Mark Reckless
Main Page: Mark Reckless (UK Independence Party - Rochester and Strood)Department Debates - View all Mark Reckless's debates with the Leader of the House
(13 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberThe Government are not climbing down on the bank levy. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made it absolutely clear that he wants to extract the maximum possible resources from the banks. The amount that we will collect is a lot more than the previous Government had planned.
May I ask for a statement, or for a clarification from the Leader of the House, on a clause in the coalition agreement, which states:
“We will…work to limit the application of the Working Time Directive in the United Kingdom”?
Is that merely an aspiration, or will the Government insist that the directive is disapplied in the UK in return for our agreement to an EU treaty revision?
My hon. Friend is right to remind the House that we are committed in the coalition agreement to limit the application of the working time directive in the UK. That means that we would like to find a solution to the problems caused by the SiMAP and Jaeger judgments. It also means that our position on the retention of the opt-out will be absolutely firm. Any attempt to trade off between a solution to those cases and the opt-out will lead to the same stand-off as in the last negotiations.