Speeches by Thomas-Symonds.

“I have not had any preconditions put to me. On the talks, we have not got, as I have said to the Chair and John, up into that steep part of the negotiation yet, so I have not had preconditions and things like that put to me.”

“I certainly hope I am always a pragmatist in these situations.”

“I would be hesitant to get into specific design points at this stage. I am just observing that obviously, with the Windsor framework, the previous Government negotiated particular arrangements, which we supported from opposition. Again, what the Windsor framework represented was a very specific set of arrangements for …”

“I don’t know what you mean by “back into”, because obviously we have the Windsor framework arrangements at the moment; those exist in relation to Northern Ireland and do already have a role for the European Court of Justice in interpretation of EU law. So I don’t think that is a new concept in our arrangements at the m…”

“No. In terms of the two agreements that you are talking about, they are both for very particular circumstances. There is obviously a particular geographic distance between New Zealand and the EU. Switzerland is also not an EU member state, but none the less has a very different type of relationship with the EU from the…”

“One is equivalence, the other is alignment. They are different models.”

“Yes, and to go back to the question I answered earlier on the customs union, we were elected on a manifesto that includes “no return to the single market, the customs union, or freedom of movement”, and that is the framework in which the negotiation takes place.”

“Absolutely. It is to do with linking our respective systems—that is what the ambition is.”

“On the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill—which is a live Bill, I would just caution, in the House of Lords at the moment—the guiding principle is the UK’s national interest. It is a matter for the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, in each and every case, to take a decision in the national interest—”

“We haven’t got to what I would call the steep bit of the negotiation. That goes into the summit. I think we will be—I hope—setting a date for the summit, and we will then see, as it were, the hard edge of the negotiation as to where we get to.”

“Of course circumstances change—I will not get into how they might or might not—but irrespective of where different issues move, we are very ambitious within the framework of the manifesto. You mentioned the Centre for European Reform. There are many organisations that have been asked what the value of an SPS agreement …”

“All I would say is within the mandate that we have from the British people—we are not going to rejoin the single market or the customs union or go back to freedom of movement—I reassure your Committee that we are ambitious. In particular, if we were to secure an SPS agreement, it would be of significant economic value.”

“What I have said is, first, that we are very committed to high standards and, secondly, that—as I am sure you understand, Chair—the bespoke nature of the arrangements that we need on SPS will be beneficial for the United Kingdom. What New Zealand has on equivalence is suitable for it; what there is on alignment for the…”

“I am open and pragmatic on these matters. I understand from reading the media that in a previous set of negotiations it was raised and rejected, but I am open and pragmatic on reducing trade barriers—a very nice note on which to end our session.”

“Look, we have set out in the manifesto examples of things that are objectives and what we want to secure. You can read it. You can see what they are—they are all pretty open. Obviously, what is not within my gift is what the EU ultimately chooses to bring to the table. I see lots of rumours in different newspapers abou…”

“Congratulations on your first Prime Minister’s question.”

“We certainly would not want a walk in the dark. We believe in high standards, whether that is in employment, in agricultural products or in our brilliant farming sector. We believe in high standards. We do not believe in a race to the bottom. We believe in what I think Katherine Tai referred to as “a race to the top”. …”

“I would like to make a distinction. First, there is the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill and its very specific provision about the Secretary of State’s power, to which Douglas referred. Then there is an entirely separate question, which in fact, Chair, I think you have written about, on a sanitary and phytosanitar…”

“—the first part of this year.”

“That is fine. I will just pick up on a really important point that you have made about the Windsor framework, because the Windsor framework taskforce is also within the Cabinet Office, as part of the European Union relations secretariat. I work extremely closely, across Government, with the DEFRA Secretary, and the Nor…”