European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill

Rupa Huq Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 6th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

May I echo what was said by my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd), Madam Deputy Speaker, and say that my heart swells with pride to see you in the Chair? We are of the same vintage, as is the Prime Minister: the class of 2015.

Here we are on another Friday of private Members’ Bills. I have to say to the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) that although he and I were on the same side last week, along with the Minister, and I proudly marched through the Lobby with him—he made a passionate speech on that day as well—I am afraid that today I cannot support his Bill, for numerous reasons. The hon. and learned Gentleman—who is not even listening to me!—delivered his argument with his customary passion and dramatic flair, but I think that the Bill is actually quite dangerous.

Last week we were talking about safeguards and limitations of power. That debate was all about oversight. This week we have been talking about mutual enforcement, which removes all oversight. I am a bit worried about all this. I agree with my hon. Friend the Minister—who made a brilliant speech—that by seeking to disapply section 7A of the Windsor framework, which enables EU legislation to enter UK domestic law, the Bill undermines the Good Friday agreement, one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government or indeed any Labour Government, and attacks human rights protections. The Windsor framework only saw the light of day in 2023; it is not even a finished process, and the hon. and learned Gentleman wants to strangle it at birth. The framework was only the latest instalment of the divorce deal between Great Britain and the EU revisiting border arrangements. We all remember the referendum of 2016, which opened a Pandora’s box and a can of worms—stuff that we had never seen in this country before. I was a passionate remainer, and my constituency was 72% in favour of remaining. There were tears in playgrounds across Ealing and Acton the day after that referendum. However, I am mature enough to realise that the sky has not fallen in, so how do we make Brexit work? I feel that the Windsor framework is one of the things to mitigate. That is what we should be looking at, mitigating, not ripping up international treaties. I agree with my hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan): we are still hopeful for trade deals with the rest of the world. If we rip up an international agreement now, how is the rest of the world to take us seriously? It is a fundamental breach of trust. Last week we were talking about assisted dying. People of my persuasion used to say that it would be “political suicide” to leave the EU. I have accepted that the sky has not fallen in, and I think that the Windsor framework is a sensible next step.

We 2015-ers have been through probably 20 years’ worth of elections in half the time. We had them every other year: in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Those Brexit years—I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle remembers them—and those late nights that we had! John Bercow lived on site, in the place where we attended all those Diwali receptions the other day. It was about 1 am, and I remember Stephen Twigg, who was sitting behind me, saying, “Come on, John—we don’t all live here.” We had plenty of those late-night sittings. Brexit, to my regret, divided families and parties. Remember all those things we have put in the recesses of our minds? There was the Cooper-Boles agreement, the Dromey-Spelman amendment—all those things. This debate is giving me weird flashbacks; I am being teleported back to 2017! This is the bit we were getting to function—[Interruption.] Yes, that word “Brexit”. I do not think I have even said the word so far—I cannot bring myself to say it. There was “the Chequers approach” and DExEU. Two entirely new Government Departments were created—