Trade Negotiations

Gurinder Singh Josan Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Alexander]

Only in recent days I have been involved in discussions, notwithstanding the work we have been doing on India and the United States, in relation to the defence component of the industrial strategy. We aim to bring the industrial strategy and its defence component to the public in the coming weeks and months. A huge amount of work is happening within Government. The hon. Member is right to recognise that one of the challenges is how we can have defence procurement in the United Kingdom that does not simply reward some of our outstanding primes, but recognises that the character of modern warfare is changing, whereby we are moving from a small number of large platforms being the central feature to a large number of small platforms. We can look, for example, at drone technology in Ukraine and the transformative effect on the battlespace. We are therefore deeply mindful of the point he makes: we need to ensure, in terms of defence procurement, that we have a whole-economy effort that recognises not least the digital and technological contribution of modern warfare. Digital is a key part of the agreement we have reached today, and we will work closely with the United States to advance our shared interest.

[Gurinder Singh Josan (Smethwick) (Lab)]

Thank you for making this statement possible, Mr Speaker. I welcome this statement and congratulate the Minister, the Labour Government and all our officials in the UK and US who have worked incredibly hard on this, as he says, over several months. I said in the statement on the India free trade deal earlier this week that this is in contrast to the abject failure of the Conservatives, who did not deliver any deal at all. Yesterday, the Mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker, published a report prepared by Steve Rigby of the Rigby Group, which detailed a hit of £6.2 billion to the west midlands GDP from US automotive tariffs. The report also said that a deal within 45 days is absolutely essential, and that an imperfect deal is better than a delayed deal. Does the Minister agree that this deal is a total vindication of the Prime Minister’s approach to work in the spirit of co-operation with our partners in the USA and Europe to deliver a deal that would benefit the whole of the UK?

[Mr Alexander]

Let me first pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his tireless efforts in promoting the economic development of and opportunities for his constituency. I last spoke with Richard Parker only two or three weeks ago when we were together. I am fully aware—not least given his background with PwC, as I recollect—that he is deeply invested in economic development and the opportunities for the west midlands, and he has brought that commercial acumen to bear already in office. On the west midlands, perhaps the signature feature of today’s announcement will be the benefit accrued to Jaguar Land Rover, as well as to other luxury car exporters to the United States. Given the scale of Jaguar Land Rover production within the United Kingdom and the reliance on the US market, it was critical that we worked under the huge pressure of time to deliver a cut in tariffs affecting autos. In that sense, the quota agreed today and the reduction in the tariff level will be a real and meaningful benefit to JLR and its supply chain.