Debates between John Howell and Paul Blomfield during the 2015-2017 Parliament

Wed 8th Feb 2017
European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill
Commons Chamber

3rd reading: House of Commons & Committee: 3rd sitting: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons

European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill

Debate between John Howell and Paul Blomfield
3rd reading: House of Commons & Committee: 3rd sitting: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Wednesday 8th February 2017

(7 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 View all European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Committee of the whole House Amendments as at 8 February 2017 - (8 Feb 2017)
Paul Blomfield Portrait Paul Blomfield
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I absolutely do. I was not at that meeting yesterday, but I was at a meeting of medical research charities and other stakeholders in the field of medical research on Monday, at which they made precisely that point. Indeed, they mentioned that we needed to ensure that we had the right relationship, starting, ideally, with membership of the European Medicines Agency.

John Howell Portrait John Howell (Henley) (Con)
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I thank the shadow Minister for so generously giving way. He probably knows that the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy is in my constituency. People there told me how concerned they were about this issue, but they decided that the amendments to the Bill were not helpful. They said that it was much better to deal with Ministers directly, and to put pressure on the Treasury to achieve their objectives.

Paul Blomfield Portrait Paul Blomfield
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point. A very effective way of applying pressure to save that Joint European Torus centre, which is a hugely important facility, is by agreeing to new clause 192.