European Union (Future Relationship) Bill

Baroness Browning Excerpts

3rd reading & 2nd reading & Committee negatived & 2nd reading (Hansard) & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 3rd reading (Hansard) & 3rd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & Committee negatived (Hansard) & Committee negatived (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 30th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Browning (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to contribute, albeit for three minutes, to this debate. I agree so much with those who have congratulated the noble Lord, Lord Frost, and his team. Anybody who has been involved in negotiations, with the EU in particular, will know they are a challenge. They often end in the small hours of the morning, and there is always compromise. I accept, as somebody who voted to leave the EU back in 2016, that compromises were always going to be needed. So, I do not feel bitter in any way, and I hope, whatever side of the argument people were on, bitterness can be put aside because, frankly, we have work to do. That work will fall so much on our House—our Chamber and our committees.

I hope, as we go forward, we will make clear the standards and values of this country which now holds the reins to set its own legislation and create its own rules. For example, when we set the professional qualifications we are prepared to accept across a range of businesses and professions, we can aim for the best. We can aim for quality and decency and things people can rely on and trust.

Also, I hope we can get our own House and our own Parliament in order, because the recovery of sovereignty in this area means that we have to make sure we hold the Government to account. So, I hope we will see fewer pieces of legislation where Henry VIII clauses and other devices that give power to the Executive are just automatically built in, as though a scattering of them is needed in every Bill. I say that as a member of the Delegated Powers Committee, where it is a matter of great concern. I hope, too, that we will look at what is good regulation.

A lot has been said about gold-plating and people wanting to go for the best, cheapest deal. We do not want to be the cheapskates of the world; we want to be people who, with our design and cultural history, can produce the industries, technologies and cultures of the future, which can be relied on everywhere, not least at home. As we look forward to 2021—and I hope we are looking forward to it—this is a great opportunity for us, and I hope our House, in particular, will play its part in making sure that it is successful.