Speeches by Western.

“Obviously you will be familiar with the Government’s industrial strategy—the sectors that the UK Government are looking for growth from and investment in. In the Budget, they announced £2.5 billion for the steel sector. In your view, Mr Bolton, in what way should that money be spent, in what form and where? What sort o…”

“Will the industrial strategy council succeed? Will it work in your eyes for the sector?”

“How was it working a year ago?”

“On the relationship across Government and how DHSC is working as a customer alongside the NHS with, say, DBT, how is that relationship working in your eyes?”

“I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my union membership. The legislation before us today is truly historic. It is totemic in scale—the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. I commend the Minister and the team for the work they have done. The Bill delivers not on…”

“The shadow Minister is being very generous. I am making a simple point: it is less motivating and of less interest to a company to invest in machinery and plant if it can ultimately change the structure of its workforce or expend them through fire and rehire. That is what is holding us back, and that is why we have a 2…”

“Will the shadow Minister give way?”

“Does the shadow Minister not accept that it is due to the expendability of employees in the workplace that we have such a poor rate of productivity in this country, particularly compared with France and Germany?”

“Sir John, perhaps I could start with you. I am interested to hear your thoughts on what has happened over the last five years. We left the EU. The European Medicines Agency shifted from London to Amsterdam. What impact has that had on UK life sciences? How has the sector been performing since we left?”

“In terms of priorities for any trade negotiations, MRA is the priority.”

“Do you have any concerns about the tariff landscape that we are increasingly facing and what that might do in terms of your provision of services globally?”

“Finally, Sir John, can I ask you about the NHS and the importance of that? It was referenced a couple of times. How vital is the presence of the NHS database to attracting inward investment into this sector?”

“How important is trade strategy? Many of these companies, including your company, GSK, have a huge global footprint. How vital is trade strategy to this sector plan?”

“Mr Bates and Ms Yvernault, I am keen to hear whether you have had any engagement from the new Government about their determination to reset their relationship with Europe, what the priorities are and how they have engaged with you. Do you have any comments?”

“The UK had more influence on regulatory issues.”

“Why is that?”

“To be clear, in terms of selling services into other countries, WPP has a huge footprint globally. What barriers are there in terms of selling UK-based professional services elsewhere? Is that something you have experience in?”

“If I can turn to WPP, I am particularly interested to hear what your thoughts are on the barriers that we face in terms of the trade in services. What sort of barriers are there? What do the Government need to do to address those?”

“Can I just go back to the point you were making about our reputation? We had a very platinum-level reputation several years ago, particularly in certain services that you were talking about. I think you said that that had been damaged. What needs to be done to restore that reputation, given that it is such an important…”

“Mr Morris, very briefly, I am interested to know your thoughts. I think you said the UK is 23 out of 25 on 5G. How do you explain that? Was it the lack of an industrial strategy? Why is that it we have such paucity of coverage, and what does this new industrial strategy need to do to bring us up to speed?”