Oral Answers to Questions

Matt Western Excerpts

Wednesday 9th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very happy to join my hon. Friend in congratulating those who are looking for an appropriate commemoration of the Lancaster bomber squad and to recognise all that was done by those who were involved with the Lancasters. As she says, this year is the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Royal Air Force and all of us across the House should show our gratitude and support for all those in the RAF who have contributed so bravely to the safety of our country over the years.

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

Q4. “Cretinous”, “crazy” and certain other words beginning with “cr” are used by some Government Members to describe the Prime Minister’s proposals for a customs partnership. However, “credible” is not one of them. Will the Prime Minister please explain how she sees it, given that so many businesses, particularly those in the automotive industry, and the likes of the CBI and the chambers of commerce are so against the proposals and would prefer to see the continuation of a customs union affording truly frictionless free trade?

[The Prime Minister]

As I said earlier, there are two options for delivering on the objectives that we have set. We will leave the customs union, we want to ensure that there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, we want to ensure that there is as frictionless trade as possible between the UK and the EU, and we want to ensure that we can have an independent trade policy. I say to the hon. Gentleman that what is not credible is a Labour party policy that wants us to be in a customs union, giving all the power for negotiating our trade deals to Brussels, with no say whatsoever for the UK.