No-deal EU Exit Preparations
Debate between Owen Paterson and Chris Heaton-Harris(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Chris Heaton-Harris
I think the hon. Gentleman will find that 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU and that a huge number of them, including in Scotland, will find his comments very disappointing. As I have pointed out to my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) and other hon. Members, the legal default is that the UK will leave the EU without a deal unless an alternative is agreed.
Mr Owen Paterson (North Shropshire) (Con)
May I pursue the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr Duncan Smith)? In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Barnier said, quite correctly, that
“voting against ‘no deal’ does not prevent it from happening.”
He also said:
“Everyone should now finalise all preparations for a ‘no deal’ scenario.
On the EU side, we are prepared…and are working on the two last measures that still need to be adopted, namely on short-term visas and the EU budget for 2019.”
Will those two issues be resolved in 11 days’ time, and how many issues does the Minister think the UK Government still have outstanding?
Chris Heaton-Harris
Unfortunately, although I was a Member of the European Parliament for 10 years, I cannot honestly comment on how long it would take the European Union to complete its final two measures, although budget rounds are very interesting debates in the European Parliament. There are a number of matters that we are still finishing off in our no-deal preparations, but the vast majority are in a good state.