Peter Kyle
Main Page: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove and Portslade)Department Debates - View all Peter Kyle's debates with the Cabinet Office
(1 year, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberI welcome the new Secretary of State to his place and pay tribute to both of the Northern Ireland Secretaries that we have had since July. I particularly pay tribute to his predecessor, the right hon. Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Shailesh Vara), and his predecessor’s predecessor, the right hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis).
Let me ask at the outset whether the Government’s position on getting Stormont up and running is unchanged. To date, we have heard that
“there is no excuse for the DUP not being back in government”,
and also:
“Unless we get an Executive we can’t help those families in Northern Ireland.”
Is that still the case?
We are clear that the protocol is a negotiation between the EU and the UK, but, yes, the position is completely unchanged.
The former Foreign Secretary stopped protocol negotiations back in February. Now that she is Prime Minister, her team has been briefing conflicting reports about her intentions. We have heard that negotiations will restart. We have heard that negotiations will not restart and that article 16 will be used instead, or that the protocol Bill will proceed with urgency, provoking EU retaliation. This issue will have been covered in the appointment conversation that the Secretary of State had with the Prime Minister. It is imperative that he now updates and informs the House which of these will become Government policy.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I had hoped that I had answered that a tiny bit earlier. I am keen that, in sorting out the issues of the protocol, we try to negotiate a solution with the European Union. However, we do have legislation ready. We have discussed it in this House. If we do not get a negotiated solution, we will legislate.