Iran

Bill Wiggin Excerpts

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

As I have already said, we remain committed to the JCPOA, but as others have concluded, it is not perfect. It has its limitations, which is why we want a more ambitious and all-encompassing deal that is more effective on the nuclear side of things and also tackles a whole range of destabilising initiatives that Iran engages in, which hon. Members of all parties have raised today.

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

De-escalation is all very well, but it is not working and the regime shows all the symptoms of bullying. Does my right hon. Friend not agree that this is a case of si vis pacem, para bellum—if you want peace, prepare for war?

[Dominic Raab]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns and his pugnacious, spirited response. I think that right now we need a very carefully calibrated message for Iran that we will support the defensive posture that the Saudis have taken. We want to avoid any further attacks like that we saw in the Aramco facilities, for them and for world oil supplies. We also want to create the space for de-escalation and for a route that means Iran can come in from the cold, but that must be driven by Iran living up to its international responsibilities.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bill Wiggin Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Europe and the Americas (Sir Alan Duncan)]

Further to my letter to the right hon. Gentleman last month, Mr Kardile has now been released from prison. He is required to remain in Spain, because he is the subject of an Indian extradition notice. It would be very difficult, and possibly inappropriate, for us to intervene, as this is a matter for the Spanish courts, but we are extending to Mr Kardile and his family the fullest consular support possible.

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

Nobody can criticise our Government’s reaction to atrocities committed against the Muslim community, or indeed Muslims around the world; however, given that my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary seeks to lead this Christian country, has his Department not rather let him down in the way we have sought to protect Christians abroad?

[Mr Hunt]

I think that has been somewhat of a blind spot, but we are putting it right, and that is why I asked the Bishop of Truro to conduct an independent review into what more we can do to tackle the persecution of Christians, which accounts for about 80% of the religious persecution in the world. That report will be received next month.

European Union Referendum Bill

Bill Wiggin Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Tim Loughton]

I absolutely welcome that, and I hope that one thing that will come out of this referendum is a full, frank and long debate engaging as many members of the electorate as possible, as was the case in Scotland, so that at last we can discuss the situation and familiarise ourselves with the facts.

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that this should not be an in/out referendum but a referendum on whether we want further and closer political union or a common European market for all our goods and services?

[Tim Loughton]

The argument about an ever-closer union has been won. That movement is dead, certainly as far as this country is involved. It will be a question of whether we can make the EU work not just for the UK but for the sustainability of the whole EU, or whether we are better going it alone. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to achieve genuine, lasting and sustainable reform of the EU, not just in our interests but in the interests of the whole EU.

Many of us believe that the EU in its current form is not working. It cannot survive in an increasingly globally competitive world. The status quo is just not sustainable. If one statistic tells that story, it is the fact that within five years the EU’s share of world GDP will be just 60% of the levels that we enjoyed back in 1990. We are shrinking while the rest of the world gets bigger, and we are not getting a slice of that cake.

Some of us have waited a long time for this moment. Many constituency Fridays were brutally sacrificed in vain in support of the valiant efforts of my hon. Friends the Members for Stockton South (James Wharton) and for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill). I am co-chair of the Fresh Start group, which was set up with the hon. Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) and for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom). We have produced with Open Europe detailed work on the amount of change that it is possible to achieve. We have had scores of meetings with European Ministers and Members of Parliament from across EU countries. One thing that we need to appreciate is that the 28 members of the EU all have their own reasons for wanting to be part of the EU.

Finland shares a 1,500 km border with Russia. Poland and the Czech Republic talk about the relationship with Russia. They want a bulwark against Russia, which is why the EU is so important to them. Other countries want the agricultural and trading links. The reasons are all different, and we have gone wrong in the past by assuming that all countries have one reason for becoming and staying members of Europe. The scenario has completely changed. We have a clear and present prospect of a referendum by 2017, in which the British people could vote, if they choose, to leave the EU. The dynamics of EU reform have changed drastically.

Inevitably, this debate is less about the Bill itself—goodness knows, its progenitors were scrutinised exhaustively in this place. I support the detail of the Bill. I do not support extending the franchise in the actual vote, which has become a recent talking point. The main issue will be how the next months and years pan out up to the referendum, and how its passing will change the dynamics of the debate in Europe.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

Anyone who thinks that MPs are all the same would do well to listen to the excellent maiden speeches of my hon. Friends the Members for Wealden (Nusrat Ghani) and for Havant (Alan Mak).

I was eight years old when the last referendum took place. My brother and I were given a long string of stickers saying, “Say Yes to Europe”. Being young lads, we stuck them to everything we possibly could and it was only later we discovered quite how difficult it is to get rid of orange, pro-European stickers.

The 2014 European elections indicated the scale of the public’s concern about our relationship with the EU. We have long recognised the movement within Europe towards closer political union. We wanted to give the British people a choice on the European Union, and we are delivering on our promises. This has been called an in/out referendum, or a yes/no referendum, but the choice is far more complex than the question allows. It is rather a choice between closer political union with Europe and a free-trade and common market.

We each have our specific concerns about the EU and how it functions. In March, it became clear that the European Commission was pressuring our Government to scrap the exemption for small-scale producers of cider and perry who make less than 70 hectolitres a year. Fortunately, when I made representations to the then Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel), I was delighted by the positive response that I received. She assured me that the Government would make strong representations to the Commission about that ruling.

Various studies have been made to calculate the cost of membership of the EU. The estimates vary significantly, with one showing a cost of between 3% and 4% of GDP and a recent study by the CBI suggesting a net benefit of between 4% and 5%. Figures from the House of Commons Library show the EU accounting for 45% of our exports and 53% of our imports last year. The UK exported £227 billion of goods and services to other EU member states and imported £288 billion. That is compared with exports to the US of £90 billion and exports to China of £17 billion. It is also claimed that about 3 million jobs are dependent on the EU. However, the Treasury explained the 3.3 million figure to Open Europe, saying that it was

“not an estimate of the impact of EU membership on employment”.

That is because trade with EU countries would continue if the UK were to leave the EU.

Before we put the referendum to the people, we need to renegotiate our deal with the EU. The Prime Minister rather helpfully set out his proposals for reform in March 2014 in what was called the Bloomberg speech, in which he talked about powers flowing away from Brussels, not always towards it; national Parliaments being able to work together to block unwanted EU legislation; businesses being liberated from red tape; UK police forces and justice systems being able to protect British citizens without interference from the European institutions; free movement to take up work, not free benefits; and removing the concept of ever-closer union. That last element is the one that matters most to me.

Once renegotiation has been concluded, the referendum will be put to the British public. I am certain that every Member in this place has a list of changes they would like to see enacted. The Labour party has a long list, including scrapping the Strasbourg Parliament, but the elephant in the room is ever-closer political union, which means being in Europe and run by Europe. Without doubt, the Labour party was right to reject the euro, but that is a contradiction because if it really wants to become a European partner, it ought to want to join the single currency too. Happily, I do not want either.

This debate is only one of many more to come on this subject. When the campaigns commence, I would like those on both sides to be positive. I am optimistic that the campaign and the debate can be centred on visions of better futures. No one should be fearful of the unknown. Those on each side should fight by explaining why life would be better if we stayed in or why it would be better if we left. I hope that our constituents will hear such arguments. That is what they want, and it is what they deserve.

Gibraltar

Bill Wiggin Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mark Simmonds]

I can give my hon. Friend the assurance that in bilateral meetings and on the multilateral stage we will continue to make those points extremely strongly and forcefully.

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

It appears that the Spanish and the Argentines egg each other on over our disputes. What is the Foreign Office doing to encourage Spain’s other allies to dissuade it from putting its seamen’s lives at risk?

[Mark Simmonds]

That is part of the effort we are putting into providing evidence to the European Commission so that it can play a responsible role in changing Spanish behaviour. My hon. Friend raises an interesting point about talk of co-operation between Spain and Argentina. Despite the threat from the Spanish Foreign Minister, there has been no visible co-operation between Spain and Argentina at the UN General Assembly in 2013. Let me be absolutely clear that the people of both the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar have expressed a democratic wish to remain British.

Arms to Syria

Bill Wiggin Excerpts

Thursday 11th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs told the House in 2011:

“We will also enshrine in law for the future the necessity of consulting Parliament on military action.”—[Official Report, 21 March 2011; Vol. 525, c. 799.]

Today we are making a far smaller request to the Government. We are not asking for a veto on declaring war, or even on the right to be heard before using deadly force. Many would argue that we should, but we are not. We are simply saying: let us vote before our Government sell or give weapons to people who may one day want to turn them on us. Today is not about whether we should arm the rebels; it is about whether the Government will listen to their MPs. As has been said, if we were to give arms, what possible assurances could the Government provide us with that such weapons would not find their way into the hands of terrorists or jihadists? Today we are asking for Parliament to be allowed to share the enormous responsibility for such a decision.

We in this Chamber do not act for ourselves; we act together, collectively, on behalf of a nation. We did not get a vote—nothing was put to Parliament—in 2001 following the deployment of British troops to Afghanistan or when British troops were deployed to Mali. They were far greater commitments, risking the lives of British servicemen and women. Those men and women and their families have no choice but to put their trust in their elected Members of Parliament to protect them from the Executive when the Executive might have been misled. We can all look back through history to see where mistakes have been made. That is relevant, because the consequences of arming the rebels might not lead to the deployment of our troops, but they will still be the target of terrorists and they will need the support of the public.

[Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is even more important that Parliament should have its say and a vote before any such thing was considered because the British people are uneasy about the interventions made in their name in other places in the last decade?

[Bill Wiggin]

As always, I have no difficulty in agreeing with my right hon. Friend.

We are behind our forces because they are fantastic. They are fantastic because they perform brilliantly, morally and humanely, and we are proud of them because they protect us. We, as MPs, must protect them from the risk of terrorism, and from fights and wars that we do not need.

We have a precedent for lethal force debates. All we are asking is for a similar opportunity to vote before arming the Syrian rebels. On Libya, Parliament was given a say. In March 2003, the Labour Government held a debate and a vote on the deployment of British troops in Iraq, even though they were not obliged to hold a vote and not obliged to take heed of the result. However, Parliament was given the opportunity to express a view.

We ask today that the coalition Government extend a lesser courtesy to us than the Labour Government did in 2003. After all, Parliament is elected to act on behalf of the people. How can we act on behalf of the people if we are not given the chance to vote on a matter as important as involving ourselves in a foreign conflict?

European Union (Referendum) Bill

Bill Wiggin Excerpts

Friday 5th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Fiona Bruce]

As ever, the hon. Gentleman makes a valuable contribution. It is under this Government that we have seen fish discards eliminated.

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Labour party, which continually complains about uncertainty, should support a referendum, and should be asking for it to be brought even further forward so that that uncertainty can be removed quickly?

[Fiona Bruce]

Another valid point, but I can also see the merit of the British people having the time, up to 2017, to digest and discuss these issues.

Other hon. Members want to speak, so I will close my remarks. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron), who is chair of the all-party group for a European referendum. I am a long-standing member, as is my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton South. My hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay has done tremendous and sterling work in this House and beyond in pressing and making the case for an EU referendum, which the British people deserve.