Sanctions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Friday 24th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention and, indeed, for her very kind words towards those who do a huge amount of work behind the scenes to enable us to bring forward a rolling level of sanctions legislation, which has continued to degrade Putin’s ability to fund his war. We believe that sanctions across the piece have taken some £400 billion out of his capabilities. It is a continuum, and today’s legislation continues that. She is absolutely right. The sanctions will continue to be tools that help us in many ways to keep ahead of those who wish us harm and who wish to support Putin in his illegal war in Ukraine, and to continue to hunt them down and to restrict their capacity.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Minister and I have worked on various things over the years. Those of us in all parties who are passionate about sanctions are still extremely worried about certain significant people in this country. A recent article in The Times suggested that a hereditary peer in the House of Lords is a main channel of Russian money helping certain political factions not only in this country but in the United States. Is it not about time that we did something about the upper House, which seems to have a small group of pro-Putin Members?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

The hon. Gentleman has, as he says, been an incredible champion and supporter of all the work we have been doing cross-party to keep ahead of the sanctions. I know it is frustrating, but as I always say, people should pass evidence of any sort about individuals they consider are supportive of or enabling Putin, his regime or any military activity to the teams in the FCDO, which look day in, day out at being able to bring forward a package of evidence that would withstand judicial review. We stand ready. I will never comment on what we are taking in and what might come next, but the teams are working flat out to look at the evidence wherever they can. That is a continuum. I say that not only to Members of this House but more widely to those out on the frontline or working with businesses; where they see areas in which they believe that is happening, they should bring the information to us.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Sheerman]

Will the Minister accept some evidence I have about the Earl of Oxford and Asquith that I think should be urgently considered by all of us careful and worried about sanctions?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

If the hon. Gentleman would like to write to me later today, I will make sure that the team looks at the information as soon as possible.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Tuesday 18th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

We welcomed Thailand’s strong show of support for democracy through the huge turnout in the May election, and we look forward to working with the new Administration. We continue to work closely, through our teams in Thailand, to support those who will make up the next parliamentary group.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

I was pleased to hear the Minister talk about democracy in the Indo-Pacific area, but at present Prime Minister Modi seems to be a very popular man in countries around the world, including the United States and this country. Should we not look, laser-like, at his real record—for instance, his systematic persecution of Christians in India, and his takeover of press freedom and other civil liberties?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

We have a close and enduring relationship with India. We talk of a living bridge between our countries, and we are working closely with India on our 2030 road map. However, as with all our international partners with which we have close links, we are happy to raise concerns, and we do so privately on a regular basis.

Hong Kong Pro-democracy Activists

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Thursday 6th July 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I would be pleased to catch up with my hon. Friend after this urgent question to discuss that matter more fully. Absolutely, I will take it up with urgency.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

There is a clear and present danger from the Chinese Government not just to the citizens of Hong Kong, but to citizens here in the United Kingdom. Is it not about time that we realised the pernicious influence of China on this country and Europe? With China having so many investments and so much influence in this country, is it not about time that we took sanctions against it—really rugged ones—because that is the only thing they will listen to. When will the Government act?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

As colleagues know, we do not discuss potential future sanctions, as that could reduce their ability to have the impact we wish them to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Thursday 21st July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

Our priority in talks has always been to address the significant barriers that businesses face in exporting to India. In the past decade, UK services exports to India have increased by 60% in current prices, totalling £3.6 billion in 2021. However, the reality is that India’s barriers to services trade are still relatively high compared with those of other trading partners, so this FTA will provide a great opportunity to address those barriers and support the UK’s service sector, in particular, to do business in India’s growing markets.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State must know that Huddersfield and West Yorkshire are the beating heart of the manufacturing sector; so many firms are good at exporting, and have expertise and a history of trade with India, but they are still finding huge barriers to any exporting effort they make. Can her Department not really step up the action to help, especially for the small and medium-sized enterprises?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

As always, the hon. Member is a champion of businesses in his constituency. He is exactly right: those barriers to trade are still difficult, and the free trade agreement brings us the opportunity to work with India to strip away those market access barriers. We are listening, obviously, through the consultation process. On the FTA process, at the beginning of the year we asked businesses to talk to us and share their own experiences and the particular areas where they wanted us to negotiate reductions in barriers. I hope that we are doing that. I would be very happy to hear directly from the hon. Member’s businesses whether they have particular areas in mind. We are looking to reach a broad and comprehensive agreement that will strip away many of those market access barriers, be they tariff areas around goods or, indeed, those very many areas of service sector activity, which will benefit both sides. We have some highly mutually compatible business opportunities to work on together.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Thursday 21st April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

5. What recent assessment the Government has made of the effect of the UK's departure from the EU on UK global exports.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

For the first time in decades, the UK has an independent trade policy. We have secured FTAs with 70 countries plus the EU, covering nearly £800 billion-worth of bilateral trade in 2020, creating new opportunities for our UK exporters. To take these and more—building on an over £56 billion increase in nominal exports between 2016 and 2021—our export strategy is focusing on the needs of exporters, including a new export support service for exporters to Europe.

[Mr Sheerman]

I can never be nasty to this Secretary of State as we are old friends. The fact is though that, as I trained at the London School of Economics as an economist and I like looking at the data, I can see that we have lost £20 billion in exports since we left the European Union. The Office for Budget Responsibility and everyone else says what great damage has been done to small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, which Mr Speaker has in his constituency and I have in Huddersfield, the heart of SME manufacturing. Those businesses are hurting. The Secretary of State’s website says for them to get in touch with her if they need help. What help can she now give to small businesses in this country to enable them to cope?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

Although there was indeed a drop in exports during covid, we have seen a 10% increase in the last quarter, which is very welcome. I am always happy to meet the hon. Gentleman, as he knows, to discuss any particular businesses, but the export support service, which has now been running for a number of months, is there to support SMEs in particular if they have issues with a country in Europe with which they want to trade. The team has also been focusing on supporting businesses with Russian and Belarusian activities in the past month, especially on supporting them to find alternative supply chains. The export strategy, which we published in October last year, is bringing together a whole series of tools to help those SMEs to discover new markets, and, indeed, to use the ones that now have more prospects thanks to the FTAs that we have.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Thursday 3rd March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

We will continue to work across Government and with our allies to ensure that Putin’s regime feels the absolute force of all the sanctions that we can bring to bear.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Short question: I have every respect for the Secretary of State. Will she promise to burn the midnight oil and do something very dramatic to take on Russia and those countries that have failed to criticise it?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to hear that not only I but every member of the Cabinet and all our Ministers are indeed burning the midnight oil to ensure that, as we work with our allies across the world, the message is absolutely clear and that pain—economic and other—is felt firmly by Putin.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Thursday 2nd December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

The strategic agreement signed with Israel is the starting post for a series of activities that will deepen our trading relationship. We will be opening a public consultation on our enhanced bilateral free trade agreement in January, and we look forward to hearing the views of businesses and stakeholders across the UK on their priorities for that deal. We will also be hosting a joint innovation summit with our Israeli friends in March next year, in order to support new technology ideas.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Is the Secretary of State aware of the huge dynamic in Israeli universities? Will she make every effort, including with resources, to encourage partnerships between UK and Israeli universities, in terms of research, development and innovation?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Tuesday 25th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

What new plans he has to incentivise businesses to become more environmentally sustainable in the transportation of their products.

[The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

The Government are striving to decarbonise transport by phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and from 2035 all new cars and vans must be zero emissions at the tailpipe. The plug-in van grant will support businesses to reach net zero by reducing the purchase price of new zero emission vans up to £3,000 for small vans and up to £6,000 for large vans. The plug-in truck grant also provides up to £25,000 of funding for the largest HGVs.

[Mr Sheerman [V]]

I thank the Minister, and I have a lot of time for her, but she must realise that these heavy goods vehicles—these trucks—are poisoning our atmosphere and poisoning children, pregnant women and elderly people. All of us are being poisoned by these emissions. Can we not move much more quickly to encourage things? There are some really good British manufacturers such as Electra Commercial Vehicles in the north of England, which is doing wonderful work, guided by Sid Sadique, one of our new entrepreneurs. There is a capacity to switch to electric vehicles to deliver all the stuff that we get in this country, and we could do it much faster. Can I beg her to move faster for the environment, for children, for the air that we breathe, and for our commercial industries?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words. We are working to ensure that the transport decarbonisation plan is as ambitious as possible, and we plan to publish in the very near future. It will set out how we incentivise operators and industry to transition to zero emission HGVs and manage emissions from the existing fleet. We are also investing £20 million this year in planning for zero emission road freight trials, which will support UK industry to develop cost-effective, zero emission HGVs and their refuelling infrastructure in the UK.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Wednesday 14th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Vice-president?

[The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. That is a new title. I was happy with international champion, but I am sure vice-president is acceptable, too.

The actions we are taking to tackle climate change support the delivery of a range of UN sustainable development goals. Through the Together for Our Planet campaign and Race to Zero, we are encouraging towns, cities and communities to drive climate action at a local level. This is supported by the COP26 UK mayors and regions advisory council, which includes West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Kirklees Council, and it has set itself an ambitious target of being net zero by 2038.

[Mr Sheerman [V]]

Will the Minister and, certainly, the COP26 President, in whom I have great confidence, support what we are doing in Huddersfield to make Huddersfield a sustainable town and a sustainable community by rigorously pursuing the sustainable development goals? We are building a network of towns across the United Kingdom. We are up to about 20, and we need to get to 50 and 500. What can the Government do to help us, because it is about grassrooting and making sure that COP26 is not cop-out 26?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Wednesday 4th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I agree absolutely that education is a right for all, but especially for girls. We all know that if a girl is educated, that community gains so much more than just that education. That is something that at DFID and across this Government we are absolutely committed to. We are working in a number of areas on gender equality and reductions in violence against girls, and part of the focus that I am going to give to DFID around girls’ education for 12 years is the Prime Minister’s absolute commitment. We will be drawing together all those constituent parts.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome the new Secretary of State and also the fact that this morning marks the inauguration of the Speaker’s chaplain. It is lovely to see her in the Chamber and leading our prayers.

Does the Secretary of State agree that we need much more energy from legislators worldwide? If we are going to tackle girls’ education worldwide, as well as my own World Health Organisation work on reducing road accidents worldwide, can we not get the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and legislators around the world helping Ministers to do the job properly?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

It sounds to me like the hon. Gentleman has just given himself a job to help me to draw up the plan that we want to bring together, which is exactly as he mentioned. If the focus is on ensuring that every girl across the globe has 12 years of education, we need to include all those things that make it possible, such as getting to school safely and appropriate sanitation in those schools so that girls can keep attending. I look forward to him coming to help us—