Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Evans Excerpts

Thursday 6th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

What we do not know at present is what the state of the EU-Canada agreement will be at the point at which we exit the European Union. It may well be that all countries have ratified it, but as the right hon. Gentleman is well aware, as a result of the Singapore judgment every single Parliament and some regional parliaments will have to ratify the deal. If the deal is not ratified at the point at which we leave the European Union and has only provisional application, it will have no basis in UK law, in which case we will have to have the fall-back position of using that as the basis for a future UK-Canada agreement.

[Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)]

I think that the potential for trade with Commonwealth countries is very exciting—they are growing and strong economies—but every time I open a newspaper or listen to the radio or TV, the story is presented very negatively, as though it will be almost impossible for us to do these trade deals. Does the Secretary of State feel that that is wrong, and that it undermines the work he is doing?

[Dr Fox]

It does appear that some elements of our media would rather see Britain fail than see Brexit succeed. I cannot recall a single time recently when I have seen good economic news that the BBC has not described as being “despite Brexit”.