European Council

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

A number of proposals have been brought forward as the basis on which we could have the recognition of standards on both sides. Of course, there are some aspects of the financial services sector where standards are set internationally and not just at a European Union level. As part of the detailed negotiations we are going into, we will be looking at exactly what a dynamic equivalence of standards might look like in future.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The 23 March European Council guidelines state clearly:

“Being outside the Customs Union and the Single Market will inevitably lead to frictions in trade.”

Does that sentence not confirm beyond all doubt that the Prime Minister’s red lines are leading us inexorably to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic?

[The Prime Minister]

No, it does not. Of course, the European Union will have set its particular guidelines. We are going into negotiation with it. We have already set out ways in which we can ensure that there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and we will go into detailed discussion on those.