Baroness Ludford
Main Page: Baroness Ludford (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Ludford's debates with the Leader of the House
(6 years ago)
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Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Again, I am afraid that I disagree with the noble Lord. This deal is bringing back autonomy to this country, and it should be supported.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The EU proposal for a Northern Ireland-only customs solution has indeed been dropped and replaced by a UK-wide temporary customs arrangement which protects the integrity of the UK. However, there are regulatory elements necessary to avoid a hard border that will apply to Northern Ireland only, including product standards on industrial goods and agricultural products, as well as regulations strictly necessary to maintain the single electricity market on the island of Ireland. There are already some regulatory differences between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach
The House will know that there is a limited amount of time. We ought to hear from the Liberal Democrat Back Benches.
Baroness Ludford
My Lords, the Statement says that,
“the broad terms of our future relationship”,
have been agreed in the outline political declaration. How can the Minister justify that assertion when that very short outline is nothing more than a shopping list? There are hardly any verbs in it. For instance, on fisheries, which my noble friend mentioned, it talks about the aim of the,
“establishment of a new fisheries agreement on, inter alia, access to waters and quota shares”.
That tells us nothing about the detail, which is a crucial issue. Can the Minister explain how on earth we are going to get from this to something more substantive in the next week or so? What is the process? At the moment there is no flesh on the bones.