Sophy Ridge on Sunday Interview with Mel Stride MP

ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO SOPHY RIDGE ON SUNDAY, SKY NEWS

SOPHY RIDGE: Our next guest is the Treasury Minister, Mel Stride and apologies for not having more time with you but we wanted to cover properly the very sad death of Dame …

MEL STRIDE: Yes, may I just add my condolences to her family and friends, she was a very special leady.

SR: It does seem like a lot of people from all sides of the House felt her loss this morning. Now today we’ve had the publication of the Sunday Times Rich List and mind boggling amounts of money for many people looking at the sums that these people earn. Are you comfortable with people being this wealthy?

MEL STRIDE: Well I think an important message actually from the Rich List is we’ve seen this big change from inherited money from earned, entrepreneurially earned money, which I think is important but I think it’s important that 141 of those on the list are women actually and to see women in business and women success is important. In terms of income inequality, that is at its lowest level on record, it is certainly lower than under the last Labour government and if you look at what the wealthiest are contributing say with income tax, where 28 of the top 1% contributing well over a quarter of all taxes …

SR: Does that mean you are relaxed about it then?

MEL STRIDE: Well I think in terms of the Rich List, we want to be a society where we encourage entrepreneurship, we encourage people to have opportunities. The gentleman who’s at the top of the list I believe grew up in a council house and has gone out and not just done well for himself and his family and so on but extraordinarily well I think it would be wrong if we blunt those wealth creators who are out there who are not only making wealth but are also paying taxes so it gets back to my point that 28% of all income tax is paid by the top 1% of earners, they make a huge contribution.

SR: Let’s move on to Brexit shall we? I know there are big challenges facing the government about the border check situation effectively, the customs arrangement, should they go for this customs partnership or max fac which sounds to me like a make-up brand but is all about facilitating access without having too many checks? What’s your preferred option?

MEL STRIDE: Well I think it remains to be … we have got to really basically look at the new customs partnership which has a huge advantage and basically means there would not be any customs border between ourselves and the EU27 which clearly is very good in terms of the Northern Ireland/Ireland border and the maximum facilitation approach which would have those borders in place but we’d use technology and in the case of Northern Ireland and the Irish border away from the border to ensure that goods flow very quickly, so we’ve really got to… and the Prime Minister is absolutely right I think in setting up these two working groups just to really drill down into these two options to make sure that we have the absolute optimum position to go forward with.

SR: So unlike some of the Brexiteers, you’re not saying the Customs Partnership is off the table, you seem to think it is quite a good move.

MEL STRIDE: I think that the Customs Partnership has some huge advantages and the principal one is that in terms of the Northern Ireland/Irish situation, which is one of I think the key three things we’re trying to achieve here, it has a particular advantage to it so it should not be dismissed out of hand, we do need to look at it but the other two things is that we are able to go out there and conduct our own trade arrangements and of course there’s a final one, that we have a free flowing, as free flowing as possible border to make sure our trade continues and we’re well down the road to coming to those kind of conclusions.

SR: Well down the road. I just want to put up one quote that you said earlier this year in an interview, I think we can have a look at it on the wall now, this is what you said in February “Will we be in a position where everything’s bang on for day one with all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed? That would be unrealistic.” Sound a bit gloomy.

MEL STRIDE: Well I probably said that before the implementation period was agreed so that’s given us until the end of 2020 instead of the end of March next year and …

SR: So will the I’s be dotted and the T’s crossed?

MEL STRIDE: Well I think it depends on which route we go and what’s negotiated, of course it begs other questions but it is quite conceivable that we may be in a position where we have a functioning system which we then augment and improve through time beyond it first being deployed, that’s quite possible but the bottom line is that just as we did with the divorce payment – do you remember everybody said you’ll never agree the divorce payment and then in December of last year it was agreed. They said we’d never agree the implementation period and then in February of this year it was agreed. The same trajectory is in train now.

SR: There you go, a positive way to end. Thank you very much Mel Stride.

MEL STRIDE: Thank you.