Northern Ireland: Customs

Debate between Lord Reid of Cardowan and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I will have to refer to the Chief Whip about whether there will be a debate, but moving quickly on to one of the questions that the noble Lord asked, we have always been clear that there will be requirements for checks on live animals and agri-foods, building on what already happens at Larne and Belfast, as the noble Lord will know. We want to work with Northern Ireland businesses and the Executive to ensure that new administrative procedures are streamlined and efficient. We want to ensure an optimum flow of trade.

[Lord Reid of Cardowan (Lab)]

My Lords, whatever the benefits accruing to Northern Ireland in the proposed relationship with the European Union—and I accept that there will be many benefits in that Northern Ireland-EU relationship—does the Minister not recognise that a clear breach of a vow given by Ministers, including the Prime Minister, a vow which many of us in this House warned was clearly unsustainable, undermines trust in the Government, which is so vital for the general conduct of politics in Northern Ireland?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I am not quite clear what this so-called clear breach is. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster reiterated last week that we have always said that there will need to be light-touch checks, particularly, as I said earlier, for live animals and agri-foods coming from the internal market in the UK across to Northern Ireland.

Brexit: Belfast Agreement

Debate between Lord Reid of Cardowan and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Thursday 8th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Reid of Cardowan (Lab)]

Will the Minister confirm that the Belfast agreement is not just an internal agreement between the parties in Northern Ireland but an international treaty between two sovereign states of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland? As such, can he tell us whether it is lodged with the European Union and, if so, what implications would the withdrawal of one of the parties from the European Union have on the status of that international treaty?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

It is true what the noble Lord says: it is an interrelated agreement—it is power sharing for Northern Ireland and it is quite a complicated agreement, but there is no reason to suggest that the outcome of the referendum means that the agreement needs to be revisited. Perhaps I can reassure the noble Lord on that. The UK Government, Irish Government and Northern Ireland political parties are fully committed to upholding the agreement and its successors.

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Lord Reid of Cardowan and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 18th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I pledge that a letter will indeed be written to my noble friend.

[Lord Reid of Cardowan]

Before the Minister sits down, let me just say that I am absolutely sure that the questions that have been asked by noble Lords are predicated on their desire that this will be successful. However, they are also asked in the context, as the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, pointed out, of those who may well decide that they wish to oppose applying the rules of this charter. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that this is thought through in fine detail. If we do not know whether it applies to Scotland—where, incidentally, one of our highest-selling newspapers is printed and published—if we are not sure whether we can bind successive Parliaments and if we are not sure whether constitutionally we can constrain the sovereign through a royal charter, it seems that, although we have absolute agreement on what we want to do, we may not have the nuts and bolts firmly pinned down. The reason why this is important is that, if there is any lacuna or window of opportunity through which people can remove themselves from the process, we should understand that some people will do so. I hope that, before this returns to us, the Minister will make sure that every single dot and comma is bolted down so that we have confidence not only in the will of the people and the will of Parliament, but in the fact that we have produced something that is operationally effective.

EU: UK Membership

Debate between Lord Reid of Cardowan and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Monday 11th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I do not agree with that particular approach. European markets count for under half of UK exports of goods and services. Seven of the UK’s top trading partners are EU member states.

[Lord Reid of Cardowan]

My Lords, multiple hypotheticals and transient variables seem the very essence of the Government’s policy on Europe. Avoiding those, will the Minister answer a factual question? When last year, in the middle of the eurozone crisis, I asked the Government whether there was not an approaching fork in the road, and whether they would envisage the possibility of a two-speed, or multi-speed, Europe, I was told that the Government did not envisage that under any circumstances. What happened to change their mind?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

The answer to the noble Lord’s question is that we are fully focused on staying within the EU. We do not see a two-tier Europe coming forward.

Justice and Security Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Reid of Cardowan and Viscount Younger of Leckie

Wednesday 21st November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My Lords, perhaps I may remind the House that the Companion sets out that, at Report stage, a speaker other than the mover of an amendment, a Minister or the noble Lord in charge of the Bill can speak twice only if granted the leave of the House, and then to explain a material point of his own speech that may have been misunderstood or misquoted.

[Lord Reid of Cardowan]

I will give way but I was not quite finished. I have heard of being overtaken by events but I think that I was overtaken by Baronesses in the middle of my speech. I did give way to the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller.

I have said what I wanted to say, which was mainly to try to give to the debate a balance which I think is, perhaps wrongly, missing. We are discussing a justice and security Bill generally, and the actual analysis of the security elements of that seemed to be somewhat missing from our deliberations, both in this group of amendments and previously.