Extract from Committee
stage (Lords) (day 1) of the European Union (Notification of
Withdrawal) Bill
(Lab):...The manifesto
said:
“We say: yes to the Single Market. We want to expand the Single
Market, breaking down the remaining barriers to trade and
ensuring that new sectors are opened up to British firms”.
There were further contributions.
“Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the
single market”
said leading leave campaigner Daniel Hannan MEP.
“Only a madman would actually leave the market”,
said ardent Brexiteer and Tory ex-Cabinet Minister MP. Some leave leaders said
that the UK could quit the EU while remaining a member of the
biggest, richest single market in the world, accounting for
nearly half our trade. Others talked variously of Norway,
Switzerland, Canada and even, bizarrely, Albania.
There was the very opposite of clarity on this issue. I know
because I knocked on many hundreds of doors in the referendum
campaign and people voted to leave the European Union, not the
single market...
(Con):...As noble Lords know, sophisticated supply
chains can operate between countries that do not, for example,
have a formal customs union. The US and Canada do not have a customs union, but
highly complex and integrated automotive supply chains operate
across their borders. Next, there are many precedents of means to
reduce border bureaucracy. The EU has agreements with China,
Japan, the US and other countries, to allow businesses with
“authorised economic operator status” access to simpler and
faster customs procedures. Today, UK companies with AEO status
account for around 60% of UK imports and 74% of UK exports. Next,
we have one of the most advanced customs systems in the world:
99% of customs declarations are received electronically and 96%
are cleared in seconds....
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Extract from Commons
Estimates day debate on Health and Social Care
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health
(David Mowat):...The Government spend 1.2% of GDP on
health and social care—we spend another 0.6% privately. That is
more than countries such as Germany—the Chair of the Communities
and Local Government Committee talked about Germany—which spends
1.1%, and more than Canada and Italy. Again, it is less than some
countries—Holland, an exemplar country in this respect, spends
considerably more; I accept that there are choices to be made—but
it is wrong to pretend that we are massively out of kilter with
the sorts of countries we would regard ourselves as equivalent
to...
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