Duties of Customs

Debate between Anna Soubry and Ian Murray

Ways and Means resolution: House of Commons
Monday 20th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Anna Soubry]

Exactly—somewhere equally pleasant.

The pleasure I have in speaking in this debate is primarily this: the fact that we are actually having a debate and, moreover, we are actually having a vote. We are providing this House and this place at last with an opportunity to have a real and meaningful say in the future of our country, which has been denied within this place ever since 23 June 2016. If only the Government had at that time—I can understand why in many ways they could not—looked to build a consensus and to find what elements united us far more than had divided us during the EU referendum debate, we would not be in the unholy mess we are undoubtedly in today. As this Brexit reality or nightmare begins to dawn increasingly on the people of this country, we see that this scenario of either deal or no deal is not the real option facing the British people. We are being painted the idea of the hard Brexit as something that we should prepare for, and although it is right of the Government to be responsible and examine that, the reality is that we are more likely than not to not get a deal.

Not only are all the things the Prime Minister promised and said she did not want—no deal—likely, but in quarters of this place some people are positively urging and welcoming that. I find it utterly perverse and bizarre that my party, the party that has always been so proud to be the party of business, is increasingly being seen as the party that no longer represents business in this country. Let us be absolutely clear: the overwhelming majority of businesses, not just in Broxtowe, but the length and breadth of this country, do not want a hard Brexit. This is not just a choice between a hard Brexit—that no deal—or a bad deal, because there is a third option, one that has not even been debated and until tonight has certainly not been voted on. I refer to this third way; tonight we are talking about the customs union, but in my view this also includes the single market.

I am not going to repeat the excellent arguments advanced by the hon. Member for Edinburgh South, but I absolutely endorse all the arguments he made and the interventions that he took from other hon. Members who also see the value of the customs union. It delivers what I think the British people want. Overwhelmingly the majority of people in this country are thoroughly cheesed off with the whole darned thing; they are fed up with Brexit. They are fed up with the arguments and the squabbling. I am going to be blunt about it: they are getting fed up with a Government who have still not worked out what their policy is for the transitional deal or for the final deal. Some might say that that is shameful, given all the time that has progressed since we jumped, as I fear we did, into triggering article 50. Some of us—my goodness, we know how we got all the attacks for having said this— did caution the Government, saying, “Please don’t trigger article 50 until at least the Germans have had their elections and that stable Government have been put in place.” I get no pleasure in saying how right we were to put that caution forward. The British people are looking at all of this, they are fed up to the back teeth with it and they want us to get on with it. I do not demur from it—we should get on with it—but not in the way that a small ideological group of people, mainly in my own party, I am sorry to say, are now urging the Government to do: by leaping off the cliff and getting no deal.

[Ian Murray]

When the history books are written about this period of time, the right hon. Lady’s name will be prominent for trying to pull her own Government back from the brink, so we all appreciate the work she is doing on this. We have heard all the arguments tonight, and I, too, am delighted we are debating the customs union. The Government are suggesting a frictionless and seamless border and frictionless and seamless customs arrangements, so does she agree that the best thing they could do to deliver that is to stay in the darned thing?

[Anna Soubry]

I could not agree with the hon. Gentleman more. That is what the people need to understand now: there is this third option. There is this other way of getting a Brexit. We would be out of the European Union, so we would have satisfied the 52% of voters on that, but we would deliver what everybody wants, which is the best possible Brexit that is in the interests of everybody in this country, with the economy, jobs and prosperity right at its heart. This would solve the problem that Northern Ireland faces and that Ireland faces, because we would keep the customs union.

BBC Funding (CSR)

Debate between Anna Soubry and Ian Murray

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Ian Murray]

I welcome the intervention from my hon. Friend, who raises an important point. Many Members, I am sure, will have received dozens, if not hundreds, of e-mails, letters and telephone calls from people who are concerned about the BBC, cuts to it and what it delivers. Constituents have raised that point with me on numerous occasions.

To go back to the missed opportunity, the BBC was entering into a new culture of transparency and accountability—a programme that was, on its own measurement, to save £2 billion by 2014. I want to ask the Minister some questions about the future of the BBC. Is this deal on top of the BBC’s current strategy to save £2 billion by 2014? What criteria will be applied to where the cuts will fall? Will there be job losses and a reduction in quality? What impact will the cuts have on the move to the media city in Salford and the programming being transferred to the regions—50% by 2016, I think? Who is now responsible for the roll-out of broadband—the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills or indeed the BBC? What will the future hold for the BBC World Service? What budget protection will the World Service have? Will that critical service have to compete with other parts of the BBC budget in due course?

[Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) (Con)]

Is not the real problem with the BBC the fact that it has expanded into areas that it should not have expanded into, and that it has lost sight of the fact that it is a maker and broadcaster of programmes? In moving into websites, it is taking away from other websites. Most importantly, it is taking away the ability of people to work in print journalism. It is really threatening newspapers and other websites.

[Ian Murray]

I appreciate that intervention, but the BBC has been involved in a programme of reform of what it supplies on the website. The list of duties that has been placed on the BBC by the comprehensive spending review has given it more responsibility, not less. It is the opposite idea to that which has been given by the—