Following the statement on the cancellation of the contract with Seaborne Freight as part of the contingency planning for a no-deal Brexit, James Cleverly asks how MPs could have been given more information about the company’s well-established backers.
James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)
Part of the criticism that my right hon. Friend’s Department has received has arisen because Seaborne Freight was seen as a company that had no track record in shipping. We now know that Arklow was the company behind Seaborne Freight, and it had a huge amount of experience in shipping. What more can be done, in terms of no-deal preparations and more broadly, to ensure that when new start-up companies that are backed by well-established companies present themselves to government the House can understand the relationship between those start-ups and the companies backing them?
Chris Grayling
We always have to take steps to be careful about commercial confidentiality, particularly when a company is in a complex negotiation, as was the case in this situation in respect of new ships. I was clear to the House when I spoke a few weeks ago that Seaborne Freight had substantial backers. It is really important that when Ministers stand up and say, “Look, we know they have substantial backers”, the House does not disbelieve that, because actually it has proved to be true.