Trade Bill (Fourth sitting)

Andrew Griffith Excerpts

Committee stage & Committee Debate: 4th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 18th June 2020 Public Bill Committees

I come back to this issue of co-operatives being able to access public procurement and the importance in that sense of amendments 24, 25, 26 and 27. Germany has a co-op sector four times the size of the UK’s as a percentage of GDP and France has one six times the size. The co-op sectors in the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand account for between 5% and 10% of GDP compared with 2% in the UK. I fear that, in part, that is because those managing public procurement contracts do not understand how to engage as much as they might with the co-operative movement and the opportunities that are there. If amendment 26, which my hon. Friend the Member for Sefton Central has tabled, helps in a very small way those small and medium-sized businesses in the co-op sector to get access to public contracts, that can only be a good thing.

[Andrew Griffith (Arundel and South Downs) (Con)]

I, too, would like to see a greater diversity of types of enterprise and we should do anything that we can in that regard. Co-operative, owner-managed and small businesses are all worthy of our support. I did not want to let the comments that are being made and the amendments that are being spoken to conclude without recording the fact that, if we look merely at the thrust of the amendments, one would conclude that the hon. Gentleman does not fully understand the benefits of free trade, or the substance of what we are trying to achieve in terms of creating wealth, prosperity and opportunities for people, lifting people out of poverty, making sure that our economy is competitive, and creating the tax and the wealth that will produce our public services and make us thrive. I just wanted, by means of an intervention, to give him the opportunity to place on record all those positive benefits of trade, as well as the opportunities that he is seeking to create through the amendments.

[Gareth Thomas]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I will send him the Co-op party membership application form as a result of this exchange. It is very nice to find a new convert from the Conservative Benches to the need for a more diverse economy. I had thought that the hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker) was the only such enlightened Member of Parliament on those Benches, but I am glad that the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs is first up of the new intake to catch my eye.