European Affairs

The reason for my sedentary intervention was that I had listened very carefully to a point that the Minister made at the beginning of his speech, when he said that Commissioners do not represent the countries of which they are nationals, but represent the Commission. That is not the impression that the Prime Minister has been giving, as my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) has said. The Prime Minister has been going around saying that our getting a Briton to be the High Representative was in some way a triumph. If Baroness Ashton is to represent the Commission and the Council, how is that a triumph for Britain?