Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Neil Parish and Liam Fox

Thursday 15th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

T7. Small and medium-sized businesses often find it difficult to export because of the rules and regulations in many of the countries they export to. What more help can my right hon. Friend’s Department give to those companies to get access to those markets? Growing our exports is great for our economy.

[Dr Fox]

My hon. Friend makes a useful point, and we have identified 400,000 businesses that could be exporting but do not because of their fear, or lack of understanding, of the markets to which they would export, and their cultural and regulatory frameworks. That is why we have established the framework of our trade commissioners around the world, and why we have put members of UK Export Finance in those markets, so that they can gain expertise in the financial areas that companies will enter, and will be there to advise companies in those markets.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Neil Parish and Liam Fox

Thursday 12th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

T3. Sheep farming in this country is good for the countryside, food and farming. It is important that we combine making sure that we control quotas of New Zealand lamb with maintaining exports to France. How is the Secretary of State getting on with disaggregating the EU quotas on New Zealand lamb meat?

[Dr Fox]

We will take the same approach to New Zealand lamb as we do to all other tariff-rate quotas: allocate them on the basis of usage. As I have already explained, that will keep the market stable and mean that we are not disadvantaging New Zealand exporters or our domestic market. That is not only the fairest thing to do, but the best way to prevent the UK from being taken to dispute at the WTO, which is again to our mutual advantage.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Neil Parish and Liam Fox

Thursday 17th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Dr Liam Fox (North Somerset) (Con)]

Perhaps the most important thing about the Budget is also the most understated, which is that it is occurring against a veritable job creation miracle in this country. Since world war two, jobs have never been created at the rate that they are being created now, and that is the starkest difference between the economic management of this Government, and that of Labour when it was in power in recent years.

There is much in the Budget to boost that job creation further: the increase in tax thresholds, which is a further incentive to work; the doubling of small business rate relief, which will help to generate more wealth and jobs; the lifetime ISA, which is an encouragement to saving; and the cut in corporation tax, although that will not happen for a number of years.

There was a great welcome in the west country for the measures specifically outlined by the Chancellor. It is great to see the west country getting that long-overdue recognition from the Treasury.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend rightly emphasises that the Chancellor has provided funds for the west country. Rail, road, housing and broadband are all needed there.

[Dr Fox]

That advertisement for the west country’s economic potential was nicely put, and does not really require any response from me.

I share the disappointment that the Chancellor expressed about the fact that the growth figures were downgraded and that debt was rising as a proportion of GDP. The figures make it more difficult to see how we can achieve the substantial and sustainable surplus that is needed to make a meaningful reduction on the level of debt. However, I must say to some Conservative Members and many of the commentators who call for faster fiscal consolidation that they cannot get it by wishful thinking. Their objection to every tax rise and every spending cut proposed by the Chancellor makes it all the more difficult to achieve what we all want.

The Chancellor yesterday set out his view on the European Union element and the impact on our economy. It will not surprise anyone to learn that I do not take the same view as he does, but I want to tackle one or two of the myths and the claims that are made. The first claim, which comes from the Governor of the Bank of England onwards—I almost said “downwards”, but I am sure that is not correct—is that being in the European Union is key to our economic wellbeing. Of the OECD countries, 16 of the 20 with the highest unemployment are in the European Union. Of the 10 OECD countries with the highest unemployment, only one is not in in the European Union. Unemployment averages 6.5% in the OECD; 5.5% in the G7; 8.9% in the EU; and 10.3% in the eurozone—if we extract Germany, it is something like 14% or 15%. I should therefore like to know in the response to the debate the answer to this question: if the EU is so good and so key for economic wellbeing, why is it failing almost every other country in the EU?

The second claim is that inward investment in the United Kingdom comes because of our membership of the European Union. That does not strike me as being logical. If the UK gets the lion’s share of inward investment in Europe, it cannot by definition be simply because we are a member of the EU—we would otherwise get a proportionate share of inward investment. There must be other reasons that are nothing to do with our EU membership that enable that inward investment.

South-west England (Long-term Economic Plan)

Debate between Neil Parish and Liam Fox

Wednesday 8th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

The North Devon link road is a vital piece of infrastructure. If we are serious about spreading prosperity throughout the region and if we are able to get those with capital to invest and to create the jobs, they must be able to get there. One problem that we have, even in the more affluent parts such as around the southern part of Bristol, is the fact that our transport infrastructure is very poor. We may have low unemployment in my constituency and we may be able to provide many jobs, but where do we get the labour from if people cannot travel from a relatively close conurbation such as Bristol and Weston-super-Mare to get to where the jobs can be provided?

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way and for securing this Adjournment debate. The south-west is the milk and honey of this country. It is a marvellous place to be. I welcome what the Chancellor said today, but there is still the Waterloo to Exeter railway line, the rest of the A303 from Ilminster to Honiton that needs to be finished, and the electrification and other work that needs to be done to the Great Western railways. As much as Bristol is important, there is a lot of west country beyond Bristol as well. I very much welcome this debate.

[Dr Fox]

Rail electrification will be key to what we are able to do. If we are able to get the investments that we want, we need to get that central Government investment as well. What we are seeing in the House tonight are the very first stirrings, politically and economically, of the south-west powerhouse. I hope that the Treasury notices how many south-west MPs, compared with some of the other groups in this Parliament, have come to the Chamber to talk about their long-term economic plan.

Defence Treaties (France)

Debate between Neil Parish and Liam Fox

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

The hon. Member for Ealing North (Stephen Pound) just said that we are all communautaire, but I suppose there has to be an exception to every rule. If both nations are operating a single carrier, there will be times when both carriers are available as part of our NATO obligations, and times when none is available unless we come to an arrangement that enables us to have a sensible refit policy that ensures that one is always available. That would not mean that either nation can force the other to do something it did not want to do, but it would increase the chance of having some capability as opposed to none.

[Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement on better co-operation with France, which makes military and economic sense. Will he look at the fine print on opening our markets in procurement, because my knowledge of the French is that opening up markets is not their greatest strong point?

[Dr Fox]

When my hon. Friend gets a chance to look at the treaty, he will see that we were very keen to ensure that there is a genuine opening up of the defence market. A partnership is a partnership, and it must work in both directions.