G20 and Leadership of EU Institutions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Wednesday 3rd July 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I sincerely hope that, after considerable discussion and consultation with the European Parliament, the European Parliament will feel able to accept the package of nominees for top jobs. Of course, the Parliament will be voting on the President of the Parliament as well. But there was considerable discussion with the European Parliament as part of the process, so I hope that it would feel able to accept this set of nominees, notwithstanding, of course, that none of them was one of the Spitzenkandidaten who were put forward.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

I commend the Prime Minister for her forthright stance with President Putin over the nerve gas that killed Dawn Sturgess in Salisbury. Will she confirm that she took an equally forthright stance with President Trump, whose views on the climate emergency will, if sustained, lead to the deaths of many millions of people around the world?

[The Prime Minister]

I have raised the United States’s approach to climate change, and particularly to the Paris agreement, with President Trump on many occasions, and I continue to raise it with him.

European Council

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Monday 24th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

There was no such discussion.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

I thank the Prime Minister for prior sight of her statement. I think the whole House would welcome any progress on climate change. On Wednesday, I am hosting a Welsh lobby in Committee Room 10 as part of the wider “The Time is Now” lobby on that day. Will the Prime Minister welcome the young people from Wales who will be taking part on Wednesday, and in particular those who marched through the city of Bangor recently—young people who have so effectively put climate change at the heart of the political debate?

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to welcome the young people who will be coming to the event the hon. Gentleman is holding here in the House on Wednesday. This is an important issue. It is one that young people have taken up and championed with vigour and energy, and it is right that we respond to their concerns.

European Council

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Monday 25th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

Would the Prime Minister think it constructive were we able to secure a single majority view from the indicative votes process, or would she prefer further indecision?

[The Prime Minister]

I indicated earlier that the Government are not giving a blank cheque to the indicative votes process, which is important. It is perfectly possible that the House might come to a decision, to contradictory decisions or to no decision at all. We will obviously have to engage constructively with whatever comes out of those votes.

Leaving the EU

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Monday 26th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Businesses do look for certainty and certainty is given to businesses in the withdrawal agreement, because it is a withdrawal agreement that contains within it the implementation period that ensures that businesses have that certainty going beyond 29 March next year. As regards the World Trade Organisation arrangements for trading with the European Union, I am frequently encouraged by colleagues around the House to ensure that we can negotiate really good trade arrangements with countries around the rest of the world that will not be based on WTO arrangements. I have to say that, if WTO arrangements are not good enough for those other deals around the world, I think it is entirely right that we seek to obtain, as we have done, commitments to better than WTO arrangements in our relationship with the European Union.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

If the Court of Justice rules tomorrow that article 50 is revocable, will the Prime Minister institute a British Brexit pause so that she can make a better fist of resolving the disagreements that are so obvious in the House today?

[The Prime Minister]

We will not be revoking article 50 or asking for the extension of article 50, and we will be leaving the EU on 29 March next year.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

Q4. The Prime Minister has said many, many times that she will have no hard border between Dublin and Belfast. Can she tell this House, just once, what sort of a border she would like to see between Dublin and Holyhead?

[The Prime Minister]

We have been very clear that we will not see a border down the Irish sea. We have been clear about that in the joint report that was issued by us and the European Commission and adopted by the European Council in December. When the European Commission made a proposal for dealing with the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland that would have meant a border down the Irish sea, I was clear that neither I nor any British Prime Minister could accept that.

Brexit Negotiations

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Monday 11th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The simple answer is that those areas could be included. I have said—my hon. Friend will not be surprised by this, given my background— that we may wish to include a number of security programmes. We may also very well wish to remain involved in the other areas that my hon. Friend identifies. Those decisions will be part of the next stage of the negotiations, and they will be taken on the basis of what will be in the best interests of the United Kingdom.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

I thank the Prime Minister for prior sight of her statement. On 26 October last year, I raised with her the danger of favouring particular sectors in any future trade deal. She replied:

“I will be cutting the best deal for the United Kingdom—all parts of it.”—[Official Report, 26 October 2016; Vol. 616, c. 281.]

On Sunday, the Brexit Secretary said that he would seek a trade deal that would be Canada-plus-plus-plus. Will the Prime Minister therefore identify the particular sectors referred to under “plus-plus-plus”?

[The Prime Minister]

There is no inconsistency in this. We want the best trade deal for all our trade with the European Union, and that is what we will be working to.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Wednesday 11th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Free schools have performed a very important function in raising standards in education in this country, and I am pleased that we have so many more children now in good or outstanding schools. Free schools have done something else as well, as I see in my own constituency, where one of the free schools is specifically for children who are on the autistic spectrum. That is very important, and it is a service that was not available previously. Free schools have enabled that to happen. They are providing for people up and down the country, and we should welcome them.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

Q15. Vascular services in my constituency are to be moved to an as yet untested centre, while in Bangor we already have a facility with an international reputation. Does the Prime Minister share my concern that, due to bungling over health by the Labour Government in Cardiff, seriously ill Welsh patients will have to travel further and even, like the late Irfon Williams, have to move to live in England just to access proper treatment?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. I am obviously not aware of the details of the particular services and of the transfer that he has referred to, but the overall point he makes is that people living in Wales are often seeing that they are getting a less good service from the Labour Government NHS in Wales—[Interruption.] Oh, yes. Yes, this is the case. As the hon. Gentleman says, there are people who will travel from Wales to England to get the service that is available in the NHS in England, and the Labour Government in Wales need to take a hard look at what they are doing to the NHS in Wales.

UK Plans for Leaving the EU

Debate between Baroness May of Maidenhead and Hywel Williams

Monday 9th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I recognise the concerns people have about ensuring they know what the situation is going to be. The Government are working on what steps will be necessary for whatever the eventuality—whether we do negotiate a deal or whether we do not—and in doing that we are holding discussions with business.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

I thank the Prime Minister for prior sight of her statement. We have heard a great deal from her about the non-border that she envisages between the north of Ireland and the Republic, but I do not think we have heard a word about the border between Wales and the Republic of Ireland, even though the north Wales route through Holyhead is second only to Dover in its volume of traffic. Will she tell the House what she is doing to ensure that north Wales does not grind to a halt after Brexit?

[The Prime Minister]

I am very clear that as we look for a solution for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland we do not want to set up a new border between the island of Ireland and the mainland of the United Kingdom. Obviously, what happens at the border the hon. Gentleman refers to will depend on the future partnership that we agree with the EU. We have put some proposals forward for customs arrangements that could pertain. When we get into the negotiation of that phase, we will be able to look at those issues in detail.