European Council

Lord Dodds of Duncairn Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We will have left the European Union. We will have the implementation period, and I would expect us to be able to continue to trade with the European Union on the same basis as now in order to ensure that businesses and individuals have the reassurance of knowing where they stand and how they operate while the practical changes that will need to be made as we move to our future relationship, such as our new immigration rules, are put in place. We will be leaving the EU on 29 March 2019.

[Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP)]

The Prime Minister will have heard some confusing and conflicting statements from Opposition Members about the need for a second referendum and their desire to have one—some say one thing; others say another. Does the Prime Minister agree that a second referendum is the surest way of finding that the European Commission and the European Union make the hardest and most difficult deal possible for the United Kingdom? What people want is to get on with delivering on the first referendum.

[The Prime Minister]

I understand that, in the space of one day over the weekend, the shadow Home Secretary rejected a second referendum and the deputy leader of the Labour party said that a second referendum was still on the table. My right hon. Friend the Member for Belfast North (Nigel Dodds) is absolutely right about this particular issue. The best way to get the worst deal would be to suggest that we are going down the route of a second referendum, but it is more than that—I think it would actually be betraying the British people. This Parliament gave the British people a vote, and it is up to us to deliver on the result.