Speeches by Hoare.

“Finally from me—I have to go to another meeting, so I cannot stay for the whole thing—you mentioned the work that Nick is doing on SPS. The default position is that the SPS agreement with the European Union is de facto a good thing, but there are quite a lot of mixed voices in the agricultural communities about potenti…”

“You have mentioned trade deals. The Committee will find it interesting. Are you able to share with us the involvement of your office with Trade Ministers, the Treasury, et cetera, to ensure that the views and needs of Wales are taken into account as preparatory talks on trade deals are undertaken? What is the involveme…”

“Clearly, one of your priorities is to see the Welsh economy grow, and nobody is going to argue the merits of that, but we all appreciate that Wales is a part of the UK economy and the UK is part of the global economy. Taking a bit of a stocktake as of now and casting forward, what have you done or, indeed, what could b…”

“Can I ask the Chief Secretary the following points? He said in answer to an earlier question that the documentation would be released in compliance with the Metropolitan police. Can he ensure that his Department, No. 10 and the Met understand what parliamentary privilege means and assert it on behalf of this House? Sec…”

“This is a serious issue, and my hon. Friend is dealing with it appropriately. He will have heard, as I did, the Prime Minister refer to the fact that the “extent of the relationship” between Mandelson and Epstein was “not known”. The common view among Members across the parties at the time was that any relationship sho…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Matt Bishop). I will return in a moment to a point that he was just making. I have the great privilege of being the father of three wonderful teenage daughters. Any parent or relative will feel their stomach turn and churn at the thought of vulnerable young…”

“The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee is right in that respect. I will just quote from a letter from the Cabinet Secretary to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which I chair: “Due diligence is generally carried out by the appointing minister’s department (in this case it was carrie…”

“I am grateful to the Minister—he knows that the House knows that he is an honourable gentleman in every sense of that term. The mood of the House is clear, and my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) has set out, as have others, the role of the ISC, and the expectation…”

“My right hon. Friend is right, but if this motion is passed unamended this afternoon, all those papers will be available either to this place or to the ISC, and then we will know. We are all aware of these sorts of things. Somebody will set a hare running at some point and we will say that we think this, that and the o…”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. My hospital pass has just gone through the shredder. Let me say to the hon. Gentleman, in all candour: yes. The likelihood of Mr Windsor ever putting a crown on his head is so remote as to be unimaginable, but for clarity and probity, I agree with him. I do, however, think we should deal with the…”

“Good morning. Could you set out for the Committee—bullet-point form might be helpful, for clarity—the challenges and opportunities as you see them that the all-island economy presents for those doing business or looking to do business in Northern Ireland?”

“I think, Mr Speaker, that we usually prefer for matters relating to those sorts of things not to be dealt with on the Floor of the House.”

“I have one final question; it is very brief. Is enough being done to exploit the Celtic fringe of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales? One automatically defaults to what Westminster is doing, but is there sufficient business focus to support growing collaboration between the devolved regions?”

“Is it your hope that the creation of the one-stop shop will, cumulatively, maximise the bang for the buck?”

“I think my colleagues on the Committee and I would welcome your assessment of the effectiveness of UK Government policy in supporting NI businesses to operate cross-border and, allied to that, your assessment of whether the UK Government, the Executive and indeed the Irish Government are providing enough effective and—…”

“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Why else would we have an Intelligence and Security Committee with that remit? It is not as if we are retrospectively trying to establish a Committee of the House to do a specific job. It exists to do this sort of job, among other things. I hope that those on the Treasury Bench h…”

“I appreciate that. The question is: are people saying, “This is a very fluid situation. We think we know what the direction of travel and the landing spot is. Let’s hold off on investing in kit, software, whatever, for overcoming ‘barriers’ that will, hopefully, be temporary”?”

“Yes, so we can see if there is a dramatic tilt. Obviously, Nick Thomas-Symonds and the wider Government are looking at SPS and developing relationships with the EU. Do you pick up any sense, commercially, of pressing the pause button on initiatives to see how that settles down, when it might be delivered and what, if a…”

“That would be helpful to see what the balance is.”