European Council

Ruth Cadbury Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right. We have to prepare for all contingencies and continue to include among them the possibility of no deal, but what has been shown by the phase 1 negotiations is that, with perseverance and commitment on both sides, we can reach agreement.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

The majority of UK citizens would now prefer us to remain in the EU, because they are realising what many of us knew for a long time, which is that leaving the EU means greater costs to the economy and to UK taxpayers than staying in and that we will no longer have a voice at the table in Europe. Will the Prime Minister start leading the country, or will she continue to be led by the hard Brexiteers in her own party?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady seems to have forgotten one thing: this Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a vote to take place in a referendum on our membership of the European Union. That vote took place, and it was a close vote, but the majority voted to leave the European Union. I think—and I have always felt this—that in other circumstances when other countries in the EU held a referendum on new treaties and came out against them but the EU basically told them to go back and think again is not the right way. If the British people have voted to leave, we should leave.