United Kingdom: Single Market

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch (UKIP)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats.

[Baroness Ludford]

My Lords, clearly, when the Conservative Party offered the emphatic pledge of saying yes to the single market in its manifesto last year, as cited by my noble friend, it had in mind the national interest. Equally clearly, now the Conservative Government are focusing purely on their internal party interest. When will they get back to prioritising the interests and needs of the United Kingdom people and businesses, which means avoiding a destructive hard Brexit?

Brexit

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Thursday 3rd November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch (UKIP)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Cross Benches.

[Lord Hylton]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the Question underlines the importance of this country’s role in all the other European institutions other than the EU?

Brexit: Single Market

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, after a number of unsuccessful attempts, it is the turn of the noble Lord, Lord Pearson.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords, I am most grateful. Do the Government agree that the single market has prevented us doing our own free trade deals and has overregulated the 90% of our economy which does not trade with it? Therefore, is not continuing free trade all that we need and are we not likely to get it because the EU needs it so much more than we do—for instance, with 2 million more jobs making and selling things to us than we have selling things to it, and any new tariffs falling much more heavily on it than they would on us, as we saw from the Civitas report today?

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick]

My Lords—

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Cross Benches and then the Liberal Democrats.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick]

My Lords, will the Minister tell us whether the word “access” he used in his original Answer was access, special access or membership of the single market? Could we in future perhaps distinguish between those and stop using the ambiguous and slippery word “access” to mean absolutely anything we want it to mean?

Brexit: Single Market

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Wednesday 14th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Cross-Benches.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick]

My Lords, will the Minister be prepared to say when the Government will produce an objective, factual assessment pointing out the substantial differences between being in the single market, being outside the single market in free trade but not free trade in services and not having access free of customs controls and regulatory burdens, or the third option—the WTO option—and paying the common external tariff on our exports? Will we get the facts on that some time soon?

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Davies of Stamford (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

My Lords, this really is not helpful. We have time to get a number of questions in. It is the turn of the Conservative Benches, then we will come to the Labour Benches. This really is not helping us make sure we can get our points across, and frankly it is not helping how the House looks to the public.

[Lord Howell of Guildford]

Would my noble friend explain to some noble Lords opposite a point they do not seem to have quite twigged? The single market in services is very weak in Europe—indeed, it hardly exists. This country’s GDP is 81% in services. We shall need to look for markets outside the single market if we are to expand our prosperity and future export earnings.

Council of the European Union: UK Presidency

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Falkner of Margravine]

I think we need the Leader of the House to give us an idea of who should be next.

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Evans of Bowes Park) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats.

[Baroness Falkner of Margravine]

While the noble Lord, Lord Bridges, is taking his time, does he accept that it would be extremely difficult for the United Kingdom to conduct a presidency if, under Article 50, it is banned from taking part in certain meetings that will inevitably have to happen during the presidency? Does he also accept that the parliamentary authorities will need to make arrangements—catering, venues and functions, among many others—if we are to carry out that presidency? Will the Government commit to refunding the House if they make a very late decision and contracts have to be cancelled?