UK-EU Summit

Debate between Iain Duncan Smith and Stella Creasy

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ms Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I start with a warning to my colleagues elected in 2024? Many of us who were here between 2017 and 2019 have been deeply triggered by this debate, which has rerun and rehashed the debates of old. We have the scars on all our backs. I warn hon. Members: do not go down that rabbit hole. No good can come of it. [Interruption.] I wager that the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) is laughing because he knows how much—

[Sir Iain Duncan Smith]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Ms Creasy]

Well, of course I have to give way to my constituency neighbour.

[Sir Iain Duncan Smith]

I am grateful to my neighbour for giving way. If she wants to deliberately not go down that rabbit hole, she should be talking to the Government Front Benchers.

[Ms Creasy]

And lo, Bugs Bunny did appear. We have also heard from the man I started arguing with 33 years ago as a young campaigner about the merits or otherwise of working with Europe. It appears that the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) was on the other bus in the debates about Brexit. That is exactly it: our constituents, who might listen to this, would be horrified to see us going backwards again, acting as if the last 10 years had not happened and there was no evidence about what Brexit means.