Future Relationship with the EU: Negotiations Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Future Relationship with the EU: Negotiations

Jo Gideon Excerpts
Tuesday 19th May 2020

(3 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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I am very fond of expert opinion, and the universal view of experts is that Scotland operates the largest deficit of any country in Europe. Were Scotland to become independent, it would be perilous for the people of the country that I love, and that is why the Union that works—the United Kingdom—should endure.

Jo Gideon Portrait Jo Gideon (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Con) [V]
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Does my right hon. Friend agree that we can only proceed to negotiate a free trade agreement with the EU if the EU recognises that our basic approach to the negotiations is formed on the mandate of the British people—the same mandate that the people of Stoke-on-Trent Central gave me and voted for in December? May I also thank him and the Government for the positive support that we have had for the ceramics industry in all the international trade negotiations?

Michael Gove Portrait Michael Gove
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The people of Stoke-on-Trent, whom she represents so ably, have consistently voted to leave the European Union and for politicians who have argued that we should leave the European Union, the customs union and the single market. In so doing, there will be new opportunities for the ceramics sector, which does so much for our economy.