Business of the House

Chris Bryant Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew]

The hon. Gentleman has certainly advertised that EDM very well. He raises a very important point. Bereavement is a difficult and trying time. I will write to the Minister responsible and come back to him.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

I was taught that your word is your bond, that if you sign something, you honour it, that if you swear something, you stand by it, and that absolutely essential to British values is the rule of law that underpins democracy. I am completely perplexed how a Lord Chancellor, who has by law to swear that he will respect the rule of law, could possibly sign off an explanatory memorandum for the Bill that we are to debate on Monday, which states there is

“inconsistency or incompatibility with international or other domestic law”.

How can we possibly go to China and preach to them about abiding by the treaty on Hong Kong and how can we possibly preach to Putin about honouring his obligations to guarantee the integrity of Ukraine when we have said to the world that we no longer believe in the rule of law?

[Stuart Andrew]

I am afraid I do not accept that that is what we are saying. We are deactivating a certain EU law restriction in a specific and limited way to make sure that the Government always have the ability to protect the peace process and to ensure we can support our economic recovery, but the hon. Gentleman has every opportunity over the five days of the next fortnight to raise those points, and knowing him, I am sure that he will.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stuart Andrew]

I actually think it is important that we are ambitious about trying to get as much testing as possible. People just try to shoot this down right at the beginning. I remember when they thought we would not get to 100,000 tests a week—we are far exceeding that now.

[Chris Bryant]

It is going really well, isn’t it?

[Stuart Andrew]

It is going a lot better here than in many other countries. As I said earlier, my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is about to make a statement, when the hon. Lady will be able to hear his answers.