Speeches by Thomas-Symonds.

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. We have arrangements with France to make school trips easier. I think we agree across the House that school trips are an enriching experience. The Department for Education works with the British Council on the learning assistance scheme, which the Government hugely sup…”

“I engage with a range of stakeholders relevant to our relationship with the EU, for example through the UK-EU trade and co- operation agreement’s domestic advisory group, which I last met in September and which includes representatives of the UK fishing industry. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs i…”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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…”

“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.”

“On the customs union we have, again, a mandate for a reset with the European Union. In our manifesto, the contract we were elected on was that we will not rejoin the single market or the customs union, or go back to freedom of movement. That is the democratic mandate we have, and that is the framework that the negotiat…”

“In the first half of this year; before the end of June.”

“—the first part of this year.”

“I describe them as pillars, but there is, of course, an interrelationship between all of them. I would describe the first as the security pillar, and at one level that is about geostrategy and foreign policy co-operation. We have already seen some progress on this; the Foreign Secretary has met the High Representative—…”

“It is a pleasure to appear before your Committee and I thank Liam for the invitation to come along and accompany Douglas today. I think the reset is central to what we are trying to do. If I could talk a little bit about the approach that we are taking to the reset, first, the very fact that I am speaking to you as a M…”

“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…”

“Of course we have had discussions, as you would expect, Chair. However, it was never going to be the case that we would get into a more formal steep negotiation into the summit until the European Commission was formally in place, which, as you know, was at the start of December.”

“Just one correction in the question, first of all. You said the UK wants a veterinary agreement, but it is actually an SPS agreement, which is a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement, so it is broader than what you suggest. I would suggest that what we have is a manifesto that contains the elements that I described in t…”

“It is the Secretary of State—”

“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—”

“That is a matter for the Secretary of State for Business and Trade. The other thing I would caution as well is—”