17:59

Small business minister Margot James has sounded a cautious note about Brexiteers being too optimistic about trade deals post Brexit. She told a fringe meeting:

There is a little bit of an over-optimistic attitude about the extent of trade we can summon up with Commonwealth countries. There are 51 of them. We export more to Germany [than] we do to the entire Commonwealth, so there’s a lot of work to be done ... We export seven times as much to Germany as we do to India.

She indicated a new trade bill would be published before Christmas but said the UK had to replace not just European economic development funds from the EU but also venture capital funds which feed into one third of small to medium-sized businesses.

The MP for Stourbridge and former PPS to Stephen Green when he was minister for trade and investment said Britain had to do a lot better on exports.

The “vast majority of small and medium sized businesses” do not export and will struggle to help the nation’s economy grow unless there is investment in skilling them up for overseas markets, she said.