Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice Debate

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Department: Attorney General

Withdrawal Agreement: Legal Advice

Tom Tugendhat Excerpts
Thursday 29th November 2018

(6 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Robert Buckland Portrait The Solicitor General
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I can assure the hon. Lady that she will not be voting for it blindfold. Whatever her final decision might be, she will be in a position, come the vote, to have heard the Attorney General, to have read the Government’s position and to fully understand and appreciate the issues at stake. I know that she will do all that and make her decision.

Tom Tugendhat Portrait Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con)
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Despite the Welsh origins of the Solicitor General, does he agree that there is no wizardry in legal advice, that it is simply the accumulation of the collected knowledge of our culture, history and agreed norms, and that in many ways we can read all that in the press that we are seeing every day? We may seek legal advice in this place, but I have been given tons for free by every lawyer in the country, as far as I can tell. Does he therefore agree that the Attorney General’s advice is relevant, but not essential?

Robert Buckland Portrait The Solicitor General
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My hon. Friend puts the context of all this admirably well.