European Council

Mark Hendrick Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can certainly confirm that. I have seen that with my own eyes, because we give major funding donations to the formal refugee camps, many of which are in Jordan and some of which are in Turkey. We also give a lot of bilateral aid to the neighbouring countries—Lebanon and Jordan. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development is no longer here, but we have a number of aid programmes that try to support Syrians who are staying in their homes. The figures are still these: 12 million Syrian people have been made homeless and so far only about 4% of them have made the journey to Europe.

[Mr Mark Hendrick (Preston) (Lab/Co-op)]

When is the Prime Minister going to stop playing cat and mouse with Members of this House, the British public and our European partners with regard to his negotiating position? He mentioned four key areas, three of which are “motherhood and apple pie” issues that we could all agree to, but on ever-closer union, does he seriously think that our European partners are going to back down on that?

[The Prime Minister]

I believe that I will get the outcome that we need. The hon. Gentleman should look at the four areas. They are all important and they are all significant. They all go very directly to the things that the British people have been concerned about in Europe: that it can be a brake on competitiveness, and that needs to change; that it can have ambitions to be a superstate rather than a common market, and that needs to change; that we need more control over our welfare, and that needs to change; and that we need proper fairness whether you are in the euro or out of the euro. That is a serious negotiating package, and that is what I will be taking forward in the coming weeks.