European Union (Withdrawal) Act

Alan Brown Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I say to the right hon. Gentleman: let us get the deal agreed tonight, and then the usual channels will work to see what is necessary in relation to getting legislation through the House.

Mr Speaker, it was not this House that—

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

Will the Prime Minister give way?

[The Prime Minister]

No, I have said—[Interruption.]

[The Prime Minister]

Thank you, Mr Speaker, but I will take the hon. Gentleman’s intervention.

[Alan Brown]

I thank the Prime Minister for being so generous with her time. When it comes to the backstop, is it not the case that the new arrangements come nowhere close to the Brady amendment; the Malthouse compromise has been consigned to history—it is a phrase we no longer hear—paragraph 19 of the legal advice says the legal risks remain the same in terms of our being stuck in the backstop; and, given that she has admitted that no technology exists to provide a solution for the Northern Ireland border, Stormont could keep the UK in the implementation period for a long time, until that technological alternative exists?

[The Prime Minister]

I lost count, but I say to the hon. Gentleman that I think he is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.