Extract from Westminster
Hall debate on Immigration Rules: Paragraph 322(5)
(Brentford and Isleworth)
(Lab):...On Friday, I met a group of constituents in my
surgery that included both individuals and couples who have been
affected by the new operation of the immigration regulations.
They are all from India and are highly qualified, well paid and
well respected IT professionals. They came to answer this
country’s skill shortage—a shortage that has not gone away. They
work in our large and reputable companies such as Sky and Royal
Mail, and one of the affected people they know even works for
HMRC. Today, the Government launched a programme to attract tech
entrepreneurs to the UK, yet the Home Office is effectively
sending home high-skilled tech people who contribute so much to
our economy. I must also say that they are, of course, net
contributors to the Exchequer...
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Extracts from Commons
consideration of Lords amendments to the European Union
(Withdrawal) Bill
Mr (Rushcliffe)
(Con):...On the British Government’s behalf, I was
involved on the fringes of the constant efforts to get an EU deal
with the US—the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership. It did not fail because there was something wicked
about the EU; the fact is that, unfortunately, protectionist
influences in America are very strong, and were even under the
Obama Administration. One cannot get any response. I have been
involved in all these things—I have talked about trading openings
with India and Brazil, which are of
course where the population is. It is absolutely absurd to think
that there are no protectionist pressures in India and Brazil and that it is
simply a question of our present Foreign Secretary walking in,
with his bonhomie, and saying, “You will of course now throw your
markets open to us”...
Mr (Wantage)
(Con):...To a certain extent, I am on repeat mode: I
always like to have a bit about free trade deals in my Brexit
speeches. We have already heard one speech saying that the EU is
absolutely rubbish at free trade deals, but if we look at the
large trading blocks’ free trade deals, I think it compares
pretty well. It certainly compares well at the moment with the
United States, which has come out of the Trans-Pacific
Partnership and is bitterly renegotiating the North American Free
Trade Agreement. The United States does not have a free trade
deal with India or China, so we cannot really
castigate the EU. The EU has free trade deals lined up with Japan
and Singapore. Indeed, as the trade envoy to Vietnam, my
instruction from the Department for International Trade is to
secure a trade deal between the EU and Vietnam so that we can
piggyback off the back of it...
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