Leaving the European Union

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd May 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman references the different opinions in the House. That is precisely why I think it is important that we crystallise those opinions to a position that can command a majority across the House. People voted in 2016 to leave the EU, to end free movement, to ensure our courts were supreme and to ensure we did not send vast annual sums to the EU. They wanted us to be that independent nation. I believe that an independent trade policy is part of that independence, which is why I have proposed and supported the position I have on customs, but it will be for the House to determine the customs union objectives—we are talking about the objectives—for future negotiations.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

With the inevitable end nigh for the Prime Minister and our still being in the EU under an extension to an extension, and with burning injustices still unextinguished everywhere, will the Prime Minister tell us, under her premiership, factoring in the two new Ministries she has created, the civil servants from all over redeployed to this exercise and her costly and sometimes incompetent no-deal planning experiments—she now tells us no deal would be a bad thing—how much Brexit has cost the public purse?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady knows full well that the Treasury’s figures for the two Departments preparing for Brexit, in whatever form it takes, have been made public. She alludes to other work the Government have undertaken. I am very pleased that this Government introduced, for example, the race disparity audit and that we are taking action to ensure that those in certain communities who find it harder to get into the workplace are given the support they need, and introducing changes to domestic abuse legislation. There are many areas where this Government are acting to deal with exactly the injustices I have referred to previously.