Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Jones and Steve Baker

Thursday 14th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Jones (Clwyd West) (Con)]

10. What preparations his Department is making for withdrawal from the EU without a deal.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Mr Steve Baker)]

It is in everyone’s interests to secure a good deal for both sides and we are increasingly confident that that can be achieved. As my right hon. Friend will be aware, we continue to implement plans for all scenarios. Some delivery has already become evident; more will become public over the coming weeks and months. As an example, I congratulate my colleagues in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, who have made progress on our preparations for exiting Euratom. The Nuclear Safeguards Bill has completed its passage through Parliament, and international agreements have been signed with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the USA, helping to ensure continuity as we leave Euratom.

[Mr Jones]

I am pleased to hear that prudent preparation is being made for leaving without a deal. Does my hon. Friend accept, however, that to provide reassurance to business and the wider public—not to mention to inform our interlocutors in Brussels—the nature and extent of that preparation should be more widely communicated?

[Mr Baker]

I hear my right hon. Friend’s case and I agree that it is prudent for all Departments to prepare for all possible outcomes. We will continue to engage with business to reduce uncertainty wherever we can. Over the next few weeks and months, our preparations for what is an unwanted contingency will become increasingly visible to him and the country.

Leaving the EU: Economic Analysis

Debate between David Jones and Steve Baker

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Baker]

I encourage Members to google the hon. Gentleman’s name on The Sun website. They will find a wonderful picture of him, during the referendum, standing next to a poster proclaiming that the leave campaign wanted to leave the single market. He made the point at the time—[Interruption.] He certainly did, and anyone can go and find it on The Sun website. The point was made at the time, and the public chose.

It would not be possible to honour the decision of the British people if we allow the European Union to set the UK’s tariffs and if we become people in a political purgatory of perpetual rule taking from the European Union without any democratic say. It is the desire of this Government that our country should continue to be a democracy. For that reason, we will leave the European economic area and the customs union.

[Mr David Jones (Clwyd West) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that our post-referendum experience illustrates the danger of publishing incomplete and inchoate economic analyses? We were told prior to the referendum by the Treasury that we would enter immediate recession if we voted to leave. The International Monetary Fund told us that the economy would contract by as much as 9.5%. Both were made to look extremely foolish.

[Mr Baker]

My right hon. Friend is exactly right, and he might have added to that catalogue of failures of the economics profession the failure to see the financial crisis. It is time for economists to re-examine their methods, for the reasons I indicated earlier. I am grateful to him for putting those past failures on the record.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Jones and Steve Baker

Thursday 2nd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Baker]

The hon. Gentleman mentions “true facts”, but there seems to be some misunderstanding about what the sectoral analysis is. It is not a series of 50-plus quantitative forecasts and, even if it were, forecasts could not be said to represent true facts. We have made our position clear and we will continue as we have set out.

[Mr David Jones (Clwyd West) (Con)]

The EU’s refusal to discuss the future relationship is clearly founded on the belief, which no doubt the assessments will show to be mistaken, that it may thereby panic the United Kingdom into handing over large sums to avoid what the EU perceives to be the horrors of no agreement. Will the Secretary of State and his colleagues assure the EU that although the UK is clearly anxious to have a free trade agreement, it is also entirely happy to trade with the EU on a WTO basis?

[Mr Baker]

I am grateful for my right hon. Friend’s question—he is of course an expert in these matters. I assure the House that President Tusk has said

“we are all working actively on a deal,”

and that Mr Barnier has said the EU wants to build an “ambitious, long-lasting partnership” with the United Kingdom. Of course we all want to deliver that partnership, but my right hon. Friend’s point is well made.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Jones and Steve Baker

Thursday 7th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Jones (Clwyd West) (Con)]

T6. Does the Minister agree that the system of secondary legislation contemplated by the Bill that we will be debating later today provides the best and most flexible means of ensuring that the United Kingdom is left with a coherent statute book when we leave the European Union? Does he not also agree that there will be general bemusement in this country that the Opposition are seeking to oppose that Bill?

[Mr Baker]

May I begin by paying tribute to my right hon. Friend for all the work he has done in the Department? The quality of the work I inherited is a testament to the leadership he provided in the Department. I am most grateful to him. He makes a good point: secondary legislation is a long-standing mechanism for making detailed changes to the law, with the scrutiny procedure for each instrument agreed by Parliament. Since their introduction, every Government have used statutory instruments and every Parliament has debated and approved statutory instruments.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Jones and Steve Baker

Wednesday 11th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jones]

The position with regard to value added tax was set out amply in the Budget.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

10. What recent assessment she has made of the future of the nuclear industry in Wales.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Jones and Steve Baker

Wednesday 8th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

4. What recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on policing in Wales.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr David Jones)]

Effective policing in Wales is of the utmost importance to the coalition Government. Both the Secretary of State and I have had regular discussions with Cabinet and ministerial colleagues on matters affecting policing and law and order in Wales.

[Mr Jones]

The Government recognise the strategic importance of Milford Haven and indeed of all other Welsh ports, and we will work closely with ministerial colleagues in the Home Office to ensure that appropriate support is provided in future. Future funding for counter-terrorism policing has been protected as far as possible in the spending review because of the nature of the threat.

[Steve Baker]

I am sure that Welsh police will welcome the Government’s refreshing approach. What else will the Minister do to liberate Welsh police from bureaucracy and get them back on the beat?