Outcome of the EU Referendum

Caroline Flint Excerpts

Monday 27th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

People will not be surprised to hear that I am not planning a second referendum. We have to accept the result, and get on and deliver it. As we do so, we have to seek the best possible deal, and obviously this House should be involved in that process.

[Caroline Flint (Don Valley) (Lab)]

The scare stories about immigration that were spoken about by the people leading the leave campaign, and outriders, were frankly shameful, but we have a country that is divided between our cities and small town Britain, for which immigration was the No. 1 issue. Beyond an impact fund—which I support, although I was sorry to see it abolished some years ago—will the Prime Minister assure me that in the weeks before the House rises and over the summer, we will look more deeply into the pressures on our small town communities and different employment sectors, and into some of the abuses that are going on and the increased pressures on housing and rents? I also say gently that I am somewhat surprised by his statement that the new EU unit in Whitehall does not include the Home Office.

[The Prime Minister]

On that last point, the new EU unit will be working with every Department, because every Department is affected by this decision. The Home Office will play a leading role in trying to work out the options for leaving the EU but maintaining good levels of co-operation on crime, borders, information on terrorism, and all the rest of it. That useful work can be done before my successor takes office. I agree with the right hon. Lady that immigration was a key issue in the referendum, and we as a country must look at what more we can do to help people to integrate, and to examine the pressures on various public services. I made a series of suggestions about welfare changes that will not now be coming in, and I am obviously sad about that. We need to find some alternatives to those to reassure people that we can have a good, fair and managed system for immigration, from both outside and inside the EU.