Asked by Baroness Walmsley To ask Her Majesty's Government
who is conducting the negotiations for the United Kingdom leaving
the European Union; and to whom that person reports. The Minister
of State, Department for Exiting the European Union (Lord Callanan)
(Con) My Lords, the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU,
the right honourable David Davis...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty's Government who is conducting the
negotiations for the United Kingdom leaving the European
Union; and to whom that person reports.
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The Minister of State, Department for Exiting the European
Union (Lord Callanan) (Con)
My Lords, the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, the
right honourable MP, is responsible for
conducting negotiations with the EU in support of the Prime
Minister, including supporting bilateral discussions on EU
exit with other European countries. DExEU supports this
work by co-ordinating and overseeing negotiations and
establishing a future relationship between the UK and the
EU.
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(LD)
My Lords, is it not common knowledge that the Prime
Minister has shifted the focus of negotiations to a
competent official in the Cabinet Office, because she has
lost confidence in a Brexit Secretary who complacently
thinks the whole the matter is simple? His incompetence was
proved by the shambles in the first stage of negotiations,
which was only ended by a fudge on the Irish border. Will
the Minister clear the matter up once and for all today, by
telling the House how the Government plan to avoid a hard
border while also leaving the customs union?
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The first part of the noble Baroness’s question is totally
wrong. The Secretary of State is doing an excellent job,
and the Prime Minister is doing an excellent job in
conducting the negotiations. We have said many times that
we will avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland, and that
remains the case.
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(Con)
My Lords, how many of the negotiations are now taking place
with the Bulgarian Ministers, as it is their presidency at
the moment?
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We are conducting a wide range of discussions with all EU
member states. I myself am visiting one on Thursday and
Friday, and other Ministers are doing the same. We are
advancing the UK’s cause and lobbying other member state
Governments in advance of the full and special partnership
that the Prime Minister has suggested.
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(Lab)
Could the Minister help me? [Laughter.] Somebody might be
able to. As well as reporting on all matters concerning his
department to this House, what matters in the department are
specifically devolved to him, for his responsibility?
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I am always very happy to help the noble Lord, although I am
not sure that my help is the help that he needs—but I shall
do my best. I have responsibility for attending the General
Affairs Council; for liaison for existing EU business; for
the small matter of helping to get the withdrawal Bill
through this House; and for liaison with the devolved
Administrations in conducting ongoing EU business.
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(LD)
My Lords, given that the issues at stake in negotiating
Brexit cover almost every department in Whitehall, is it not
unavoidable that this has to be dealt with from the Cabinet
Office, the co-ordinating department, and by the Cabinet
itself, rather than DExEU? Is that one reason why there is
apparently so much discontent within DExEU, and why it has
four times the turnover of civil servants compared with the
rest of the Civil Service?
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I do not think that there is any discontent within DExEU.
When the department was established, a number of officials
were seconded from other government departments, and a number
of them have returned to their original departments. But the
noble Lord is right—these negotiations are complex and impact
on a whole range of policy areas. Most departments in
Whitehall are involved in one way or another, so of course it
is important to co-ordinate that work, which is done both in
DExEU and in the Cabinet Office.
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(Con)
My Lords, how helpful does my noble friend think it is to the
British national interest to have people sniping from behind
the scenes at our negotiators at this crucial time?
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Well, the noble Lord knows that I admire greatly his
contributions on these subjects, but perhaps on this occasion
he is not quite correct. The normal process of parliamentary
scrutiny is appropriate. We, of course, as Ministers welcome
the opportunity to account to your Lordships’ House; we will
be doing that extensively over the next few months and have
done over the last few months. Of course, it would be nice to
see a bit more support of our position sometimes.
Nevertheless, most people take a responsible attitude and
want to question and probe us on the process, which is
absolutely correct.
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(Lab)
Can the Minister help us on the paper that has apparently
been leaked? I know that he will not talk about the details
of any leak—but on a paper that deals with the impact on GDP
and various scenarios that affect us about Brexit, clearly,
it would not be a leak if important documents like this were
routinely made available to parliamentarians and others and
we could then discuss them properly. I hope that there will
be an opportunity for that.
Secondly, the paper apparently suggests that deregulating
areas such as the environment, product standards and
employment law could be an opportunity for the UK going
forward. Who commissioned that paper? Is it true that it was
his department and, if so, is that his negotiating position?
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The analysis to which I believe the article refers is a
preliminary attempt to improve on the flawed analysis around
the EU referendum. It is there to test ideas and design a
viable framework for the analysis of our exit from the
European Union, and at this very early stage it considers
only off-the-shelf trade arrangements that currently exist.
We have been clear that those are not what we seek in the
negotiations. It does not consider the desired outcome—the
most ambitious relationship possible with the European Union,
as set out by the Prime Minister in her Florence speech.
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(Lab)
My Lords, is the Minister more worried about the sniping from
this side of the Chamber or from his own?
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I must apologise: I did not hear the question. Would the
noble Lord mind repeating it?
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I asked whether the Minister was more worried about sniping
from this side of the Chamber or from his own side.
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One person’s sniping is another person’s constructive
comments. I enjoy engaging with this House, sometimes on
destructive comments, but we have considered appropriate
contributions from all parts of this House.
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(Con)
The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, raised the issue of the
Irish border. Is it not very difficult to get a solution to
the Irish border issue that is separate from the trading
relationship that we have with the rest of the EU?
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We have made it clear that we do not want a hard border in
Ireland. The exact structure of the border and customs
arrangements will, of course, emerge from the end-state
negotiations. Where we end up will clearly have an impact on
the border arrangements, and we have made that very clear.
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