Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Wales – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 21 March 2007.
Dame Cheryl Gillan
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
11:30,
21 March 2007
We all agree that Airbus is a fine company, but can the Secretary of State help me on the following point? Because of direct political lobbying last month by German politicians, Wales lost out on, and Germany won, the wing-equipping work for the new A350 XWB. Can the Secretary of State reassure me and the workers at Airbus in north Wales that the reports that our Government dithered and made only weak representations at the last minute are untrue, and if they are untrue will he prove it by immediately publishing the details of the case that the Government made to Airbus and EADS—the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company—on behalf of Wales and the UK?
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.