Progress on EU Negotiations

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Thursday 22nd November 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am very happy to give my hon. Friend that commitment, and he is absolutely right. That is why I have said, as I have said before, that any second referendum would not be a people’s vote but a politicians’ vote.

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

There is a strange sense of déjà vu and, indeed, anti-climax in this document after more than two years. The words “shall be decided” occur 127 times, and paragraph 147, at the end, states that a high-level conference will be convened at least every six months, with no guarantees of anything. That is a possible Brexternity. At what date and time will these negotiations ever end? With both this and with last week’s so-called deal, will the Prime Minister not just admit that she is flogging a dead horse?

[The Prime Minister]

I have made clear before that we will be working to ensure that the future relationship can be in place on 1 January 2021.