Speeches by Griffith.

“Once again, the Secretary of State has failed to engage on the key issue, which is that British businesses—[Interruption.] It is not funny. British businesses are bleeding out, business confidence is at a record low, unemployment is rising, and all the Government have to talk about is the past, not what they are curren…”

“I am happy to give way if the right hon. Gentleman talks about what he will do to repeal the Employment Rights Bill.”

“No, I will make some progress. The anti-pub, anti-hospitality agenda goes far beyond this Bill. The jobs tax, the threshold change, the attack on seasonal and flexible working, the more than doubling of business rates, the war on pub banter and the garden smoking ban are all from this Government. Our hospitality indust…”

“The Labour motive is all too plain to see. This is a Labour party that voted 48 times to reject the will of the British people, led by the Prime Minister, who sought a second referendum to overturn that will. I accept that the hon. Member for Birmingham Northfield was not in the House at the time, but he might want to …”

“I will give way to the hon. Member for Birmingham Northfield (Laurence Turner).”

“I will not, but before I get into further—[Interruption.] I will say something nice about the right hon. Gentleman in a minute. Before I get into detail, let me welcome the Government’s U-turn on their plan to scrap the great British pint. Let us hope that that is the first of many. When I raised that on 26 February, L…”

“I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “That” to the end of the Question and add: “this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill [Lords] because it will provide for regulatory alignment with the European Union, and it has been condemned three times by the House of Lord…”

“With the very best will in the world, I think the hon. Lady can do a great deal better than that. As hon. Members have said, this House can legislate. If there are dangerous products, bring those use cases here, and I believe that across the House we will legislate rapidly to protect our constituents’ safety. However, …”

“I am genuinely intrigued, and I shall sit here and listen to the hon. Lady’s speech later on. Does she want divergence? Does she want us to use our Brexit freedoms, or does she seek to go back to being a rule taker and converge? We have not heard a compelling argument from the Secretary of State today as to why these p…”

“How have we got to this point? After 35 weeks as Trade Secretary, 18 weeks since the US election, and an entire month since steel and aluminium tariffs were first announced, the Secretary of State is only now going to sit down with the Secretary of Commerce of our closest ally. While he has been correcting his CV, stee…”

“Once again, no answers come there forth. Over 1 million jobs in this country depend on trade with the United States, including thousands of jobs in our steel industry. The Secretary of State does not know when he is going to get a deal. Will he publish his red lines for that deal, his objectives and what he hopes to ac…”

“I’ll do that again: higher unemployment, higher prices and lower growth. No wonder the right hon. Lady is in favour of making it harder to be sacked. This is a sad day for business and a bad day for Parliament. Business will have watched the last two days with dismay—[Interruption.] They will watch this with dismay as …”

“But it’s okay in the justice system?”

“Before I summarise the Opposition’s view on the Bill, I pay tribute to those on the Conservative Benches who contributed during its passage. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith) has held the Government to account with forensic skill on Report and in Committee. He was joined in the Bill Committ…”

“We welcome him to his place. At least the Deputy Prime Minister is honest in her unwavering support for the trade union agenda. She is proud to walk in the footsteps of Neil Kinnock, Michael Foot and the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), a conviction politician in the proper sense of the word, not …”

“There was no money left.”

“I will not, as time is limited. Yesterday, the Conservatives successfully amended the national insurance Bill in the other place to mitigate the worst of Labour’s job tax. In winding up, will the Minister confirm that the Government will respect that amendment to exempt hospices, care providers, GPs, pharmacies, small …”

“When he was seeking the votes of small business owners last summer, the Prime Minister said: “Small businesses are the lifeblood of our communities.” He said that business is “the beating heart of our economy” and told small business owners in Southampton that Labour would deliver the stability that businesses need to …”

“I deeply regret that if the hon. Lady reads the Bill, she will find that it precisely confers those powers on the Secretary of State, but she can join with those on our Benches in the other place by supporting the amendment. The Government can make clear today whether they are scaremongering or whether we should all be…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I congratulate the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) on securing this important debate. We have had a delightful virtual tour of every one of the nations around our United Kingdom this morning. I speak not only as the shado…”