that it is no longer relevant to Speke?”

“You said there was a seasonality about this vaccine. What was the vaccine and have we missed the season? I assume it was a recent season given the time pressure. When will that season return?”

“Does the shadow Minister not accept that it is due to the expendability of employees in the workplace that we have such a poor rate of productivity in this country, particularly compared with France and Germany?”

“Will the shadow Minister give way?”

“I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my union membership. The legislation before us today is truly historic. It is totemic in scale—the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. I commend the Minister and the team for the work they have done. The Bill delivers not on…”

“The shadow Minister is being very generous. I am making a simple point: it is less motivating and of less interest to a company to invest in machinery and plant if it can ultimately change the structure of its workforce or expend them through fire and rehire. That is what is holding us back, and that is why we have a 2…”

“To be clear, in terms of selling services into other countries, WPP has a huge footprint globally. What barriers are there in terms of selling UK-based professional services elsewhere? Is that something you have experience in?”

“Can I just go back to the point you were making about our reputation? We had a very platinum-level reputation several years ago, particularly in certain services that you were talking about. I think you said that that had been damaged. What needs to be done to restore that reputation, given that it is such an important…”

“Mr Morris, very briefly, I am interested to know your thoughts. I think you said the UK is 23 out of 25 on 5G. How do you explain that? Was it the lack of an industrial strategy? Why is that it we have such paucity of coverage, and what does this new industrial strategy need to do to bring us up to speed?”

“Sir John, you are suggesting that if we were to open that back up and extend the elastic band, to use your analogy, we could get rapid growth out of this sector.”

“Why is that?”

“Finally, Sir John, can I ask you about the NHS and the importance of that? It was referenced a couple of times. How vital is the presence of the NHS database to attracting inward investment into this sector?”

“How important is trade strategy? Many of these companies, including your company, GSK, have a huge global footprint. How vital is trade strategy to this sector plan?”

“Mr Bates and Ms Yvernault, I am keen to hear whether you have had any engagement from the new Government about their determination to reset their relationship with Europe, what the priorities are and how they have engaged with you. Do you have any comments?”

“The UK had more influence on regulatory issues.”