European Union (Future Relationship) Bill

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

3rd reading & 2nd reading & Committee negatived & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 3rd reading (Hansard) & 3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & Committee negatived (Hansard) & Committee negatived (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 30th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Goudie (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, the Brexit agreement is accompanied by 15 declarations, none of which are about human rights. The Government’s 34-page summary of the agreement repeatedly makes the point that the European Court of Justice at Luxembourg will have “no jurisdiction”. It makes no mention of the fact that the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg will remain. The summary makes no mention of human rights, save by way of lip service in paragraph 175. Human rights are being pushed to the margins.

There is a land border between part of the UK and the EU in Ireland, and there is a land border between Scotland and England. If Brexit can work despite the land border in Ireland, does this not create a precedent that will be a gift to the SNP? Is the Prime Minister’s little England not only exiting the EU but provoking exits from the United Kingdom?

On Erasmus, specifically, we have already seen a welcome move to a united Ireland in relation to university students. Will Scotland and Wales be able to continue to participate? Will only English, and perhaps Welsh, students be the losers? I urge the Government to look at this again. This is a bad deal but no deal would be worse. We must now move forward.