Oral Answers to Questions

Gill Furniss Excerpts

Thursday 16th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was in Scotland last week, and the opinion there is very divided on this issue, as it is in the rest of the United Kingdom. The hon. Gentleman will appreciate, as a democrat, that the vote in 2016 was a national vote—a United Kingdom vote—and we are pledged to respect the majority result, which was to leave the European Union.

[Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

4. What recent assessment the Government have made of the economic effect of the UK leaving the EU customs union.

[The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Stephen Barclay)]

Any assessment will depend on the counterfactuals that it is measured against, and those were considered in the economic analysis that was put out in November.

[Gill Furniss]

Many of my constituents in Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough contact me regularly with their wide-ranging views on Brexit. Will the Secretary of State reassure them that they would be no worse off if we left without a customs union and without the elusive trade deal that the Secretary of State for International Trade has failed to deliver despite stating that it would be the easiest thing in human history to negotiate?

Oral Answers to Questions

Gill Furniss Excerpts

Thursday 14th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Ged Killen (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)]

3. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on future customs arrangements as part of the UK’s negotiations to leave the EU.

[Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

16. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on future customs arrangements as part of the UK’s negotiations to leave the EU.

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

The Secretary of State and I regularly discuss exit issues with Cabinet and ministerial colleagues, including customs. The Prime Minister is clear that we are working towards a customs solution that keeps trade with the EU as frictionless as possible, avoids a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and establishes an independent trade policy.

[Mr Walker]

Those working groups are meeting regularly to advance the work on both of the options. As agreed yesterday, the Government will provide by 31 October a statement to Parliament on the steps taken to negotiate a customs arrangement with the EU.

[Gill Furniss]

Does the Minister agree with the president of the Confederation of British Industry, who warned yesterday:

“If we do not have a customs union, there are sectors of manufacturing society in the UK which risk becoming extinct”?

[Mr Walker]

No, I agree with the Conservative and Labour manifestos that said that we should be leaving the customs union and ensuring that we have an independent trade policy, but we also want to deliver the frictionless trade that businesses up and down our country need.