Oral Answers to Questions

Martyn Day Excerpts

Thursday 22nd November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I hope the major road network fund will enable us to deal with problems such as the one my hon. Friend has identified. The A6 is one of the roads I expect to be eligible for that funding. I am pleased that we are moving ahead with that and particularly pleased with the first schemes we announced. We are doing what the Labour party never did, which is looking after Barrow-in-Furness and finally get rid of the Grizebeck bottleneck on the A595. That is the kind of thing Conservatives do for the north and Labour never did.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

18. What steps his Department is taking to help the aviation sector prepare for the UK leaving the EU.

[Chris Elmore (Ogmore) (Lab)]

19. What recent assessment he has made of the potential effect on the viability of the aviation sector of the UK leaving the EU.

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Jesse Norman)]

The UK Government and European Commission have agreed in principle that the two sides should negotiate a comprehensive air transport agreement, and the Department is working closely with the aviation sector to ensure its requirements are factored into the negotiations.

[Martyn Day]

The draft withdrawal agreement will have done little to alleviate the uncertainty of the aviation industry, and with the post-Brexit relationship yet to be negotiated and the risk of no deal increasing, can the Minister confirm whether the aviation agreement talks, which the Secretary of State earlier this month said were ready to start, have now begun? When does the Minister expect them to be concluded?

[Jesse Norman]

The hon. Gentleman is a keen student of Adam Smith and he will therefore know that free trade is constantly something that both sides will benefit from and will seek to derive gain. The conversations that he mentions continue and both sides have a strong interest in reaching a deal. That should be no cause for surprise, because the President of the European Council said on 7 March:

“I am determined to avoid that particularly absurd consequence of Brexit that is the disruption of flights between the UK and the EU”,

and he was right.