Speeches by Baldwin.

“May I have a serious answer to a very narrow and specific question? We know how many fishing rights the Prime Minister was prepared to give away for how many years in order to accede to the EU’s demands, but how much UK taxpayers’ money is he willing to hand over to the EU in order to sign up to its protectionist deman…”

“I think I heard the Minister say that, were the Northern Ireland Assembly to pull the Stormont brake, the Secretary of State would potentially continue to apply EU regulation in GB under the powers in this Bill. If that is what I heard the Minister say—I think it is definitely what he said—it is important that I press …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I put on record my thanks to the Minister for his rapid reply to the points that were raised on Tuesday. I asked questions on time limits for emergency powers under clause 4, on whether amending the definition of “online marketplace” will be subject to the affi…”

“I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. New clause 2 is incredibly important. As the Committee heard on Tuesday, it is all too clear how many Henry VIII powers the Secretary of State is taking under this legislation. We do not need to rehearse the concerns raised about those wide-ranging Henry VIII powers…”

“It is no surprise to the Committee that the Liberal Democrats’ position is to go back into the customs union, which would require dynamic alignment. It is clear from yesterday’s vote on the Opposition day motion how Government Members feel about it. I have given the Minister the opportunity to agree to this sensible ne…”

“I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. Everyone on this Committee can agree that the UK is a proud global trading nation and, however we voted in the 2016 referendum, that one of the changes that has occurred has been our sovereignty over trade agreements. We agreed a comprehensive trade and co-operation…”

“I would happily take the intervention.”

“Given the importance of this point, I would be grateful if the Minister put on the record his acknowledgment that dynamic alignment is an ask from our European Union partners in the negotiations ahead of next week’s summit.”

“The Minister just clarified for the record that, although it is not his or the Government’s intention to use the Bill in the way we have highlighted, those powers exist should they wish to exercise them. Both he and I have read about this in the media, as neither of us is privy to the discussions behind closed doors, b…”

“I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. New clause 5 is designed to obtain clarification on the record from the Minister about how Government new clause 1, which was agreed to earlier, will interact with the provisions in the Windsor framework to do with the Stormont brake. As hon. Members will be aware, …”

“I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham for moving the new clause and giving the Committee the opportunity to hear from the Government on this issue. The matter was raised extensively during proceedings on the Bill in the other place, and in the evidence that the Committee has received from members of the public and impo…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham for raising this incredibly important and wide-ranging issue. He touched on some of its growing importance in the UK, where consumers are buying more and more products online. The hon. Gentleman brings his valuable expertise from the toy and hobby sector to the discussion. Above al…”

“On Tuesday, on multiple occasions I made the point about how widely the Bill is drawn in terms of the bodies responsible for enforcement. I have a lot of sympathy with the hon. Member for Wokingham’s points about a trading standards enforcement review, which we think would be an important part of the ongoing scrutiny o…”

“On a point of order, Ms Vaz. I am grateful for the opportunity to thank you for chairing, and Sir John for chairing Tuesday’s morning sitting. I thank the Committee members, particularly the Minister and his officials for their engagement on the important issues that have been raised, and I thank my colleagues. In orde…”

“Would you call them out then for having made these new investments—the ones I mentioned are all new—that sound more like the sort of thing you would expect from the Environment Agency?”

“We do not seem to have anyone co-investing.”

“That is going to be helpful for the chair of the National Wealth Fund as they go and find a new chief executive. Mr Cummings, I was very struck by the comparison that you made right at the beginning with the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is a genuine wealth fund, is it not, where …”

“It is proper wealth as well.”

“It is a misnomer to convince the British public that this is an actual wealth fund. This is the Government borrowing at the Government’s borrowing rate and then investing alongside, at a 3:1 ratio, in projects to hopefully make us wealthier and to make the debt go down. It is not directly a wealth fund.”

“Fair enough. In terms of governance, I want to ask the panel about some of the recent announcements that the National Wealth Fund has made. There has been the closure of the Grangemouth refinery, yet we hear the National Wealth Fund is putting £200 million into initiatives around Grangemouth. There has been the situati…”