New Partnership with the EU

Daniel Zeichner Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

I think I have said that many times.

[Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)]

When Switzerland voted in 2014 to restrict immigration, its future participation in key EU research programmes was thrown into doubt. Just a few weeks from the deadline, it has reached a compromise that allows it full participation, in return for free movement with some tweaks. Our science, research and university sector demands no less. Today, however, the Prime Minister offered no more than an aspiration: she offered no plan at all for the sector. Two years of uncertainty will do huge damage. Just how much damage to one of our key sectors are the Government prepared to countenance?

[Mr Davis]

As nonsense questions go, that pretty much takes the biscuit. We have made very plain indeed what we intend in this regard. We are a dominant scientific power in the European Union. We have worked night and day to ensure that we guarantee the position of students and research grants, and we will continue to do so. If the hon. Gentleman plays that down, he will harm the very sector that he is supposedly trying to protect.