Speeches by Kyle.

“Right now, I am adhering to all the advice that is given to me. Again, it is under constant review. If there is further information that you believe that the FCDO should know to inform their advice to me, please let them know. I will reiterate on the back of this Committee hearing that there is an expectation that the …”

“I refer to my first answer, because it is extremely important that I am clear. We are doing everything we can to ensure that British arms are not ending up in that situation. Secondly, you are correct that my Department is responsible for arms export controls. As Secretary of State, I am legally responsible for that. Y…”

“Again, you are completely talking my language at the moment—in fact, you are pushing my buttons—because this is something that I am zealous about in public and in the Department. We need to tackle the specific challenges within the regulatory environment of each regulator, but increasingly the issue that you have ident…”

“I understand that, but Mr Maynard did just say British arms.”

“Let me be clear. You mentioned British arms sales.”

“I need to be clear for the record, because there have also been allegations that British arms have made their way there. Certainly, to my knowledge, those reports are not correct; they are not British armaments that have made their way there. That is my primary concern and the thing I have most agency over. When it com…”

“Of course—I know it is. This is a matter that I care extremely deeply about, as does every person in this room, because of the seriousness of it. You will know that, for a period of my life, I was an aid worker and I worked in very challenging situations, so this is a lifelong issue and interest for me. First, you quit…”

“You are very welcome to pass a list over, and I will read it privately and act on it where I see the need, because I do care very deeply about this. Some Departments are regulatory-heavy, and there are lots of reasons why that happens. In my view, regulation appears like sediment—layer after layer, with Government afte…”

“I wouldn’t say that, tempting though it is for me to do so.”

“Indeed. So I have the utmost respect for the work that is done here and the amount of work that goes into making these Committees a successful and constructive partner. Now I am sitting before you for the very first time. It is quite an experience for me, so thank you. My priority is quite clear. We inherited a growth …”

“We are doing everything that is creatively possible to unlock further progress. As I said, there are singular, big issues, such as defence, on which we are negotiating at the moment. With each step forward, we have unlocked goodwill that stands us in good stead in other areas and future negotiations. We started from a …”

“You are amazing at getting a million things into a very short sentence, Chair. There are certain outstanding singular issues for which we are negotiating at the moment. With the EU, they are singular negotiations, because it depends on which bit of the Commission we are negotiating with. Even just this morning, I met t…”

“You have already seen, in the couple of weeks I have been in this job, that we have hit the ground running in our Department. As I said in answer to Ms Griffiths’ question, we have undertaken £240 million-worth of deregulation or regulatory reforms just in the first few weeks.[2] The thing that surprised me about this …”

“The EU’s goes live in January. We are right in the process of designing our programme now. What we want is synergy between the two. We are looking very closely at that. When you look at the standards that we have already achieved, you can see where the synergy lies. What business really wants to see is synergy we can t…”

“I would frame it as we want to fully explore our potential as an economy and country outside the European Union, while strengthening our relationship and fully exploring the potential that exists with the European Union. I do not believe that we have touched the sides on either of those. I will just say to you, Mr Mayn…”

“All our regulators are independent of Government; they make their own decisions. I am happy, on behalf of my Department, to make representations if there is specific evidence from the Committee that you think the CMA should be looking at, and I am sure they will get back to you with specific reasons as to why or why no…”

“We have already unlocked over 30 market access barriers that were there as a result of the terrible Brexit deal that was struck. That is worth over £11 billion. That is not the end of the road or the sum of our ambitions as a Government. We want to go much further. As you know, we are negotiating on a range of differen…”

“It is a good question. My Department is leading alongside DSIT. When it comes to who is ultimately responsible, I would say that at the moment DSIT is taking the lead on the tech prosperity deal. It was DSIT that negotiated the deal and played the leadership role in it. If that changes, we will inform you. The tech pro…”

“I am not waiting for Ambassador Greer to be here; I met Ambassador Greer in Washington on the second day I was in this job, so I did not waste any time in getting stuck into these issues. The relationship between our two departments and our two offices, as I said, is iterative. I pay tribute also to Varun at No. 10, an…”

“I honestly don’t know. The conversations we are having are extremely functional and very purposeful, so when I read that, it is not reflective of the relationship that we have.”