Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Clarke Excerpts

Wednesday 28th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We continue to stand behind all the commitments that we made in December, and my negotiating team will work with the Commission to agree how they should be translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement. The hon. Gentleman is right: the draft legal text that the Commission has published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish sea, and no UK Prime Minister could ever agree to it. I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others that we will never do so. We are committed to ensuring that we see no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, but the December text also made it clear that there should continue to be trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, as there is today.

[Mr Simon Clarke (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Con)]

Q13. Unemployment has fallen faster in the north-east than anywhere else in our country, which is tremendous news. The next step to put rocket boosters under the economy on Teesside would be to create a free port at Teesport. Will my right hon. Friend look seriously at this idea, which has great support from the Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, and from local business leaders?

[The Prime Minister]

When I visited Ben Houchen and Teesport, this was one of the proposals that they did put to me. I am very happy to join my hon. Friend in welcoming the fall in unemployment that we have seen in the north-east, and there are a number of ways in which we are providing that economic growth and ensuring that we see it continuing in the north-east. That is why we are investing £126 million through the Tees Valley local growth deal. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has confirmed recently that we do remain open to ideas that could drive growth and provide benefits to the UK and its people, so we will keep all these options under consideration.