EU Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Changes

Alison McGovern Excerpts
Monday 7th January 2019

(5 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Steve Barclay Portrait Stephen Barclay
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As my hon. Friend knows, there has been some progress in this area, in terms of the commitments around best endeavours and the backstop being temporary. Indeed, article 50 requires that the backstop would be temporary. These issues have been raised across the House. The Prime Minister is discussing them with EU leaders and we will have more to say on this in the forthcoming days.

Alison McGovern Portrait Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)
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This is pathetic. We should have had all of this dealt with by now; we should have voted before Christmas, and we should be moving on to a plan B. I ask the Secretary of State this quite seriously: we do not know when these legal reassurances from the Prime Minister are coming, so will he tell us if they are going to be given to us today, on Wednesday—when?

Steve Barclay Portrait Stephen Barclay
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I know the hon. Lady feels extremely strongly about this issue, but what is damaging to our public life is to stand on a manifesto that commits to respecting the result and then to spend time campaigning for a second referendum to undermine that result. We in this party are committed to honouring the referendum result and ensuring we deliver on it.