Business of the House

Bernard Jenkin Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I certainly join my hon. Friend in condemning the action. I reiterate our continued and unwavering support for Ukraine during Putin’s illegal invasion. He is right to raise the Reform party’s exceptionally poor record on these matters; its candidate in Makerfield said that the Russians were “within their rights” to invade Crimea. Lowering the flag of Ukraine appears to be part of a pattern.

[Sir Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

First, I add my voice to the tributes to Sir Alex Younger, who died so young and is such a great loss to the nation.

What consideration are the Government giving to re-establishing a European Scrutiny Committee? The dynamic alignment that the Government are proposing is bound to give rise to a large number of regulations coming into force in the UK. As they will have direct applicability and direct effect, they should at least be scrutinised properly. I draw the Leader of the House’s attention to the report published today by the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments, which I Chair. It gives an example—the Customs (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2026—of how badly the Government can handle such legislation. The regulations were laid very late, and they are being changed while they are being renegotiated with the European Union. Is this a portent of things to come, and does it not underline the need for a European Scrutiny Committee, which could look much further ahead than the Standing Orders governing my Committee allow?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

It is a portent of things to come. The hon. Gentleman knows the Government are to introduce the EU reset Bill, and central to the discussion of that realignment will be how best to scrutinise it. As he knows, I am giving thought to how best to achieve that scrutiny. We do not need to go back to how things were, but we do need an appropriate arrangement to deal with the challenges that clearly will arise in the future, and to hold decision makers to account.