So now this is public, there's a few things I wanted to comment on. Batteries and electric vehicles are an important part of green industrial future. If we want to level up poorer regions, we need this kind of industry.

So why do these terms matter? https://twitter.com/SamuelMarcLowe/status/1342756402918543360

The rules of origin requirements here are tough. A lot of production of batteries and EVs will need to be in UK or EU to qualify for tariff free trade. This is no accident.

If you look at some of the analysis on this, battery production is expected to boom in the EU, quickly rising beyond domestic demand and becoming an export industry, coming second only to China
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/07/27/european-battery-gigafactories-boom-despite-covid-slowdown/#:~:text=Data%20from%20Benchmark%20Mineral%20Intelligence,lithium%20ion%20batteries%20after%20China.

This is why the EU is so keen to prevent cheaper imports from Asia undercutting EU industry before it can get started. And so, by extension, it's a clear example of the real world obstacles for leaving the EU's gravitational field

In addition, the EU doesn't just want the final product. That's why there's been a whole series of published strategies (raw materials, clean mobility, battery production rules) all geared towards encouraging the whole supply chain, from extraction to recycling, to be in the EU

So the question for the UK is how does it fit in to this supply chain? We can't just import batteries from Asia if we still want to sell these goods tariff free to our biggest market

Can we integrate into pan-European production? It's not impossible but even with zero tariffs, leaving the Single Market will introduce new frictions that put UK companies at a disadvantage to those in the EU. And you can forget deregulating on labour or environmental rules

So the UK is put in this awkward position - inherently tied to the EU market, by both the pull of treaty rules and the push of business preferences - and yet, in this case at least, not as competitive an offering as other parts of the EU

These are big problems the UK will need to resolve and the reality is the solutions lie in us having a closer relationship with the EU - but how much investment will be missed, how many jobs left behind because we change course too slowly?

These industries are the future and we'll need them to level up our regions. But it's not obvious that the UK will be well-placed to attract the necessary investment. The EU has deftly manoeuvred to encourage domestic production. The UK looks like an awkward partner

Both the public and politicians should keep all this in mind when they see people declare that the UK is heading for the white heat of technological advancement while the EU risks becoming a "backwater"