European Union: Trade
Debate between Lord Fox and Baroness Twycross
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for raising the comments made by the leader of the Opposition. I understand she has criticised her predecessors for mishandling Brexit, saying that leaving the EU without a growth plan was a “mistake”. I hope this means that we can work on a cross-party basis on these issues, because resetting our relationship with the EU will be key to delivering our plan for change and our plan for growth. The Chancellor has been clear that removing barriers to trade with the EU is critical to support growth and help our businesses. As the Chancellor said recently in her Mansion House speech, our biggest trading partner is the EU. We must recognise that our markets are highly interconnected and ensure that our approach to the EU reset supports growth and delivers investment for the economy.
Lord Fox (LD)
My Lords, the Government have said on many occasions that they want to reset our relationship, and this Minister is no exception. Largely speaking, that means ruling things out as far as ruling things in. I understand that negotiating in detail in public is not a good practice. However, a good practice is telling your counterparty what you want. So far, there have been no specific demands or requests from the UK to Brussels. When will that start, and when will this reset actually happen?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
The noble Lord makes an interesting point. We are not going to give a running commentary on negotiations.
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
The noble Lord suggests that he did not ask for that. However, if we were to start putting demands in the media, I am not sure that is resetting the relationship with our European friends and neighbours; it sounds like more of the same that we saw from the previous Government.
Ticket Sales: Dynamic Pricing
Debate between Lord Fox and Baroness Twycross
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
Noble Lords will note that I have taken a deliberate decision not to quote song titles. The Minister of State, Chris Bryant, described people being able to access live events as “a joy”. The joy of live events should be available to everyone and that has to be reflected in fair pricing.
Lord Fox (LD)
My Lords, unlike the Front Bench, I am more of a Blur man myself. This all demonstrates that at the top of the tree there is a huge amount of money to be made, but every headlining band started life in small, independent music venues and it is those venues which are suffering. They are closing and really have their backs against the wall. Can the Minister tell us what plans the Government have to support the research and development of our great music industry in this country? Are they considering adopting the proposals for a smart fund whereby a small levy on tickets in big venues can be used to support the small venues that created the bands playing there?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
In Labour’s plan for the creative industries we committed to supporting creative small businesses and defending existing grass-roots music venues, nurturing fledgling arts spaces and working to prevent the loss of cultural spaces. One of our top priorities is to work closely with stakeholders and across government to ensure that the live music sector is financially resilient, and to explore potential further opportunities for support.