UK Parliament / Open data

Parliamentary Scrutiny of Leaving the EU

Proceeding contribution from Keir Starmer (Labour) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 12 October 2016. It occurred during Opposition day on Parliamentary Scrutiny of Leaving the EU.

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and again, many of us have had anxious conversations with EU citizens who simply want to know what their position is and want some guarantees about the future.

I will make some progress. Some models for exiting have been much discussed. The most cited are the Norwegian model, the Swiss model, the Turkish model and the Canadian model. It is unlikely that any deal reached between the UK and the EU will replicate any of those models—nor should it—but in negotiating our future relationship with the EU, the Government will be defining the future of our country, so the terms matter hugely. It is frankly astonishing that the Government propose to devise the negotiating terms of our exit from the EU, then to negotiate and then to reach a deal, without a vote in this House. This is where my opening remarks become important because, in the absence of anything in the manifesto, in the absence of anything on the referendum ballot form and in the absence of any words from the Prime Minister before she assumed office, where is the mandate? Nobody—public or in the House—

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
615 c317 
Session
2016-17
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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