Budget Resolutions

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Monday 13th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I believe that measures such as a new royal yacht—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Why are people making such a noise when the Foreign Secretary is saying things that might be important? [Interruption.] Order. I would like to hear the Foreign Secretary.

[Boris Johnson]

I am grateful, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The new royal yacht is one of a number of measures that I am sure this Government will be able to consider. In the meantime, we have before us a Budget that is helping to create the conditions in which this economy can continue to flourish.

The first of these conditions—

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[Boris Johnson]

I shall give way in a moment or two. I wish to return to the Budget. [Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order, Mr Gapes.

[Boris Johnson]

I will give way in due course, but I wish to make this point, because I have been asked to return to the Budget. I do so with absolute pleasure, because it is thanks to the careful stewardship of this country’s finances that we are able to deploy not only hard power on the scale that I have mentioned—we are the second biggest military contributor to NATO—but soft power on a scale unmatched by any of our European partners. The BBC, our universities and the British Council, an absolute gem of this country and its culture—an unsung gem, I might add—give the United Kingdom a cultural penumbra across the world that is of massive economic value.

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[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does the Foreign Secretary agree with the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, which just yesterday said:

“The possibility of ‘no deal’ is real enough to”

justify planning for it and that not to plan would be a mistake and constitute a serious “dereliction of duty” by the present Administration. That is your Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. No, it isn’t. It is the Foreign Secretary’s Select Committee.

[Boris Johnson]

Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you. If I may, I will remind the hon. Lady of my optimism. I urge Labour Members to contain their pessimism. They asked me to name the countries that wish to do free trade deals. There are dozens. They have heard what the United States of America wants to do and that will be hugely in the interests of every part of this country. Right hon. and hon. Members may not know this, but at the moment the United States still has an embargo not only on British beef but on Scottish haggis. I do not know whether Members of the Scottish parties agree with that, but there is no way of liberating the haggis to travel across the Atlantic again unless we do a free trade deal with the United States.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

I appreciate the—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. This point might be about haggis and the House must listen to it.

[Alan Brown]

I appreciate the Foreign Secretary’s concern for Scotland’s exports. Does he still believe that a pound spent in Croydon is of far more value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. The Foreign Secretary will give way when he is ready to give way; meanwhile, no shouting.

[Boris Johnson]

I will conclude with these thoughts.

Last Friday, I was in my constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and I am proud to say that I visited a business on a backstreet in Uxbridge that has more or less cornered the market in manufacturing the fancy display cabinets used to sell delicacies such as Toblerone in every airport in Saudi Arabia, and it is expanding. Thanks to the ingenuity and enterprise of that business, if we go to a Saudi Arabian airport and buy a Toblerone, we will buy it over a counter made in Uxbridge.

Given the ingenuity that this nation is showing, I believe—

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[Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)]

The right hon. Lady is making a reasonably cogent case—[Hon. Members: “Ooh!”] She is most welcome—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Hon. Members must not object when a Member is polite to someone on the other side of the House. That is being honourable.

[Mr Jackson]

That is a rare phenomenon in respect of the right hon. Lady, sometimes, Madam Deputy Speaker. On a serious point, is it not only fair to record that those of us who occasionally travelled to central and south America witnessed a shrinking of our footprint and our soft power as the previous Labour Government closed many of the embassies there? We also downgraded the Chevening scholarships. This is something that we now need to review urgently as we go forward post-Brexit.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Mrs Eleanor Laing)]

Order. It will be obvious to colleagues that a great many people want to speak and, although we have plenty of time, I am going to set a time limit immediately for Back-Bench speakers. Otherwise, the people who speak at the beginning will take three times as long as the people who speak at the end, which is what happened last week. So we will start with a time limit of eight minutes.