European Union (Future Relationship) Bill

Baroness Noakes 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 Noakes (Con)]

My Lords, we are nearly there. Just one more sleep until we finally take back control of everything that we promised to the British people—control of our borders, money, laws, trade and fishing. This is indeed a deal and a Bill to celebrate.

I am appalled, though perhaps not surprised, at the amendments tabled in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Newby. If we wanted examples of futile gestures that are out of touch with the will of the people we would need to look no further. Each catalogue of woe is expressed differently, but they are both drawn from the same well of distaste for what the people decided in 2016 and reiterated in last year’s decisive general election. If either of the amendments is approved, your Lordships’ House will simply confirm that it is living in the past and does not share the broad aspirations of the British people. The Government are delivering on those aspirations: a UK whose future is as a free-standing sovereign nation, taking its place in the global community and no longer yoked to an EU set upon ever-closer union.

We face a crisis in this House. This is nothing to do with the increased number of Peers, which some noble Lords got excited about last week, though I welcome more noble Lords with a commitment to our future outside the EU. The real crisis is that the House has lost touch with our nation. We often represent not much more than a metropolitan bubble, and we all know what happens to bubbles.

I had hoped that the whole House, including the Labour and Liberal Democrat Benches, would be singing the praises of my noble friend Lord Frost and my right honourable friend the Prime Minister for their relentless pursuit of a good deal for the UK. They inherited a botched job and have succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations. We owe them and their teams a great debt of gratitude that we go into 2021 with great trade prospects and, importantly, our head held high in the world. If the Benches opposite think that they could have done better and magicked away their shopping lists of complaints about the deal, I say that that is simply proof positive that they are still suffering from Brexit derangement syndrome.

This historic day is tinged with sadness at the departure of my noble friend Lord Cavendish of Furness, whose uplifting valedictory speech we heard earlier. He has been a steadfast supporter of all matters Brexit. We shall miss him.