Chris Bryant

By leave of the House, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will respond to the debate. I know that you were once in this job, so if I get anything wrong, please feel free to intervene and correct me. I am going to crack through as many as possible of the questions that have been put to me. I know that hon. Members like to hear answers, so I will try to answer their questions as fast as I possibly can. As always, it was a great delight to see the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith) at the Dispatch Box. He had a bit of a rant about Brexit and how much he is still in favour of it—he will probably be the last person still in favour of Brexit, just as he is the last person still in favour of the Truss Budget, because he helped write it. He made a legitimate point about services. Of course we would like to go further on services, but there are two things that I would say to him. First, we have secured significant advantages in relation to telecoms and construction services, and I have already referred to the better deal that we have had on procurement than the European Union. Secondly, we have been guaranteed most favoured nation status in 40 different sectors, including accounting and auditing services, architectural services, engineering services, higher education, building cleaning services, photographic services, packaging services, convention services and interior design services. That goes to the point made by the hon. Member for West Worcestershire (Dame Harriett Baldwin) about whether this is going to be a living process. We do not need to return to the negotiating table, because we have a structure built into this FTA that enables us to take things forward. In fact, the first review of the deal will happen on the date it comes into force—as I said earlier, I hope that will be before the summer.