Priti Patel is “delighted and honoured” to continue to help build a safer, healthier, more prosperous world, which protects Britain’s interests.

Over 40,000 attendees from more than 70 countries will be participating in Europe’s largest technology gathering – London Tech Week – starting today (Monday 12 June), as recent overseas investments show London retaining its dominance as a global tech hub.

The UK tech sector is ranked the second biggest global market for developing new technology. In 2016 UK digital tech investment reached £6.8 billion, 50% higher than any other European country – contributing £97 billion to the UK economy 2017 and employing 1.64 million people (Tech Nation report 2017). Tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft have all made significant investments since June 2016, bringing thousands of new highly skilled jobs to the UK and boosting research and innovation.

Now, the government is bringing together international investors, global household tech companies and UK businesses, to help boost exporting opportunities and encourage more investment into London’s tech hub.

The government will also provide £17 million of new research funding for robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as a £1 billion programme to strengthen digital infrastructure, including full fibre and 5G.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said:

We’ve got a big job to do as an international economic department with tremendous opportunities out there for the UK and we’re determined to make a success of global Britain, particularly with London as a world-leading global tech hub, second only to San Francisco.

The UK has the tech ecosystem, the confidence of investors and start-ups, and an unprecedented level of government support, to seize new international opportunities to ride the 21st century’s technological wave. All of which we will be showcasing this week with the largest gathering of tech businesses in Europe.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) will welcome investors from countries across the world including Australia, Canada, India, Latin America, Spain, Turkey and the USA to meet London’s small and medium sized tech businesses at City Hall today – along with Deputy Mayor Rajesh Agrawal.

It will also welcome some of the world’s biggest technology companies, representing billions of pounds of investment in the UK, to Lancaster House on Thursday. They will be joined by international tech entrepreneurs looking to set up their businesses in the UK and UK firms looking to expand as the government commits to creating the best environment for growing future global tech firms here in the UK.

During the week, DIT will be collaborating with organisations like Tech City UK and Sino Open Data Apps to provide advice and support to companies looking to expand into global markets such as China and the USA. DIT recently led 60 UK technology companies to China, Japan and South Korea, arranging over 600 face-to-face meetings with over 300 local investors. The department helps UK companies attend over 600 global events each year to build connections and export opportunities.

Well, what a result.

Everyone wrote the Labour Party off – both here in Scotland, and across the UK.

But we defied the pollsters, with Labour making significant gains on what will be remembered as a historic election night.

In Scotland we gained six seats from the SNP – nearly a quarter of all the gains across the UK – and today we have a fantastic group of MPs in Westminster who will always stand up for their constituents.

It’s been a long time since Labour had much to cheer about in Scotland. But just two years after nearly being wiped off the map, it’s clear that we’re now back as a political force.

We have seven Scottish Labour MPs, including Ian Murray who stormed his way to the largest majority in the country, and his new colleagues Hugh Gaffney, Ged Killen, Lesley Laird, Danielle Rowley, Paul Sweeney and Martin Whitfield.

And we were so close in many other seats. That’s why I am keeping our party on an election footing over summer. Next time there’s a General Election – and it could be sooner than we think – we will take even more seats off the SNP.

I always said our recovery will take time. And it will continue to take time.

But we have proved there is significant support in Scotland for a pro-UK, anti-austerity party.

Hundreds of thousands of Scots agreed with our message that Nicola Sturgeon should get back to the day job.

Under the SNP we have 4,000 fewer teachers, unacceptable waiting times in our hospitals, and a £170million budget cut to local services this year alone. I believe this should be the First Minister’s priority – and the voters agree.

We have four years until the next Holyrood election, and I will ensure that this SNP government is reminded every day what it should really be focusing on.

That means dropping plans for a divisive second independence referendum.

Nobody gets into the Labour Party to talk about the constitution. We care about tackling poverty and growing employment – not about flags and lines on a map.

However, the constitutional debate about Scotland’s future continues to sadly dominate our politics, which is why we have made clear our firm, cast-iron opposition to another referendum.

Voters who are just as fed up as I am with Nicola Sturgeon’s demands for another referendum backed Labour on Thursday.

But voters across Scotland weren’t just responding to Nicola Sturgeon’s woeful record in government.

They also responded to our positive vision of a country for the many, not the few.

Jeremy Corbyn’s uplifting campaign, full of hope and promise, captured the imagination of people here in Scotland and across the UK.

I pay tribute to the fantastic campaign he fought, and the Labour Party is united behind him as we seek to remove this weak and feeble Tory government that is now clinging onto power.

Britain deserves better than this grubby deal between Theresa May and the DUP.

The Prime Minister gambled on this election and she lost. It’s time for her to go.

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This article first appeared in the Daily Record on Tuesday 13th June 2017
 

Termon Farm Supplies, Carrickmore, Omagh. The following products were seized as they are not authorised in the UK:

• 3 x 100ml bottles BVP Copper with Vitamin B12 injection
• 4 x 100ml bottles BVP Copper 20mg/ml suspension for injection

This is an offence under Regulation 26 (Possession of an unauthorised veterinary medicinal product) of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.