European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018: Statutory Obligations on Ministers

William Wragg Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Walker]

What we are talking about is section 13 of the withdrawal Act, which this House has already debated. What I have delivered today is the Government’s clear interpretation of that and the fact that there will be a meaningful vote in this House.

[Mr William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend confirm that motions of this House, amended or otherwise, do not override the law?

[Mr Walker]

My hon. Friend is, of course, right that the law has a senior and more important effect, but what we are talking about here is the law. We are talking about the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

EU: Future Relationship White Paper

William Wragg Excerpts

Thursday 12th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

We have already set out what we are going to do in relation to the financial settlement in the withdrawal agreement. We will settle our accounts and ensure that in respect of those parts of the EU project, whether Eurojust or whatever it may be, we pay our way.

[Mr William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

I welcome my right hon. Friend to his post. I cannot help feeling a little sorry for him at this time. Is he sure that there is not another document, developed with and previewed by other Governments, which is being cooked up behind the scenes by Mr Robbins and our former friend the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and which will then be wheeled out to further undermine the previously stated positions of Her Majesty’s Government?

[Dominic Raab]

Yes.

Leaving the EU: Economic Analysis

William Wragg Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Baker]

We will continue to carry out a wide-ranging and developing programme of economic analysis, which will help to inform our negotiating position and our decisions.

[Mr William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

Can my hon. Friend, the excellent Minister, name a single civil service forecast, leaked or otherwise, that has been accurate?

[Mr Baker]

No, I am not able to name an accurate forecast. They are always wrong, and wrong for good reasons. [Interruption.] Members are chatting at me from a sedentary position. My long-standing views on the flaws in the epistemology of the social sciences and the consequences for econometrics are well set out in various forums, and I encourage Members to go and have a look at them. I am happy to recommend a reading list.

EU Exit Negotiations

William Wragg Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

We have been quite creative so far. Many of those who have been here a long time are already permanent residents. One of the things the Italian Government persuaded me was worth doing is ensuring that people’s transition to the new permanent residence is completely frictionless, requiring no more than a photograph and a criminality check. We have given those who will still be making the application a two-year grace period beyond our departure, and we published a report last week to show that the process will be simple, straightforward and very cheap. Those things are designed to make people feel more secure, as I hope they do, because I reiterate that we value the contribution of the 3 million Europeans who are in this country today.

[Mr William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that although the UK should negotiate on every issue, if we are to secure this country’s future, nothing should be agreed until everything is agreed, to coin a phrase?

[Mr Davis]

I never thought that I would accuse my hon. Friend of sounding like the European Commission, but that is its favourite phrase, and I stick by that, too.

EU Exit Negotiations

William Wragg Excerpts

Tuesday 17th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

During the passage of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017, the Government gave an undertaking that there will be a vote on the deal.

[Mr William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

Mr Juncker used the uncharacteristic analogy of ordering 28 beers; does my right hon. Friend agree that our moving into the second phase of negotiation on our future trading arrangements would be a welcome sign of a “Sober October” in which minds are clear and focused on what is in the best interests of both the UK and the EU?

Exiting the EU: New Partnership

William Wragg Excerpts

Thursday 2nd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

The Government’s thinking on Brexit is very clear. If someone disagrees with it, that does not mean that it does not exist. That is the problem that SNP Members have had all the way through this process. They just do not like it—[Interruption.] Sure, half a page is blank. Wonderful. I think that is the case in every book I own.

[William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

I welcome the White Paper and hope that it heralds unity both in our party and in the country on our approach to leaving the European Union. May I therefore commend to all Members yesterday’s speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt)? He was the epitome of grace and magnanimity.

[Mr Davis]

I agree with him entirely on both counts.

Oral Answers to Questions

William Wragg Excerpts

Thursday 26th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jones]

We are absolutely committed to NATO, and I assure the House that that commitment will continue after Brexit.

[William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

17. What the Government’s policy is on consulting Parliament on the final agreement on the UK leaving the EU.

[The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Mr David Davis)]

As the Prime Minister said, we will put the final deals agreed between the UK and the EU to a vote in both Houses of Parliament. We have always said that we will observe the constitutional and legal obligations that apply to the final deal. As I have said many times, we will keep the House informed throughout the process.

[William Wragg]

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that both Houses of Parliament will have several opportunities to vote on a wide range of legislation determining substantial policy decisions as we exit the EU?

[Mr Davis]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The article 50 Bill will be introduced imminently. A great repeal Bill is to be introduced in the next Session—an important piece of legislation that will ensure that all EU law is converted into UK law, including on issues such as workers’ rights and environmental regulations, which I would have thought would matter to the Opposition. There will be subsequent legislation on those and other issues. But that is just the beginning. Exiting the European Union will give this Parliament control of its own laws again. Decisions on policy will be taken here, not in the European Union, and we will be back to being a free country again.

Article 50

William Wragg Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

I spoke to Carwyn Jones about that yesterday. I have not had a chance to read it in detail, but I know the headlines. He took me through them, and it struck me as a very constructive submission to the process. We will debate it at the next Joint Ministerial Committee.

[William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

Mr Speaker,

“joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth”.

Does my right hon. Friend share my delight that those who were previously happy for sovereignty to be dispatched to Brussels now believe in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom Parliament?

[Mr Davis]

I warn my hon. Friend to be wary of biblical quotations. The last one I used was,

“Get thee behind me, Satan”,

and it rode with me for several weeks thereafter. However, he is right that this is a massive exercise in democracy, and we will make it so.

New Partnership with the EU

William Wragg Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend is the man with the plan. [Interruption.] Opposition Members may mock if they wish, but will my right hon. Friend ensure that those wanting a running commentary will not get their way in wrecking the negotiation?

[Mr Davis]

Of course.

Exiting the EU: Scotland

William Wragg Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2016 Westminster Hall

[Peter Grant (Glenrothes) (SNP)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Scotland and the process of the UK leaving the EU.

It is a pleasure to speak here under your chairmanship, Mr Howarth.

Exactly 174 days ago, 62% of people in Scotland voted to remain in the European Union. We are now about three fifths of the way between the referendum and invoking article 50, so 107 days from now, at most, the Prime Minister intends to trigger—probably irrevocably, although that is subject to some discussion—the process of taking us out of the European Union, despite the fact that 62% of us want to stay in.

Two years after that, we face a spectacle in which the citizens who hold sovereignty over one of the most ancient—indeed, most European—of all nations will face the threat of having our European Union citizenship stripped from us: neither because we wanted to rescind it nor because we broke the rules and it was rescinded by the European Union, but because it was taken from us by the actions of a Government who have never held a majority in Scotland during my lifetime.

There will be some on the Government Benches—there are not many here today, admittedly—and possibly even on the Opposition Benches, whose public response would just be, “Tough! That’s the way things go. If you don’t like it, you just have to lump it,” dismissing Scotland’s concerns out of hand. My advice to them is to think very carefully indeed about how such an attitude is likely to be received north of the border.

With this debate, I am not trying to reopen the argument that was won and lost in ballot boxes the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. I find it strange that, although I have now accepted that certainly England and Wales are leaving the European Union, some hon. Members who represent constituencies in those countries may be trying to prevent that from happening. I respect the will of the people of England and Wales. They have given a mandate and I understand that the Government seek to implement that mandate. However, I ask the Government to accept—even simply to recognise—the fact that no such mandate exists from the people of Scotland or, indeed, the people of Northern Ireland.

[William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

I just wondered whether the hon. Gentleman would remind me of the result of the Scottish independence referendum.

[Peter Grant]

I am delighted to remind the hon. Gentleman that during the Scottish independence referendum, Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservative party, promised the people of Scotland that a vote for independence would take us out of the European Union and a vote against independence would guarantee a place in the European Union. I am also delighted to remind him that, in percentage terms, the majority of the people of Scotland who want to stay in the European Union was almost two and a half times bigger than the majority who wanted to stay in the United Kingdom in the Scottish independence referendum.

Just now we are talking about the threat to our membership of the European Union. Other aspects of our constitutional status may well be up for discussion at some other time but, in the limited time available to me now, I will concentrate on the immediate issue, which is respecting the democratic will of the people of Scotland to remain in the European Union.