EU: Plans for No Deal

Baroness Ludford Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord True]

My Lords, the Government seek to extend the opportunities of our being outside the European Union and to enable businesses and citizens to prepare for the change for which the people of this country voted and for which Parliament legislated. Of course, in our strategy of levelling up, we will have particular regard to any parts of the country that are affected in particular ways.

[Baroness Ludford (LD)]

My Lords, in his evidence to your Lordships’ House’s EU Committee last week, the UK’s Brexit negotiator, Mr David Frost, said that

“the Canada and Australia outcomes are similar”

if not identical. These are of course shorthand for a free trade agreement and no deal. Why are the Government so minimalist in their aims compared to the goal of

“an ambitious, broad, deep … partnership … with a comprehensive … Free Trade Agreement at its core”

that they signed up for in the political declaration last October?

[Lord True]

My Lords, I watched the evidence given by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and by Mr David Frost. I thought that they came over—I hope your Lordships will agree —as people who were seeking a responsible and reasonable agreement with the European Union. I am confident that those negotiations will succeed.