European Council

Michael Ellis Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am baffled by Labour’s position on this as I thought it was a party that believed in free trade and backing Britain’s exporters. There are so many areas where we are disadvantaged in our trade with America and where we could be creating jobs and growth, but instead Labour Members want to read out a script handed to them by the trade unions to oppose the trade deal. It makes you weep for the time when the Labour party was in favour of progress and trade.

[Michael Ellis (Northampton North) (Con)]

At the Council did anyone raise the treatment of journalists? Does my right hon. Friend agree that the witch hunt that has seen several journalists from The Sun, for example, put through three years of hell and cases that juries keep throwing out is un-British, in that the Crown Prosecution Service is seeking to neuter the abilities of journalists to obtain information in the public interest? Should there be a rethink of CPS policies for similar prosecutions, because that reflects across the whole of Europe?

[The Prime Minister]

That issue was not raised with me or at the press conference. Obviously, the CPS is independent in our country, as it should be, but my hon. Friend is right to say that justice delayed is justice denied and these things should always be resolved as speedily as possible.