Wes Streeting
Main Page: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)Department Debates - View all Wes Streeting's debates with the Cabinet Office
(7 years, 6 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
The hon. Gentleman has said in the past that he has a different view on the result of the vote and of where the Government should be going in relation to membership of the European Union.
The Prime Minister
Yes, I know that the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith) asked about the single market, and I have answered many questions about that. My response to him is the same as my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate (Crispin Blunt), which is that it is important for us to encourage the market—the market that we are going to be working with, that we are going to be trading with, that we want the best possible access to and that we want our services to be able to operate within—to be a free market with which we are able to work.
The Prime Minister
It is right that we are looking very carefully at the impact that the activity of Russia and others can have across the European Union, but it is also right that we are stronger as a United Kingdom in our collective defence and that every part of the United Kingdom benefits from being part of the UK through our collective defence and security against crime and terrorism.
Wes Streeting
Membership of the single market and the customs union gives our country barrier-free, tariff-free access to the biggest single market in the world and, through the customs union, more trade deals with other countries across the world than any other leading economy outside those institutions. Why is the Prime Minister therefore determined to pull us out? Is it because she genuinely believes it is the right thing to do, which she did not just a matter of months ago, or is it because she has been taken hostage by the right wing of her party? Once more, another Conservative Prime Minister is not only putting her party political interests before the economic interests of our country but is putting at risk the integrity of the United Kingdom.
The Prime Minister
On 23 June 2016, the majority of people in the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, and there are consequences of leaving the European Union. We want to negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement with the European Union that gives us the best possible access to the single market.
The Prime Minister
We have membership of the single market because we are a member of the European Union, which involves—[Interruption.]