Brexit: Cross-party Discussions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Exiting the European Union
Lord Elton
Main Page: Lord Elton (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Lord Elton's debates with the Department for Exiting the European Union
(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Callanan
Like the Opposition, we want to respect the confidentiality of those talks. I am sure that when and if we reach an agreement, both sides will want to report back to Parliament in full on it.
Lord Elton (Con)
The noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, makes a statement from within Parliament which we all understand and we see the complexities of what is going on. However, it is important to remember, is it not, that from the outside what people see is that the population voted to go out of the Union and Parliament is vigorously obstructing it? That is not democracy and it will bring the whole organisation down fairly quickly unless we get into tune with the population that the House of Commons is supposed to represent.
Lord Callanan
As ever, my noble friend speaks wisely on these matters. I agree that not implementing the result of the referendum would be disastrous for our democracy. It must seem to people outside—going back to a previous answer from my noble friend Lord Gardiner—that leaving the EU is as difficult as eradicating Japanese knotweed.