Brexit: Invocation of Article 50

Lord Dykes Excerpts

Monday 19th December 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Dykes]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to announce the exact date in 2017 when Article 50 will be invoked.

[Baroness Goldie (Con)]

My Lords, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State have set out the clear timetable for triggering Article 50 by the end of March 2017. This is giving us the time to develop our negotiating strategy and avoid setting the clock ticking until our objectives are clear and agreed.

[Lord Dykes (CB)]

My Lords, does not the Minister agree that for millions of Britons, patriotism and Europeanism go side by side? What on earth does a,

“red, white and blue Brexit”

actually mean? Is red for the millions of dead in two world wars followed by six decades of peace in the European Community? Does white indicate the slide into xenophobia, particularly in England? Is blue just for the Tory interest, nowadays with a very small membership base supported by less than a quarter of voters in the last election?

[Baroness Goldie]

It is important to remember the genesis of why we are where we are: the expression of a democratic view, in a referendum, that the Government are instructed to leave the European Union. That is not straightforward—it is challenging, as this House is well aware—but the Government are committed, in discharging that obligation, to doing whatever is necessary to protect the best interests of the whole of the United Kingdom.