Leaving the EU

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Tuesday 12th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I can give my right hon. Friend that assurance. I have heard the message clearly that Parliament gave in relation to the backstop, and we are working for those legally binding changes that this Parliament wishes to see.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The withdrawal agreement and implementation Bill is legislation of the highest political, legal and constitutional significance. It is absolutely vital that this House has sufficient time to debate and scrutinise it. It would be a constitutional outrage if that were not the case. Does the Prime Minister not then agree that it is crystal clear that we cannot do justice to this vital piece of legislation without an extension of article 50?

[The Prime Minister]

I assure the hon. Gentleman that, of course, the House will have looked at the nature of the withdrawal agreement through the meaningful vote that it conducts, and giving support for that withdrawal agreement will then enable us to get on with the withdrawal agreement and implementation Bill. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the House will have sufficient time, I believe, to scrutinise that Bill.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Wednesday 6th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lidington]

What is happening in Venezuela is appalling. We have seen the suppression of democratic institutions and traditions, and we have seen 3 million people forced to leave their country and live as refugees. We and our EU partners have been clear that we need to put pressure on those around Maduro. We need to keep that pressure up, and we are looking at what further steps we can take to ensure peace and democracy, including through possible sanctions. It would be a help if, in this House, we spoke with a united voice, rather than having the Leader of the Opposition looking to Maduro’s Venezuela as a role model for this country.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

Q14. The Prime Minister is on record as saying that she does not want a “business as usual” relationship with Russia. Will the Minister explain, then, why in the past year, the Conservative party has trousered £1 million in donations from individuals with strong links to the Kremlin, including a former Russian Defence Minister and the wife of President Putin’s former Finance Minister?

[Mr Lidington]

Party matters are not a subject of Government responsibility, but all donations to the Conservative party have been properly accounted for and declared to the Electoral Commission in accordance with the law. There are people of Russian origin who are United Kingdom citizens and as entitled as any other naturalised UK citizen to support and donate to the political party of their choice.

European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Tuesday 29th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

I think we all realise that today’s debate is predominantly about process, but that cannot hide one essential truth: we are facing a crisis; our country is in a state of suspended animation because of that crisis; and the intemperate nature of the debate—partly here today and certainly outside the Chamber—is a consequence of that crisis, because in truth every single one of us present is anxious about what is going to happen to our country.

Following the defeat of the Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement and political declaration, she said that she would reach out, and I welcomed that, although it would have been much better had it been done two years ago. We now know that she is not for turning on the political declaration but seeks somehow to change the backstop. I am all for optimism, but I somehow doubt that the EU is for turning on this issue either. Unless the Prime Minister knows something that we do not, I do not see how it is going to be changed.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

Is my right hon. Friend aware of the fact that Guy Verhofstadt has today said:

“The deal we have is fair and cannot be re-negotiated. The backstop is needed because of UK red lines and was crafted by the UK and the EU to secure the Good Friday Agreement…We remain open to positive changes regarding the future relationship and it is time for a more consensual cross-party approach to deliver this”?

Does that not make it absolutely clear that the Prime Minister’s approach is a charade, and it needs to be stopped now?

[Hilary Benn]

I fear that my hon. Friend is right, as the Prime Minister will find out. She will have to return to the House, I suspect, and say, “I am sorry, but I could not get the thing to which some Members object removed.” I simply say that if Members do not want Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom to have different rules, and if they want to ensure that, in all circumstances, goods can flow freely without tariffs, delays, paperwork or checks then it is the political declaration that needs to be changed.

Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Wednesday 9th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously, I recognise the concern raised by my hon. Friend. The £65 fee to apply for status under the scheme is in line with the current cost of obtaining permanent residence documentation, and it will, of course, contribute to the overall costs of the system, but applications will be free of charge for those who hold valid permanent residence documentation or valid indefinite leave to enter or remain, and for children being looked after by a local authority. Where an application is granted pre-settled status under the scheme, there will, from April 2019, be no fee for applying for settled status. As I said in an earlier response to another Member, the EU settlement scheme will make it simple and straightforward for people to get the status that they need.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

Q9. This week, our cross-party Norway Plus group published “Common Market 2.0”, a clear plan that respects the 52:48 mandate, addresses concerns about free movement, protects jobs in my Aberavon constituency, and helps to reunite our deeply divided country. If the Prime Minister’s deal is rejected on Tuesday, will she give the House the opportunity to vote on a range of options, including “Common Market 2.0”, and will she give Members on her Benches a free vote on those options?

[The Prime Minister]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, I am working to ensure that the deal that has been negotiated by the UK Government with the European Union is voted on positively by this Parliament. It is a good deal. It does what he wants: it protects jobs and security. It also delivers in full on the referendum result, which is a key issue. We owe it to people to deliver what they wanted, which was control of money, borders and laws, and that is what the deal does.

European Council

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to confirm that we will be leaving the European Union on 29 March next year. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for pointing out the significant number of Members who stood on a manifesto commitment to deliver on the vote that people took in 2016.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister repeatedly claims that the Norway plus option would require a backstop, but on 3 December her Attorney General told me from the Dispatch Box that he could see no reason why Norway plus

“would not satisfy the stated objectives of the backstop”.—[Official Report, 3 December 2018; Vol. 650, c. 572.]

Can she confirm that she agrees with her Attorney General on that point?

[The Prime Minister]

The issue is partly about whether we have the customs union within the Norway plus model. However, the point about the backstop is that it is there to deal with the period from the end of a transition period to the new relationship—the new relationship being one that will deal with the guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland that there will be no hard border. In any alternative arrangement, it would be necessary to have that negotiation.

Norway-plus is not something that can just happen. This House might want to say it will happen; actually, Norway-plus requires such a negotiation, because we would have to negotiate to be a member of EFTA first in order to get such an arrangement in place. In doing that, there would therefore be a risk that there would be a period of time when no arrangement was in place, and that would require a backstop.

Leaving the EU

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am sure that my right hon. Friend will recognise that the commitments that the Government have made to increase funding for our public services in a number of areas, which do affect his constituents, reflect the needs that he has consistently raised in this House and raised with Government. I return to the point that I made previously about the financial settlement with the European Union—there are legal obligations that this country has, and I believe that, as a country, we should be the sort of place that actually meets our legal obligations.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister must surely now recognise that she is flogging a dead horse. May I urge her to join forces with senior members of her Cabinet and Members on both sides of the House to back a Norway plus-based Brexit? It is the only option that protects jobs, solves the Northern Ireland border issue and has a chance of reuniting our deeply divided country.

[The Prime Minister]

Actually, the option that the hon. Gentleman puts forward does not deliver on the vote of the British people, which is what I believe we should do.

October EU Council

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

There was a wider discussion on the importance of continuing to work together on key security issues. Of course, the details of the future relationship on internal security, such as those relating to the European arrest warrant, are being looked at in the negotiations, but there was a very clear sense around the table of the importance of us all continuing to work together on key security issues.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The backstop is an insurance policy. Can the Prime Minister give us an example of any insurance policy she has ever seen or signed up to that was based on an expiry date?

[The Prime Minister]

I do not know what insurance policies the hon. Gentleman takes out, but most insurance policies have a renewal date.

EU Exit Negotiations

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 15th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend’s question involves a number of assumptions. We are working to get a good deal with the European Union. If, at the end of the negotiation process, both sides agreed that no deal was there, that would actually come back to this House, and then we would see what position the House would take in the circumstances of the time.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister keeps advising hon. Members that if they want to know how to keep frictionless trade, they should just read the White Paper, but surely the Salzburg summit taught her that the White Paper was completely and utterly dead in the water. What is her plan B?

[The Prime Minister]

That is not the case. We have been negotiating with the European Union on the structure and scope of the future relationship, and we have been doing that on the basis of our proposals in the White Paper.

NATO Summit

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are certainly putting significant effort into modernisation, in recognising the need for new capabilities and the modernisation of NATO. I think it is fair to say that we are one of the countries at the forefront of that modernisation, but we are ensuring that other allies around the table recognise its importance and come along with it, too.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister rightly said that NATO and the EU are the dual cornerstones of our security. Why, then, does she keep dancing to the tune of the European Research Group? Does she see that by capitulating to its proposals on the customs and trade Bills, she is accepting that the Chequers deal is dead in the water?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely wrong in his reference to the agreement that was reached at Chequers. I would not have gone through all the work I did to ensure we reached that agreement only to see it changed in some way through these Bills. They do not change the Chequers agreement, and the Minister will make that clear from the Dispatch Box later today.

Leaving the EU

Stephen Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 9th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

First, I believe that the important message to my hon. Friend’s constituents and others is that we are delivering on the key issues that led to people voting to leave the European Union—an end to free movement, no more vast sums of money going to the EU every year, and our coming out of the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy and out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. He talks about their concerns about the timetable. It is precisely to ensure that we are able to reach the end of our negotiations this autumn—such that, where we have a deal, we have those proposals in place by 29 March 2019— that we are presenting this proposal to the European Union. His constituents will see us leave the European Union on 29 March 2019.

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

Contrary to what the Prime Minister has repeatedly told the House today, the EEA agreement does in fact enable the suspension and reform of free movement of labour, removes the direct effect of EU law and sits outside the jurisdiction of the ECJ. The Chequers proposal, however, is a bureaucratic nightmare that is riddled with ambiguity and complexity. Why does the Prime Minister stop trying to reinvent the wheel and commit instead to an EEA-based Brexit?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman might have noticed that this House had an opportunity to vote on the EEA issue within the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill and voted overwhelmingly against membership of the EEA.