Brexit: Legislating for the Withdrawal Agreement

Lord Adonis Excerpts

Tuesday 24th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan]

With regard to UK citizens in the EU, it is of course equally important for us to reach agreement on their behalf. That is one of the areas that we are pursuing with other EU member states. Of course, the matter is agreed. We are making preparations to implement our part of the bargain and we need to make sure that EU states are doing similar things for British citizens.

With regard to the exact form of the Motion to be agreed, the meaningful vote is now incorporated into the withdrawal Act.

[Lord Adonis (Lab)]

The Secretary of State has apparently told the House of Commons this afternoon that the Government are making preparations to stockpile food in the event of no deal. Does the Minister think that that is sensible? Secondly, paragraph 118 of the White Paper states, with no qualification whatever:

“The UK will pay its share of the EU’s liabilities as at 31 December 2020”.


Are there any circumstances whatever in which Her Majesty’s Government will not honour that commitment?

[Lord Callanan]

Obviously I have not had the benefit of listening to what my right honourable friend the Secretary of State said in another place, so I will read what he said before commenting on it, but I am not aware of any plans for the stockpiling of food. It seems to be a fairly ridiculous scare story. It will not have escaped the noble Lord’s notice that there are many countries outside the European Union that manage to feed their citizens perfectly satisfactorily without the benefit of EU processes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Adonis]

The Minister has not answered my second question.

[Lord Callanan]

Remind me what it was again.

[Lord Adonis]

Paragraph 118 of the White Paper states:

“The UK will pay its share of the EU’s liabilities as at 31 December 2020”.


Are there any circumstances in which the Government will not honour that commitment?

[Lord Callanan]

I go back to what I said earlier: this is an agreed part of the withdrawal Act. Article 50 states that there needs to be agreement on the withdrawal Act and on the future economic partnership. Both parts go together. If both are agreed, both are satisfactory and both are approved by this House, of course there will be no problem, but if there is no deal, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. That applies as much to the financial settlement as it does to the future economic partnership.