European Union (Amendment) Bill

I am delighted to have the opportunity to respond to this evening's debate at the end of six hours of deliberation. The fact that the debate was six hours long reflects the wish, set out in today's amendment to the programme order, of both Labour and Conservative Front Benchers. I share the frustration felt about the fact that we will not debate the other groups of amendments, particularly those on the EU competence for animal welfare in outer space, and that we will not have the quasi-theological debate on the European definitions of sentient beings. Perhaps we can return to those issues another time.