Speeches by Thomas-Symonds.

“It is not a price; it is an economic benefit. It is a strong economic benefit. You are perfectly reasonable to put that argument, but you have to front up about the consequences of it in terms of costs to businesses and to consumers in terms of the price of food and drink. I welcome that debate. I gave a speech only a …”

“We will sign up to align on those standards, and it is our sovereign choice to do so. You asked me specifically about rule shaping. As I say, it is participatory. You will have access to things like data, and be able to participate in discussions around the development of the rules. I am not being defensive about this.…”

“First of all, may I challenge the premise of your question? Far from giving away control, this Government are exercising control, and indeed exercising control on the independent trade policy. Let me give an example. In the same month, we secured an FTA with India—to be fair, Boris Johnson, the previous Prime Minister,…”

“In any such circumstance, I will bear in mind the position of the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.”

“Do I envisage relying on it? Well, I do not anticipate that, but I obviously cannot say 100%, because I do not know particular urgent situations that might arise, given that the context of that treaty was in irregular migration. However, I hope that you will take from the tenor of my answer that my general tendency is …”

“I will let Stephen come in on UK- France, because obviously there are very particular circumstances to do with that treaty—”

“This is on UK-France, is it?”

“I entirely agree that it is your job to scrutinise. I am a huge respecter of Parliament; I have always loved Parliament and come to be held to account. On these negotiations, it is a question of balancing. You are absolutely right that to say, “Look at the pressure in Parliament about X, Y, Z,” can be helpful, but in m…”

“First of all, I welcome scrutiny. One thing I have discovered in this role, given how multi-faceted it is, is the number of Select Committees, of both Houses, I find myself before. It is quite a range, I have to say, but it is a delight to join the Committee for this session. Whether it is parliamentary questions or st…”

“Just to answer off the top of my head, I find it very difficult to see how we can recover much of that. I am more than happy to steer back and have a discussion about whether any of it could be, of course—it is important value for money for taxpayers—but the reality is that the ruthlessly pragmatic approach that we hav…”

“In terms of the UK-France arrangement, it is a pilot. If you pilot something and it is regarded as being successful in its objectives, then clearly it can be scaled up. That is the nature of a pilot. The European Commission has given the green light to that pilot, so it has that going forward. What we obviously want to…”

“No. We are operating what I call a hub-and-spoke model in Government. Obviously, I sit at the hub in the Cabinet Office, and I have to take the final decisions on the trade-offs in the negotiations—that has to happen in one place—but we rely on the expertise of the different Departments. I haven’t been familiar with th…”

“There has to be a cap, and we have been straightforward about that throughout. I see this scheme in the context of the ones we already have. Again, I am treading carefully because this is a live part of the ongoing negotiations, but we have 13 youth mobility schemes at the moment, a number of which were signed by the p…”

“I am an optimist in life, and I genuinely think that we can. As I always say about this, when we came into Government, we delivered the Common Understanding within 10 months, which was not bad going, so having had one experience of very intense negotiation, I am at least confident we can get there again—absolutely.”

“First, can I say something about the PPA and thank you for your participation? I want to reassure cross-party colleagues around the table that not just myself but the former EU negotiator Lord Frost was there, so you will be pleased to hear that there was a range of views being expressed in the PPA. In all seriousness,…”

“No, there have not been any payments. It is not established.”

“There is not a particular delay—I would not accept that. We very much respect the EU’s internal processes. The Commission has proposed the mandate for the Council to sign it off. As a Government, we are certainly prepared for the 30 November deadline. We will be pushing that forward. The reason—as I am sure members of …”

“You could do it. I used to talk about this, which may be to your point, Richard. I used to talk about security, safety and prosperity, which probably would then encompass a bit better the point you are making. There is a really serious point here. Of course, we have things that will be a tangible benefit—look at what t…”

“Probably not, is the answer. I think I was just asked about a doorstep pitch. You do not get very long for your doorstep pitch.”

“rose—”