G7 Summit

Stella Creasy Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is completely right. We need time to get this deal over the line. The crucial summit will be on 17 October—that is when the deal is generally expected to be done—and I would kindly ask the House not to fetter the ability of our negotiators to do that deal.

[Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)]

In response to the suggestion by Chancellor Merkel that a deal could be done in 30 days and that alternative proposals could be put forward, the Prime Minister said:

“You rightly say the onus is on us to produce those solutions…You have set a very blistering timetable of 30 days—if I understood you correctly, I am more than happy with that.”

Given that the Prime Minister accepted the 30-day challenge and said that the onus was on this place and this country to come up with solutions, why will he not answer the question from the hon. Member for Winchester (Steve Brine)? [Interruption.] Wait for it, Prime Minister! That is the question that we are all asking: where is the evidence that, halfway towards his own deadline, he has done anything at all?

[The Prime Minister]

I really think that the hon. Lady should learn to count. The 30-day timetable may have begun, but it has not elapsed. What our friends and partners want to see is that the House of Commons is not going to block Brexit. They are not going to make a concession to this side, to our country, until they know that the House of Commons is not going to block Brexit. We will be bringing forward our proposals in due time, long before the 30 days are up, but what we want to see is that the UK Parliament stands behind our negotiators. And that is what they want to see in Brussels.