European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill

We introduced the most straightforward possible Bill necessary to enact the referendum result and...

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—after I have given way to the right hon. Gentleman.

The Secretary of State will have heard that many Members in this House, and a huge majority in th...

If the right hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will come to the detail of the answer to that late...

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I will give way to my hon. Friend, but, as many Members wish to speak and time is tight, I will l...

As somebody who is married to an EU citizen without a British passport, may I say that I wholehea...

I thank my hon. Friend both for his intervention and for warming up the House.

European cit...

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I will give way in a moment.

However, the European Union has been clear that we cannot open...

I did undertake to give way to the hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies), but then I will...

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the survey by the General Medical Council that shows that tw...

I hear what the hon. Gentleman says. As I have said before, these issues are serious and importan...

I am delighted to hear what my right hon. Friend has had to say about prioritising the negotiatio...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. It may well be that we need treaty change to put in law the gu...

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Please forgive me for a moment.

That is very dependent of course on the commitment not just...

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Forgive me, but I do have to make some progress.

The proposed amendment may well force the ...

Will the Secretary of State give way?

In a second.

I want to reassure people that Parliament will have a clear opportunity to deb...

I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. This Government’s track record on co...

The hon. Lady knows me very well, and I think—

I thought I knew you better.

That is the point. It is, frankly, incredible to me that anybody would imagine that I, of all peo...

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. If he is so confident about this, why can...

As I said last week, because it is unnecessary. When a Minister gives an undertaking at this Disp...

No, I will not give way.

On the more general point about votes—and I say this with some per...

My right hon. Friend is a Member of long standing in this House, and he recognises—as, I think, o...

I reiterate the point: of course, Parliament can, if it wishes, have a vote and debate on any iss...

Is that not exactly the point? It would completely cripple the Government in trying to get a real...

That point brings me to subsection (4), so let me deal with that in a little more detail. This ne...

The Minister is asking us to take him at his word—on trust. Given the record of the Conservative ...

I said before, and I will say it again: I take statements at this Dispatch Box as binding.

...

No one in this House, as far as I am aware, wishes to fetter the Government’s hands in negotiatio...

My right hon. and learned—and old—Friend makes a good point. The simple truth here, however, as I...

Will hon. Members forgive me if I do not give way, because I am coming to the end of my comments?...

I rise to support both of the amendments that have been passed in the other place. They started l...

Will my hon. and learned Friend give way?

I will make some progress because lots of Members want to speak, and the more I give way now, the...

I have listened carefully to the argument the hon. and learned Gentleman is making. Four million ...

I am grateful for that intervention: let me deal with it straight on. Of course there is a shared...

I have not even set out the principle yet. Are we prepared to use one set of people—those who are...

The Secretary of State seeks to persuade us that, simply because he has stated from the Dispatch ...

The Secretary of State said that it was binding so far as he was concerned. That is not the same ...

How does my hon. and learned Friend answer the Brexit Secretary’s point that if and when we pass ...

I am grateful for that intervention, but it is important to focus on the words of the amendment, ...

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I am going to make progress. I have taken interventions on the issue and it would not be fair to ...

I am going to make some progress. We should not bring unnecessary uncertainty and distress into t...

Will the hon. and learned Gentleman give way?

I am going to make some progress.

Labour supports Lords amendment 1 not only because it is ...

Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that given our Foreign Secretary’s mixed record—both in com...

I agree. I have said in the House on a number of occasions that the tone that the Government set ...

I am going to move on to the question of the meaningful vote in Lords amendment 2. I remind the H...

Is my hon. and learned Friend aware of the ICM poll for Avaaz, published in just the past two hou...

I have seen that poll, which is of course important, but this is a matter of principle. This is a...

The amendment does not simply give this House the right to vote on these matters; it also gives t...

There is a reason why the amendment spells that out in detail: it is precisely what the Minister ...

Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that, given the high level of uncertainty, the only sage an...

I would not put it as “one last chance”. The negotiations will lead first—I hope—to an article 50...

I am grateful to my hon. and learned Friend for giving way. The discussion so far has been about ...

I am grateful for that intervention. That is my interpretation and it causes me great concern. We...

Does the hon. and learned Gentleman accept, at least in principle, that this Parliament made a co...

There was one question on the ballot paper, and that was whether we should stay in the EU or leav...

I agree with what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said about amendment 1, but I wish ...

I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend, and there is a further point. When it comes to the co...

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, but it seems to me that for this purpose we do not even nee...

Is that not evidenced by Lord Pannick himself arguing seriously in court that the letter is irrev...

I agree with my right hon. Friend, although the Supreme Court went to great pains not to refer th...

This is a very timely debate about amendments that go to the heart of the situation in which we f...

Last Friday I met representatives of a major bus company in Scotland, who said that 17% of the co...

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I want to come on to the point about EU nationals shortl...

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman could tell us, on the same analytical basis, how many jobs would be lo...

That is the extraordinary basis on which this is debated. My honourable colleague from the Foreig...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I will make progress.

If we pass the Bill today, we will be passing this Government a b...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Not at the moment.

It is the House of Lords, of all places, that has given us another oppor...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Not at the moment.

The lack of respect for the devolved Administrations, and the promises t...

My hon. Friend is talking about the human element for EU nationals. On Friday afternoon, my const...

I thank my hon. and learned Friend for raising that point, which is important. Many of us have li...

As the hon. Gentleman knows, I feel very passionate about the fact that EU citizens living in the...

The hon. Gentleman makes my point for me: the Scottish Government are looking to protect Scotland...

I am going to keep my comments as brief as possible so that as many Members as possible can speak...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

Because I am being generous, I will.

But does my right hon. Friend not accept the simple point that this place made a contract with th...

My hon. Friend forgets that there was just one question on the ballot paper—did we want to remain...

So?

My hon. Friend says “So?” I can assure him that it is not only me but our Prime Minister who take...

Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland. The right hon. Gentleman needs no lessons on my support for the efforts and wor...

Does the hon. Lady agree that this is not only an issue of principle, in regard to parliamentary ...

Order. Interventions must be brief. We have very little time.

I want to close by saying this, Mr Speaker. The idea that, by doing the right thing and allowing ...

I must declare an interest, because the political is personal for me on the issue of EU citizens ...

The question mark has been placed there by the EU, not by this Government. If the EU said today t...

The right hon. Gentleman would start blaming bad traffic on the EU if he could. It is absurd. We ...

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Remind me, was freeing ourselves from red tape not one of the principal reasons why the right hon...

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I must make progress; there is very little time.

Turning to the other, perhaps more meaning...

It is a particular pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg), as ...

The simple truth is this: deal or no deal, vote or no vote, positive vote or negative vote, this ...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that.

Let me now deal with the two Lords amendments tha...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we get to the point where all our proceedings, debates an...

That point is very well made and it leads me on to my next point. There is another group of EU na...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I hope the hon. and learned Lady is able to confirm to the House that she said that.

I am very happy to confirm exactly what my constituent said, as the right hon. Gentleman has brou...

I am pleased that the hon. and learned Lady made that point. Had she listened to my remarks, she ...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

If my hon. Friend will forgive me, I shall move on to Lords amendment 2, because I am conscious t...

I am grateful for the opportunity to make myself clear. I said that if we do not get a deal, the ...

I listened carefully to my right hon. Friend. As I have said before in the House, the referendum ...

Only 40 minutes remain. I am keen to call as many hon. and right hon. Members as possible, but I ...

The right hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper) argued that we should not support the two am...

Is the Government’s position on EU citizens not based on a fiction? If they did not grant EU citi...

I agree with my hon. Friend entirely. The whole House knows that that course of action cannot be ...

I campaigned for remain in last year’s referendum, believing that it was in the best medium-term ...

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No, I will not give way, because there are so many Members who wish to speak.

The Bill befo...

How?

If the hon. Lady listens, I will elucidate.

The preconditions required would mean that what...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I have already said that I will not give way.

Lord Hill, who is a man of great experience i...

I have only three points to make in the time that I have available.

When my hon. Friend the...

Order. With extreme brevity now from both sides of the House, I call Sir William Cash.

First, this is a very simple Bill that is merely about notification and triggering. It is as simp...

I rise to make two brief points. First, if we do not deal, now or in the next three months, with ...

A three-minute limit on each Back-Bench speech will now apply.

I want to support the Government in carrying out an efficient and effective Brexit but, after lis...

I commend the right hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Grieve) for his speech. Notwiths...

Under your instructions, Mr Speaker, I am going to be brief. I want to deal specifically with the...

I wish to speak particularly to amendment 2, which is very similar to new clauses 99 and 110, whi...

The hon. Lady makes a very good point, because in the last debate we had, we discussed the possib...

I am very grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for that intervention.

The point...

Order. I would like to accommodate a number of other colleagues. It is not compulsory to speak fo...

Until the right hon. Member for Gordon (Alex Salmond) spoke, I was afraid I was the only person w...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I will not.

The way forward would have been for the EU to say straightaway, “Yes, you’r...

I shall vote against all the amendments on the simple basis that this Bill has one purpose and on...

Let us try for two speeches of two minutes each.

I will vote against the amendments tonight. I want briefly to address amendment 2 on the final vo...

The Secretary of State would like a minute to wind up, with the leave of the House. I am bound to...

We live in very strange times. The campaign to leave the EU was based to a very great extent on t...

With the leave of the House, in 60 seconds, Mr Speaker. I start by thanking hon. Members for thei...