Contributions
1,396 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI think the hon. Lady misunderstands. Only in the event of a no-deal Brexit would we incur any of the additional declaration costs described here. This is not a tax; these are the…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsMy right hon. Friend, having of course taught economics in his previous life, is acutely aware of the dynamic effects of change when people are confronted with different…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI am grateful to the hon. Lady for that question. That is a very serious issue. I have discussed it with senior officials at HMRC, and I can tell her that they are taking the…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsMy hon. Friend is right to raise that concern on behalf of his constituents. Of course, we run a very substantial services surplus with the rest of the world, and that will be…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsMy hon. Friend is right to point out that although there is a cost, we do some £275 billion-worth of trade with the EU; we should see this in that context. As I say, the figures…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI could wish that the right hon. Lady, who is widely respected across the House, had used her influence to bring Labour Members into the Lobby to support the deal that was…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. I think that in due course it will come to be seen that Brexit was a moment of change in which we moved ourselves to a global position in which…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI cannot match the right hon. Gentleman on verbal wit. What I can say is that the Government have published estimates of the impact of a no-deal Brexit in different forms, and we…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for the work that he and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have done on alternative arrangements. He raises a very…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsAs the House will know, a lot of mitigations have already been passed through statutory instruments, including instruments in relation to stream- lining customs import processes…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsWe believe the system will cope. Of course, there are a lot of easements in place, and there is already a functioning CHIEF—customs handling of import and export freight—system to…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsThis is a long document at some 45 pages or so, but I would have hoped that the right hon. Gentleman could have made it to page 9. He claims that the cost to British business will…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsAs my hon. Friend will know, there are over 150,000 VAT-registered businesses that trade with the EU, and another 100,000, we believe, that are not VAT-registered. If they wish to…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsThe hon. Lady has managed to pull off the trick of saying almost exactly what I said, but in slightly fewer words. As I pointed out, 150,000 businesses registered for VAT, and a…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI am delighted to respond to the right hon. Gentleman’s question. The Government are devoting huge energies, as the House will know, to Brexit preparations. The Prime Minister has…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsIn general, as the hon. Gentleman will know, the gov.uk website is updated daily, but I take the point. As a man with many farmers in his constituency, I will ensure that the…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI am not going to comment on the detail of tariffs, which were discussed in detail during an urgent question yesterday. I do not think there is any proper suggestion that the…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI think most people would be surprised to hear me considered a member of the ideological fringes of any side of the political debate. We do not wish this country to have to incur…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsI would have expected the right hon. Gentleman, as a man of great assiduity who is widely respected across the House, to differentiate between the £7.5 billion that we are talking…08 Oct 2019HANSARD HMRC Impact Analysis: CustomsThe way to respond to that is to remind the hon. Lady that when I was at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, I had extensive engagement with different…08 Oct 2019