Speeches by Bryant.

“You did not have to coerce me.”

“Of course. If you go back to steel, which is the classic instance, I think from memory that—I might have got these figures wrong—in 1970 we produced 27.8 million tonnes of steel in the UK. That was our peak. When we got to 2010, I think it was something like 9.4 million and now it is 4 million. The rapid fall in the la…”

“True, which is one of the reasons why we quite often focus on our services capacity. That is part of our negotiation with China at the moment—to be able to unlock much more potential with UK trade and services to China.”

“Well, no, because we think that automotives are already sorted.”

“Indeed. But also, the free flow of trade is vital to everybody.”

“I should say first of all that we have a data adequacy agreement that is not in relation to the US; it is a bridge, as I think it is called, which is an important part of being able to allow localisation of data protection and so on. Secondly, one of the areas in which we co-operate with the US in relation to the WTO, …”

“It did indeed. But Norway is—well, anyway. One of the things that infuriates me is this: how on earth did we get to a place in the world where, despite the fact that critical minerals are deposited and extracted in large numbers of countries around the world, many of them are either 70%, 80%, 90% or 95% processed in on…”

“It is certainly one of the things that we are considering and it is part of the equation. But of course the opposite applies as well, which is this: would China bother taking such an action against us on our own? Probably not.”

“And we are improving it. I think there are further areas where, on the back of our business conduct review, we may want to align ourselves more closely with the EU and, for that matter, other countries. I think that, as I said earlier, we need to do more in relation to anti-competitive practices around the world. But w…”

“Go on, Kate—I am still thinking about the last answer I gave.”

“Okay. I think it has teeth. But anyway—”

“Yes.”

“I am grateful, Chair, for your comment that 60% of what the Committee recommended in this area is being adopted by the Government. That is certainly the case. I know there are a couple of areas where we disagree. I wanted to make this offer to the Committee: if you can come up with a specific power that you think we ne…”

“It is not for the UK exporter.”

“On any of the above, or indeed on the patron of the legislation or whether it will be in the King’s Speech. Some of those matters will be for the Leader of the House rather than the Cabinet Office.”

“This is the only time that I am going to do this, but I am afraid that that is a matter for the Cabinet Office, not for me. So far as I am aware, a decision has not yet been made.”

“We have extremely rigorous food standards in the UK, and we are not going to surrender them. Incidentally, that does not just apply in relation to the United States of America. When we were having the conversation in relation to India, there was some question about cheese, and it is exactly the same set of issues. We h…”

“I completely agree. It is one of the things that I have been committed to for a very long time. When I was a Minister in the Foreign Office, I suspended the Turks and Caicos Government because of allegations of corruption there. Oddly enough, I appointed Rob Rinder as the lawyer to deal with it. We, as a Government, ar…”

“I think that both you and I were involved in this debate in 2008, 2009, 2010 and all the way through the 14 years of the other Government. It has been like pulling teeth to try to get all the overseas territories to sign up. In 2010, there was a moment when I thought we might be able to achieve it on the back of the 20…”

“I get all of that, and I am in favour of as much transparency for the public as is possible and achievable, but I do not want to stray too far beyond my certain knowledge.”