Exiting the European Union

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Monday 10th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

One of the important elements of the deal that we have negotiated is being able to give EU citizens confidence about their rights, even should there be no deal. What is important for certainty for the future, and what will deliver all these things, is this House agreeing a deal.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

I have had hundreds of constituents emailing me to express their unhappiness with the Prime Minister’s deal, and they are not troubled by the backstop; they are worried about their jobs, the economy, whether they will be able to get their hands on life-saving medicines and whether food prices will go through the roof. It is self-indulgent in the extreme for us to put off this decision day after day, while the Prime Minister tries to save her own skin. She will not be able to come back with a deal which satisfies me that my constituents will not be worse off. Can she just get on with it?

[The Prime Minister]

That is what I am doing. I am getting on with finding a way through—[Interruption.] I am listening to Members of this House and then going back to negotiate on that basis. The deal has been negotiated with the European Union. If the hon. Lady wants to avoid no deal, she has to accept a deal. This is the deal that is on the table.