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>> ED VAIZEY: My role at London Fashion Week was to go to three fashion shows and open
London Fashion Week as well as launch a report with Vince Cable on the value of fashion,
which the British Fashion Council had commissioned. I think we live in a kind of political climate
where if you want to show support for British manufacturing you tend to go to a car factory
or a factory making heavy machinery and show that this is at the heart of the British economy.
But what the Value of Fashion Report shows is that the fashion industry is worth anywhere
between £20 billion and £37 billion to the British economy and when you look at a company
like Burberry it's not just about glamorous models walking down the catwalk, what you're
talking about is a $2 billion FTSE 100 company, and therefore a great British manufacturing
success story. We support fashion in the way we support business across the board, which
is by providing the right climate for people to do business, and that means low corporation
tax, a reduction in regulation. We've also got fantastically successful fashion education
in this country and it's very important that we continue to support that in terms of universities
and further education. I felt very badly-dressed, rather scruffy, compared to the immaculate
people who turn out to these fashion shows and I'll certainly be reviewing my own fashion
sense along with fashion policy in the next few months.