European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill

Natascha Engel Excerpts

Tuesday 31st January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Lucas]

I do wish that Government Members who say that we have to go for an extreme Brexit would stop rewriting history. At the time of the referendum, plenty of people, including Dan Hannan, were saying things like, “Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening to leave the single market.”

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Natascha Engel)]

Order. The hon. Lady has already spoken. Other Members present have not yet spoken, and the speech limit will already have to come down at some point, so I implore people who have spoken not to intervene, please, because it is literally taking time away from other Members.

[Alex Chalk]

True democrats must now turn to the future. What kind of country do we want to be? As the Prime Minister said, 23 June cannot be the moment when the United Kingdom stepped back from the world. It must be the moment we stepped forward. We must be more open, outward-looking, tolerant, international and global.

Little England has no appeal for me. We must remain a magnet for international talent and a beacon for those who want to come here to study and work. We must act quickly to resolve the status of EU nationals, who contribute so much to my constituency and the wider United Kingdom. That is the territory on which we must now fight. I am a European and I am a Briton, but I am also a democrat. Democracy demands that all those who voted in favour of the referendum last year do their duty tomorrow evening.

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[Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)]

The hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), who is not in place, also said on the BBC last year that this House

“is a place of great pomposity, a lot of wasted words”,

and that it is “more theatre” than it is any good. Does my hon. Friend agree that this House and the express will of the British people deserve better than haughty disdain from the Liberals?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Natascha Engel)]

Order. As there are many interventions, they need to be short.

[Mr Burrowes]

I recognise those words spoken by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Mims Davies). This is all about restoring our parliamentary sovereignty and the authority of our Parliament. There is an absence of respect for this House on the Opposition Benches, and it speaks volumes.

The then Europe Minister, who is now the Leader of the House, is in his place. At the end of the deliberations on the European Union Referendum Act, he said that the package would ensure a referendum

“in which the whole country can have confidence.”—[Official Report, 7 September 2015; Vol. 599, c. 117.]

The right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn) said that the referendum was a mechanism for the British people to make a judgment, but that

“the really important thing is the decision itself.”—[Official Report, 9 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 1063.]

A decision has now been made and we must respect it. It was not an advisory survey, but a mandated decision.

As the hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) said in his very considered speech today, the result of the referendum, whether we like it or not, must be respected. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), said that

“the decision about our membership should be taken by the British people, not by Whitehall bureaucrats, certainly not by Brussels Eurocrats; not even by Government Ministers or parliamentarians in this Chamber. The decision must be for the common sense of the British people. That is what we pledged, and that is what we have a mandate to deliver.”—[Official Report, 9 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 1056.]

Well, the decision has been made and we now have a duty to deliver by formally starting the process.

What should hon. Members with majority remain constituents such as mine do? On this occasion, I would follow the advice of the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), who said that

“17 million people voted for Leave, many in some of our poorest areas. How would it look if a bunch of politicians and commentators in London turned around and said, ‘We know you voted to leave but we are just going to ignore you.’ That would be very undermining of democracy.”

I agree with her; we must not undermine democracy.

My remain-voting constituents are not being ignored by my voting to trigger article 50—my solemn duty is to respect the will of the majority throughout the UK—but I will continue to respect their concerns and challenges, and to bring them to Ministers’ attention. I recognise that their concerns have to be heard.

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[Mr Vaizey]

I give way to the man on the rocks of whose leadership bid—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Natascha Engel)]

Order. The right hon. Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey) has actually run out of time.

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[Michael Gove]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Natascha Engel)]

It had better be a point of order.

[Michael Gove]

No such statement was made by any Cabinet Minister and I hope the hon. Lady will withdraw.