Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon) (Con):...I am willing to accept an
ongoing payment, so long as an eventual exit date is set out. I am
willing to accept some continuing role for the ECJ on things like
citizens’ rights. However, the problem is in the withdrawal
agreement, which is legally binding and cannot be changed. I am
afraid that, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said,
it is the backstop. It is the fact that we would be locked into a
customs union without any ability to...Request free trial
Mr (Maldon)
(Con):...I am willing to accept an ongoing payment, so
long as an eventual exit date is set out. I am willing to accept
some continuing role for the ECJ on things like citizens’ rights.
However, the problem is in the withdrawal agreement, which is
legally binding and cannot be changed. I am afraid that, as the
hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, it is the backstop.
It is the fact that we would be locked into a customs union without
any ability to leave it unless we obtain the agreement of the
European Union. That makes trade agreements essentially impossible.
One of the great opportunities of leaving the European Union is the
opportunity to sign trade agreements with those countries that the
European Union has been trying to sign trade agreements with for
decades but has still not succeeded—China, Brazil, India, the United States of America,
Indonesia—the countries that will be the biggest economies in the
world over the course of the next 10 or 20 years...
Mr (Tottenham) (Lab):...By
now, every single campaign promise made in 2016 has come unstuck.
Brexit will not enrich our NHS; it will impoverish it. Our trade
deal with Donald Trump will see US corporations privatise and
dismantle it, one bed at a time. Even the promises on immigration,
which has so greatly enriched our country, are a lie. After Brexit,
immigration will go up, not down. When we enter into negotiations
with countries such as India and China, they
will ask for three things—visas, visas and more visas—and they will
get them, because we will be weak...
(Bromley and Chislehurst)
(Con):...World trading patterns may well change and other
parts of the world may become more significant, but the EU will
always remain a very, very important partner for us. The truth is
that trade deals elsewhere, as we all know, take time to develop.
That is true, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Mid Sussex
(Sir Nicholas Soames) observed, even with America and the EU, who
are willing partners, never mind in other cases. Some emerging
economies—India, China and others—have been
particularly resistant to the liberalisation of their markets in
services. Having a transitional period is therefore absolutely
vital. That involves compromise. I have some issues about the
backstop, but I think it is workable, as I said in my intervention
on the Secretary of State. There are means whereby we could seek
future clarification on the legal definition of “temporary” within
the protocol. As has been observed, compromise is not a bad thing
in politics. In fact, we should be positively saying more often
that compromise is a mature thing. It is a mark of mature politics
and that is what the Prime Minister has sought to achieve...
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