Speeches by Bryant.

“Once we have dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, there will be fast progress. It is not specifically about the present moment in the Government; it is more about dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. We want to make sure that it is both proportionate and effective, because some versions that I have seen elsewhere in th…”

“I think you know precisely what that means, Mr Byrne.”

“I would set an earlier timetable but I just do not want to overpromise and underdeliver.”

“I see where you are going.”

“We are in a slight holding pattern at the moment.”

“He is a very naughty boy; he is not the messiah.”

“We have an amber light.”

“That is not fair, actually. The United States of America has said to us that we are not, because of our Modern Slavery Act. We have taken more action than some other countries have. I note that Australia told me recently that it is about to introduce a version of our Modern Slavery Act. We know that we need to upgrade …”

“I will. I am not evading. As you can see, I am being fairly open about my views and where the Government want to get to. The second bit is that, if you wanted to have a forced labour ban on imports into the UK, which is more difficult, you have to decide what constitutes the offence, who is committing the offence, what…”

“There is a whole write-round process, and there is a whole Government decision-making process that has to be completed. To be fair, there are bits where there are legitimate decisions to be made about what precise set of proposals would be both effective and proportionate.”

“Because of all the points that I have laid out earlier about the difficulties of getting decisions.”

“Can I just do the second bit first because it fits with it?”

“Yes, I think so. Are you not?”

“There is an obvious argument for why we should pursue trade deals with Mercosur, and with Thailand, for that matter, which is that the EU and, for that matter, EFTA in relation to Mercosur, already have trade deals with them. That means that British businesses are already going to be outpriced by European ones if we do…”

“Let me explain. There are two different elements. I would like to do things much more quickly. As you know, I am impatient.”

“Nothing has changed in my views. People in the Department would say that I am just as robust on these issues as I ever was before. One of the advantages of engaging with China is that you are able to say these things directly to the Chinese Government and to raise these issues. I know that the Prime Minister did when h…”

“I will come to that. There are two different elements here. First of all is the question that may be the most effective means of bringing about a change, which is to introduce due diligence requirements on company directors, who could potentially be civilly liable, so that they would have to make sure that, within thei…”

“First, I note that the hon. Member’s first sentence started, “Yes, we want to protect steel production, but”—yet nobody wants us to take the measures that we believe are necessary and proportionate to do that. That is one of the problems here: of course there are trade-offs. We want to protect steel production in the U…”

“I am sorry, but the right hon. Member simply is not listening to some of the things I have said. He referred to the business in Rotherham, which is Speciality Steel. Precisely one of the things that we changed—because we listened to people’s concerns—were the quotas that would have been met by Speciality Steel, because…”

“I have not got that over the line yet.”