Outcome of the EU Referendum

Eilidh Whiteford Excerpts

Monday 27th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Whatever the challenges might be, and whatever route we take through the difficult pathway of access to the single market and the control of migration, one of the best ways to control migration is to increase the apprenticeships and opportunities available to our own young people in our own country to enable them to fill the jobs that our economy has created.

[Dr Eilidh Whiteford (Banff and Buchan) (SNP)]

Key industries in my constituency, notably agriculture and fish processing, face challenging times because they rely on European market access and also depend quite heavily on migrant workers to meet labour shortages. The Scottish Government are already meeting stakeholders in an attempt to steer through these turbulent times, but what are this Government doing to shore up confidence in those sectors? Can the Prime Minister tell us when he will be in a position to say what the status of those EU workers will be?

[The Prime Minister]

In terms of reaching out to businesses in different sectors, my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary will be doing that. He is holding a large meeting tomorrow with businesses, and I will be doing the same later in the week. I am certainly happy to look at some of the interests that the hon. Lady has mentioned. In terms of the answer I gave on the rights of EU workers, they will continue until we leave the organisation, and if I have heard correctly what those who want us to leave have said, the rights of those who are already here—students and workers—will be protected.