EU Exit Preparations: Ferry Contracts

Victoria Prentis Excerpts

Tuesday 5th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Alan Brown]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I shall return to the substantive point of procurement. I touched earlier on rail franchising. The Secretary of State always says that he believes in competition. If he believes in competition, why did he have this secretive direct negotiating process? What is competitive about that? How could that provide value for money for the taxpayer? Will he come to the Dispatch Box and justify the expenditure and give us a detailed rationale of how he has managed to provide any value for money for the taxpayer in this entire process?

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the ending of Seaborne’s contract has not in fact cost the taxpayer a penny?

[Alan Brown]

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention, which proves either that she does not listen or that the Transport Secretary does not understand the meaning of spending money. It actually resulted in an out-of-court settlement of £33 million, in legal fees—we still have to hear how much—in further risk to the Government and in the due diligence costs. That seems to be quite a hefty expenditure loosely related to the Seaborne contract.