European Council

Rachel Maclean Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

When we have left the European Union—I have set out the commitments that we have negotiated as far as the financial settlement is concerned in the negotiations in phase 1—we will no longer year in and year out be spending vast sums of money in the European Union and sending those vast sums to the European Union. That is in direct contrast to the Labour party, which would pay any price and carry on paying to the EU, year in and year out.

[Rachel Maclean (Redditch) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on all the hard work she has put in to get us to this point—I think it is fantastic. We know there is a lot of hard work ahead, but does she welcome this opportunity to focus on her priority agenda of social justice, including higher educational standards and housing for our country, now that we can see that Brexit is moving ahead?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments. She is absolutely right. We have just heard a reference to sums of money being paid to the European Union. When we do leave the EU, the money that we will no longer be paying year in and year out to the EU will be available to us to spend on our priorities, such as housing, education and the NHS. I was clear at the EU Council about the importance of the university sector. We want to ensure that we continue to have good-quality higher education in this country.