No-deal EU Exit Preparations

David Jones Excerpts
Wednesday 20th March 2019

(5 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Chris Heaton-Harris Portrait Chris Heaton-Harris
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As a matter of fact, the best way to prevent that from happening is to vote for the Prime Minister’s deal.

David Jones Portrait Mr David Jones (Clwyd West) (Con)
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My hon. Friend has acknowledged that the default position is that this country will leave the European Union on 29 March without a deal. Can he tell us in what circumstances the Government will conclude that a deal is impossible, and does he not accept the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) that the public are entitled to reassurance in that regard?

Chris Heaton-Harris Portrait Chris Heaton-Harris
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I should like to think that we are giving some reassurance through the vast array of publicly available information on how we are preparing for no deal, and, indeed, through the ongoing advertising campaign that I described in my statement. In my personal view, leaving without a deal is—I know that some Members do not like this word—suboptimal. The optimal way of leaving is with a deal that takes no deal off the table completely. However, we are as ready as we can be at this point, and the huge amount of information that is in the public domain should give his constituents and mine the reassurance that they deserve. [Interruption.]