Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Thursday 14th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Baker]

If you will allow me, Mr Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman’s capacity to use parliamentary procedure to bring an enormous range of issues into his question. I suggest that he might wish to call an Adjournment debate if he feels that he has not had sufficient opportunity during the passage of the withdrawal Bill to debate all the issues that he raises.

[Mr Speaker]

In reference to the honour of the hon. Member for Jarrow (Mr Hepburn), I would simply point out that rights, standards and protections do amount to a pretty broad category, and he has behaved, as usual, in a perfectly orderly, if innovative, manner.

[David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the most fundamental rights is to decide who determines our legislation and where that legislation comes from, and that that is exactly the right that we are protecting when we listen to what the people have told us and withdraw from the European Union?

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[Mr Baker]

We have had wide-ranging debates about animals and animal rights, and the hon. Gentleman will know that that is a subject of continuing interest for the Government. The Government have tabled amendments on environmental protections, and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has brought forward a range of proposals on animal rights. I look forward to us carrying those forward.

[Mr Speaker]

Mr Linden, you are now much preoccupied with consulting your electronic device, but if you are still interested in contributing to our proceedings, let us hear you.

[David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)]

Mr Speaker, the Secretary of State’s departmental colleague, Lord Callanan, wants to

“scrap the working time directive, the agency workers’ directive, the pregnant workers’ directive and other barriers to actually employing people”.

Which one does the Minister think should happen first?

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[Suella Braverman]

Yes. Remaining in a customs union or the customs union with the EU would not be compatible with having a meaningful, independent trade policy. It would mean that we would have less control than we have now over our trading relationships with other countries. Neither leave nor remain voters would want that.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Lady has given an extremely clear and helpful answer, but the problem is that we have a lot of questions to get through and I want to accommodate colleagues. If all Ministers could be brief, that would be great.

[Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) (Lab)]

Car manufacturing in this country is world leading, but the president of the CBI has said that if we leave the customs union it would become extinct. What contingencies do the Government have to replace the 800,000 jobs affected, including the 30,000 jobs in the north-east of England?

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[Suella Braverman]

Well, let us look at the facts. As I said, CBI data shows an increase in output generally, the OECD revised its forecasts upwards for this year and next, and there is record low unemployment throughout the country. Those are signs of an economy that is confident and optimistic about the future, not one such as the hon. Gentleman describes.

[Mr Speaker]

May I gently say that with ingenuity, the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan (David Duguid) could shoehorn in his question about fisheries policy, which is a matter of significant interest to the international business community? He is not obliged to do so, but we can happily give him a go.

[David Duguid (Banff and Buchan) (Con)]

18. Thank you for that, Mr Speaker. I understand that the Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker), met the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations yesterday. Can he confirm today that he shares the ambition of the NFFO and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation that when we leave the EU, we will have actual, as well as legal, authority over all fishing activities in UK waters, out to 200 nautical miles?

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[Luke Pollard]

Plymouth City Council’s new Labour council has established a Brexit scrutiny committee to look at the impacts of Brexit on vital public services. What conversations is your Department having directly with local authority leaders to help it to understand the impacts on the vital public services that many millions of people rely on?

[Mr Speaker]

I do not have a Department, but the Minister, fortunately, does.

[Suella Braverman]

Both the Secretary of State and I have met many local authority leaders around the country. We are keen to engage with them so that we understand their concerns about EU exit. Importantly, the UK will continue to participate in the 2014 to 2020 EU programmes until they close, and, thereafter, EU structural funding will be transferred through a UK shared prosperity fund. Comments from local authorities will be very well received.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Proceedings would be incomplete if we did not hear from the conscience of Kettering.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

15. Whether the EU has agreed to reciprocate in full to UK subjects living in the EU the rights that the Government have offered to EU citizens living in the UK.