Speeches by Bryant.

“Can we go now, then?”

“It might just be worthwhile underlining that there is a difference between the licensing regime that we have for military and dual-use material, and the conversation that we have just had, which is not about licensing in that regard at all. The figures we released on 20 April show that we have 395 extant licences in re…”

“I believe so. If I have that wrong, I will write to you.”

“Mr Cooper, just to be clear, we have refused and would refuse licences for components for F-15 and F-16, for precisely the reasons that you have raised.”

“I just want to be clear on the question you asked me earlier, so I do not have to write to you. Training, equipment, air defence and submarines comes to a total of £37.7 million—up to that, obviously, because of the way licences work.”

“This is the question about Watchkeeper drones, yes? We have investigated all these reports, as you would expect us to do. We understand that they are delayed, but we assess the risk of diversion to the IDF—the central question that is being asked—as very low. They are delayed, but we believe that they are still going t…”

“Yes, of course. Just to be absolutely clear, the Government of Israel are not a party to this licence in any shape or form, so it would be a fundamental breach. If the company ever wanted to do business with us again, it would be in a very difficult place.”

“They do.”

“I suppose the decision for any Minister in this post would be: are you going to put resources into doing post-shipment or into making sure that we have got it right in the first place? We have a pretty good record on assessing diversion and are pretty aggressive. With lots of companies, we are dealing with people we de…”

“It is difficult to have a system of post-shipment checks, not least because you have to have the other country agreeing to allow that to happen. In this case, it will be happening in Israel. We have looked at other countries that have done something similar in this kind of area. In the United States of America, less th…”

“That is a very hypothetical question to which I do not have an answer, I am afraid. I cannot give you a timeline, but maybe Stephen can.”

“I am only assessing where I would put more resources if I had to choose. This is always a question about resources in the end. It is all very well to say, “Let’s have a pilot on this, that and the other.” We have looked at other countries that have some form of system. Germany does seven or eight a year. We are trying …”

“I do not think you are meant to take part in the conversation, Madam Deputy Speaker.”

“Or deviate. Or repeat! I do not want to exaggerate, but this may be the most significant iconic moment for the UK and Switzerland since Sean Connery and Ursula Andress met one another in “Dr. No” back in 1962. [Interruption]—no exaggeration at all, of any kind. I am worried about one thing the shadow Minister said, whi…”

“My legacy will be a smile on the hon. Gentleman’s face. It was nice that he actually congratulated us. I think that is what he was doing. He said that was without any condition, but then he said it was really the Conservatives who started all of this business. It is exactly what he said about the GCC deal earlier this …”

“Now, you see, the hon. Gentleman always has a smile on his face—every single day of the week. The hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith) has managed to keep it going for at least half an hour now, so that is a good thing. The honest truth is that we all want to achieve the same thing: to increase our…”

“It is an enormous delight to put a smile on the hon. Gentleman’s face. It is such a rare outing to see a smile on his face that I feel my job is done—my work is done.”

“I am very grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee; I look forward to seeing my right hon. Friend later today and then again tomorrow, in two different sessions. He is absolutely right that this is a very important deal. Of course, it is not just done by the politicians involved. The teams in our embassy in Switze…”

“I am afraid the hon. Gentleman’s argument is full of holes—thank you very much, I’m here all week. I should also point out to him that Toblerone is no longer Swiss; it is owned by an American company and is therefore not covered under Swiss rules, although it has had a complicated negotiation process. We are not supine…”

“With permission, Mr Speaker, I will update the House on the enhanced free trade agreement that was concluded yesterday between the United Kingdom and Switzerland. This is the sixth trade deal that the Government have secured over the last two years. We already had an FTA with Switzerland, which was based on the 1972 EU…”