European Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for that. What is required is not only building these alliances and making those arguments, but, as I said, making it clear that if you cannot get a reasonable deal, you are prepared to go on negotiating right through the night, as we did, or, as we did in November, saying, “This deal isn’t acceptable. You have to go back and think again.”

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

May I, on behalf of my constituents, congratulate the Prime Minister on getting this overall reduction in the budget for the United Kingdom, which will be very welcome indeed? Does he agree that it would be very helpful if all MEPs voted for it? Will he outline to the House exactly what will happen should they not do so?

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously, if we cannot agree a budget, the situation would be very serious. That point was made at the Council repeatedly because, although of course there are emergency arrangements for just continuing with the existing ceilings and rolling them forward, it would be impossible for countries to plan their cohesion spending, their structural fund spending, what roads to build and what networks to put in place. That would be a very unsatisfactory outcome. I hope that the Parliament will look seriously at that, recognise that having no deal would be very bad for all countries that want to see proper planning and proper budgeting, and recognise that this is a good deal and it should accept it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a very important and extremely serious issue. People in our country will have been very concerned to read this morning that while they thought they were buying beefburgers, they were buying something that had horsemeat in it. That is extremely disturbing news. I have asked the Food Standards Agency to conduct an urgent investigation. It has made it clear that there is no risk to public safety, because there is no food safety risk, but this is a completely unacceptable state of affairs. The FSA will meet retailers and processors this afternoon and work with them to investigate the supply chain, but it is worth making the point that, ultimately, retailers have to be responsible for what they sell and where it has come from.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

May I thank the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition for their condolences to the families of those who died in this morning’s helicopter crash in my constituency, and add my condolences and sympathy? Does the Prime Minister agree that amazing work was done this morning, particularly by the fire service? Firefighters from Clapham station arrived very swiftly. Given London’s changing skyline, does he also agree that—not today, but at some stage—we will need to look much more closely at where, how and why helicopters fly through our central city?

Patrick Finucane Report

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Wednesday 12th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think that what my right hon. Friend is asking is that there should be no circumstances in which there are rogue agents. These things must be done within the law, within proper guidance and within proper procedures, as is entirely right. I can therefore give him the assurance for which he has asked.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement and his apology, and I welcome the tone of his statement. Like him, I do not think that a full new independent public inquiry into this very tragic matter would serve any purpose for anyone, but does he agree that the way in which the Government and the country can accept its failings should serve as a lesson to other countries? Does he not think that the Irish Government might consider looking into some of the rumours, and actual evidence, of collusion between the Irish police over such terrible atrocities as the Kingsmill bombing?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for her support. I hope that others can see that we are holding back nothing, but opening up and showing what happened in all its unbelievable ghastliness. I hope that the Irish Government will appreciate that, while perhaps still believing that a different path should be taken.

The House may be interested to hear the figures relating to other inquiries. The Robert Hamill inquiry began in 2004 and was completed in April 2011, but its findings have not yet been published because of live criminal proceedings. The Rosemary Nelson inquiry report was published in May 2011. The Billy Wright inquiry cost £30.5 million, the Hamill inquiry £32.6 million, and the Nelson inquiry £46.5 million. Each of those inquiries overran significantly in terms of both time and money. The Wright and Hamill inquiries were both established under the Inquiries Act 2005, so the argument that somehow all this was sorted because of a new Inquiries Act does not really hold water.

European Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

What will the Prime Minister do if he does not get a real-terms freeze? Is he prepared to use his veto? Will he also make it clear that he is quite happy for decent, respectable people in my constituency to be members of UKIP?

[The Prime Minister]

I am very happy for anyone to join any political party—it is a free country. On the budget, we have a clear position. We are trying to get the ceilings down and cuts are already proposed. We want the ceilings down to such an extent that we achieve the real-terms freeze at worst, or a cut at best. I am convinced that we should achieve that if we keep the force of our arguments and keep the coalition of like-minded countries together.

European Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The point I would make to Chancellor Merkel—we do not actually fundamentally disagree about this—is that the single currency needs a banking union. At the heart of that banking union will be the ECB, with a new role as a banking regulator. But clearly as this country is not in the single currency our banking regulator will continue to be the Bank of England, and there will not be any question of the ECB having a say over the Bank of England—that is not the situation. Strangely enough, in a way the challenge is to persuade countries of the eurozone to go far enough in having a banking union that will help to break the link between banks that are in difficulty and sovereigns that are in difficulty. Just as we have a solid banking union for our single currency in the United Kingdom, they need a solid banking union for their single currency in the eurozone.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

Did the Prime Minister make it clear—by the way, his use of “United Kingdom” versus “Britain” is improving, but it is not yet good enough—to the other European leaders that we would not contribute towards any of the millions of pounds that the European Commission wishes to spend to tell every European Union citizen how wonderful the EU is? Is that not a ridiculous waste of money?

[The Prime Minister]

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for her school report and I shall continue to try to improve on my use of “United Kingdom” rather than anything else. On the issue of what the European Commission and European Union spend, as we get into this budget debate we should still look at the 6% of the money spent on the EU’s central costs and the fact that, as I said at the weekend, some 16% of Commission officials are paid more than €100,000 a year. Okay, 6% is a small percentage of the total but it is still meaningful in getting a good budget deal.

EU Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 2nd July 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is at the heart of the case for remaining in the European Union. We export a large share of our gross domestic product; we need Europe’s markets to be open. I would not want to swap the status that we have, of having both access to the single market and a say over the rules of the single market, for the status of a country that only has access. It is very important, though, that as the eurozone develops and integrates, we make sure that there are safeguards to prevent caucusing at the eurozone level that could disadvantage us in the single market. There is a whole series of steps that we have to take, some of which are about safeguarding what we have, some of which are about making the most of the future, and all of which are achievable if we play our cards right in the years ahead.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

May I simply ask the Prime Minister to look at his terminology? In his statement, he mentioned Britain 12 times; he did not mention the United Kingdom once. Does he agree that if there is to be a referendum, which I think is inevitable, the people of Northern Ireland should have a very strong say? He must, in the European Council, refer to the United Kingdom, or the UK for short; saying “Britain” excludes Northern Ireland.

[The Prime Minister]

As ever, the hon. Lady is right about almost everything, and I am rightly chastised.

European Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 5th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend is correct about this. Of course, Europe has on many previous occasions signed up to wonderful rhetoric about single markets, energy and all the rest of it. That is partly what the Lisbon agenda—not the treaty—was all about. What is different this time is that there was real pressure from the 11 countries that signed the letter with Britain to insist on actions and dates by which those actions would be taken. We must still ensure that those things are achieved. Many countries will want to hold up getting rid of regulations on services and many will want to keep some of those regulations on small businesses, but we now have a majority in the EU to try to fix those things in a way that is good for our country.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

Does the Prime Minister believe that the European Council will ever publicly criticise China, not just for what it is doing—or not doing—in Syria, but for what it is doing to its own people, particularly in Tibet? That is being done behind closed doors, with no brave photographers and journalists able to get in. Will the European Council start taking on the might of China?

[The Prime Minister]

One advantage of having forums in which the EU meets the Chinese leadership is that the EU can speak on behalf of all members about the importance of human rights, the rule of law and some of the issues the hon. Lady raises. Sometimes that is a useful way for pressure to be brought to bear. The EU Council president and the Commission President should have no compunction in doing that.

Informal European Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Tuesday 31st January 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

It is going to be interesting. We are now going to have a period of days when the Leader of the Opposition is finally going to have to get off the fence and tell us: would he sign up to this treaty or not? The treaty is right here—I can give him a copy. It is a treaty that we will not be signing; he now has to make up his mind whether he is going to sign it or not.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

How does the Prime Minister feel about attending a European Council of a supposedly democratic EU when the leaders of two of the countries not only have not been elected, but were more or less imposed by the bureaucracy in Brussels? Does he not feel seriously that we are moving more and more away from a democratic Europe, and that this is why the people of this country, ultimately, will have to decide on our future?

[The Prime Minister]

The difference between the situation in this country, where we face great economic challenges, and countries in the eurozone is that we have been able to adopt a policy stance that, yes, combines a very tight fiscal policy with difficult public spending reductions, but can also be accompanied by a loose monetary policy, with the Bank of England standing behind the economy. The problem for many eurozone countries is that they do not have that policy mix. That is making life difficult for them, and I fully understand that. They want to stay in the euro; they want to make the euro work. Whatever our private views about the euro, we should do what we can to help them get on with the job of sorting out the single currency and its arrangements, because it is currently having such a bad effect on our economy.

EU Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 12th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Every country in Europe is challenged at present in relation to its economy, and it is very important to make sure that we are safeguarding Britain’s interest, staying in the single market, seeking extra safeguards for finance and other industry, and making sure we can grow out of this crisis.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister must know that right across the UK, the majority of the public and—dare I say it on the Opposition Benches?—the majority of Labour voters support what the Prime Minister has done. He knows that that is the reality. Does he agree that instead of seeing ourselves isolated in Europe, what the public want to see now is our looking to be much more internationalist and less little Europeanist?

[The Prime Minister]

I have great sympathy with what the hon. Lady says. What it requires is both action within Europe on issues that matter to us, such as the single market, and a recognition that we should be refreshing and restoring our links with other parts of the world, whether it is the Gulf, the Commonwealth or the fast-growing countries of south-east Asia. This Government are committed to doing all those things.

European Council

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I very much agree with how my hon. Friend puts her question, but I would add something important to that: we should intervene only if we believe we are capable of doing so and of bringing about the effect that we need. There is a very important issue there. It is about seeing not only what is legal and necessary, but what we can do.

[Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister must know of the growing division between the public and politicians. Does he have no concern at all about what will happen at 10 o’clock tonight, when all three party leaders will whip their Back Benchers in a Division on a motion that is not binding, and that seeks a referendum and future legislation in—probably—2013? Does that mean that once again, the public will say, “Seventy-five per cent. of us would like a referendum at some stage. This Parliament is not listening”?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady asks a very important question, so let me try and answer it. I absolutely believe it is right to have public petitions in the way that we now do, and that it is right to give time to Back-Bench motions—this Government have brought that reform about. However, the issue of Europe is not a side issue, but an important one, and it is important that political parties and Governments make their views on it known. I do not accept the idea that somehow we can have a vote on something as important as this on a Thursday and hope that it will go unnoticed. I believe in the importance of Parliament, but I cannot believe in a sovereign Parliament on the one hand and on the other say that some of its votes and decisions do not matter. I simply do not think that that is consistent.