European Council

Lord Taylor of Holbeach Excerpts

Thursday 11th April 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

Perhaps the House can hear from the noble Lord, Lord Lilley, and then from the noble Lord, Lord Cormack.

[Lord Lilley]

Does my noble friend recall that the one proposal that won majority support in the House of Commons was the Brady amendment to replace the Irish protocol by an invisible Irish border? Since then, Mr Barnier, Mr Tusk and Mr Varadkar have all said that, in the event that we leave without a deal, there will be an invisible Irish border. More recently, the current chairman of the CDU and future chancellor, AKK—potentially the most powerful woman in Europe —has said that nobody in Europe would stand in the way if we asked for a few extra days to negotiate an invisible border in Ireland. Why are the Government not pursuing the Brady amendment, or the Malthouse compromise, which I understand has never been put to the European Commission, or taking up the idea suggested by AKK? Do we think that our views of what the Europeans will do are more relevant than hers?