European Council

Antoinette Sandbach Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I said in response to the right hon. Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw) earlier, Russia was not a subject on the agenda of this European Council, but it has been on previous Council agendas. The hon. Gentleman talks about disruption across Europe; of course, the Russians have indulged in disruptive activity—not just the illegal annexation of Crimea, but also the actions it has taken to interfere in democratic elections in a number of countries. This is a subject that I am sure the Council will return to.

[Antoinette Sandbach (Eddisbury) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend has outlined the progress being made in the negotiations. That is particularly important in terms of exports by the services sector, which accounts for 80% of our economy. The sector has no protection under WTO rules; what assessment has been made of the impact of no deal on the services sector?

[The Prime Minister]

As I said earlier, we are obviously looking across all parts of our economy in the work we are doing for the future. My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of the services sector, as it is very important for the UK, and it is one of the key issues we will be focusing on in the trade negotiations for the future. We have always been very clear that this is about both goods and services, and we want to retain both the value of our services sector and the world leadership that we have in many aspects of it.