EU Exit Negotiations

What an embarrassment. The last 24 hours have given a new meaning to the phrase “coalition of cha...

The right hon. and learned Gentleman’s speeches in such proceedings are becoming rather repetitiv...

Order.

Given my voice, I will wait it out, Mr Speaker.

Let us start with this issue of the single ...

Does my right hon. Friend appreciate that, whether it is in relation to regulatory alignment in N...

My hon. Friend, who has a long history of wisdom in this subject—[Interruption.] Wisdom—he saw it...

On reflection, I think I prefer the phrase “the rubber has hit the road” to the one that I was go...

Order. I think the hon. Gentleman has concluded his remarks. [Interruption.] The problem is that ...

Shall I reply?

Yes, that is only fair, as I allowed the hon. Gentleman to blurt out his question to allow the Se...

I will answer very briefly. First, I am very surprised by the hon. Gentleman, of all people, bein...

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency states that only 5% of Northern Ireland’s sal...

My right hon. Friend makes his point well. I have already confirmed that the integrity of the Uni...

Order. If I am to accommodate a significant number of colleagues, there will be a premium on brev...

We all hope that the Government find a form of words that enables the negotiations to move on to ...

I am afraid that, uncharacteristically, the right hon. Gentleman is just wrong about that. I just...

The British people are fed up to the back teeth with all this. They want a solution. It might be ...

My right hon. Friend makes her case with her characteristic tenacity. She can have this as a guar...

The way to solve the border issue, to protect the Good Friday agreement and to hold our United Ki...

I think that the hon. Lady was elected on a manifesto pledge to respect the result of the referen...

Does my right hon. Friend share my sense of gratitude to our friends in the Democratic Unionist p...

The red line, for me, is delivering the best Brexit for Britain, and that is what we will do.

Actually, there is not a consensus in this House about what should happen. The Government are mak...

As ever, the hon. Gentleman asks an intelligent question, and I will answer it as clearly as I ca...

May I point out to my right hon. Friend what I know he will agree with: the consensus that we mus...

My hon. Friend is of course right. The other thing we can say is that 85% of the Members of this ...

Order. I just make two points. First, there is a lot of noise in the Chamber. Members must be hea...

In the chaos that was yesterday, it did at least seem to be clear at 9 o’clock in the morning tha...

I refer the right hon. Lady to the speech that the Prime Minister made in Florence, because in it...

The Secretary of State is absolutely right to remind the House that the only way of respecting th...

My hon. Friend is right, and that was part of the text that we discussed yesterday. Of course the...

I am sure that millions of members of the public think that our Government are not being tough en...

Order. I am very keen to accommodate colleagues, and please rest assured that I will do everythin...

The EU is stopping the co-operation, which has been very good, between the Republic of Ireland an...

The hon. Lady makes a point that is, I am sure, supported by many members of the public. I said a...

Yesterday’s difficulties demonstrate how hard it will be to get an overall agreement. If there is...

I think I said to my hon. Friend when he was Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee that we had a...

It should come as no surprise that Dublin and the Irish Government wish to advance their interest...

The right hon. Gentleman is dead right. It is no surprise that the Democratic Unionist party stan...

Tens of thousands of jobs in my constituency are in sectors that are urging the Government to ado...

The presumption of the discussion was that everything we talked about applied to the whole United...

In his response to my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), the Brexit Secreta...

If the hon. Lady will forgive a factual correction, people certainly did. The Prime Minister at t...

May we return to the Prime Minister’s original intention that there would be no running commentar...

I thank my right hon. Friend for his inducement to my patience.

If the Secretary of State is serious about wanting a solution in the national interest that comma...

We were elected on a manifesto that said that we would leave the customs union and single market—...

Does the Secretary of State believe that it is possible to leave the single market and the custom...

As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Eddisbury (Antoinette Sandbach), yes, but using things...

I understand that yesterday the Prime Minister had to withdraw her agreement to her own agreed te...

I refer the hon. Lady to the short speech given at the press conference by Jean-Claude Juncker, w...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that this discussion demonstrates that no workable solution to th...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely on the nail, although what he said clearly did not go down ver...

Perhaps the Secretary of State could accept the constructive offer made by many hon. Members on b...

We have talked at great length about what we mean by regulatory alignment—I have just done so tod...

Is it worth gently reminding the Taoiseach and the Government in Dublin how we behaved when they ...

I am sure that the Irish Government are conscious of all those things, but let me pick one point ...

I put it to the Secretary of State that his Government’s dogmatic insistence on pulling us out of...

I say to the hon. Lady what I said at the beginning of this urgent question: all these stories pu...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that, as with the Ashes test match, the week is not yet over? It ...

My hon. Friend, who has a long and distinguished record in the European Parliament and knows the ...

The Government’s sheer incompetence is turning the Brexit negotiations into a national humiliatio...

I will break the habit of a lifetime and pay the right hon. Gentleman a compliment: he is at leas...

Will the Minister reassure me that when it comes to negotiations with the EU, the Government will...

No, the Prime Minister has made it clear that we are not going to take any off-the-shelf model. W...

The Prime Minister’s humiliation yesterday, when she was forced to disagree with herself, shows t...

What I will say to the right hon. Gentleman, given that he is a Labour party member, is that he m...

Did you notice, Mr Speaker, that the shadow Minister, just at the end of his question, committed ...

It is not just the Government’s policy; it is the law of the European Union.

Will the Secretary of State confirm when the Cabinet took the decision that our country would lea...

Effectively—[Interruption.] As someone behind me says from a sedentary position, it was 24 June 2...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that maintaining the integrity of our country requires that there...

Yes, my right hon. Friend is absolutely right.

The Secretary of State will know that the Democratic Unionist party and businesses in Northern Ir...

The hon. Gentleman is asking me to break my vow of courtesy, so I say, “Get thee behind me, Satan...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that if regulatory alignment in certain specific areas is a requi...

Every approach we take will treat the whole United Kingdom as a single constitutional entity and ...

Yesterday, our Prime Minister was humiliated by having the rug pulled from under her by the DUP. ...

No.

This urgent question is spectacularly badly timed, in the middle of talks to move to the next pha...

Order. The hon. Gentleman will resume his seat. [Interruption.] Order. I will deal with this. The...

I would never dream of it, Mr Speaker. My point was that many negotiations, if not most, come goo...

My hon. Friend makes a very good point.

The Secretary of State talks about the will of the people, but of course the Government put leavi...

A comprehensive free trade agreement, a customs agreement and all the associated regulatory align...

My right hon. Friend will of course know that the UK has a large surplus in services with the EU....

If by alignment my hon. Friend means mechanisms such as mutual recognition, yes, I agree entirely...

I am slightly confused now. Yesterday, the Government seemed to accept the principle that the onl...

I can understand the hon. Lady’s confusion if she has not been listening for the past half hour. ...

What can be done to help our good friends, the Irish Government, to climb down from the position ...

The aim of the negotiation is together to get to an outcome that serves our interests, the EU27’s...

If the Secretary of State is so confident that we in this place, the media and the general public...

I cannot imagine that the hon. Gentleman thinks that that would advance the negotiations one jot....

The EU Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, has today tweeted that when we leave, our existing ...

There is more than one benefit to departing from the European Union. One is trade arrangements, a...

Yesterday, for the first time, the Secretary of State realised that the importance of the Irish b...

In response to the first half of the hon. Gentleman’s question, I recommend that he read Hansard ...

We leave the EU in 16 months. Will my right hon. Friend assure the House and the country that the...

I think that that has been apparent for some time.

Does the Secretary of State think that it furthers the cause of the Union to refer to the actions...

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman wants to give advice to them about how they describe other people.

One of the big prizes to be gained from being free of the European Union is enabling us, as a Uni...

Yes.

Will the Secretary of State accept that leaving the customs union was not on the ballot paper on ...

It was said earlier that nobody voted for that; nobody knew that that was a consequence. In fact,...

Given that in European negotiations nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, does the Secret...

Yes, my hon. Friend is right that in every European negotiation, that phrase, “nothing is agreed ...

Will the Secretary of State tell us the difference between regulatory convergence and regulatory ...

One is about harmonisation, one is not.

What?

The Secretary of State said that one is about harmonisation and the other is not. Somebody sugges...

Will the Secretary of State confirm that, in the negotiations, the Government still aim to conclu...

Yes, my hon. Friend is exactly right on both counts.

Despite trying to cave in on every EU ask so far, the Government have not been able to conclude t...

The hon. Gentleman seems to be having an argument with himself in that question. It is seven mont...

Where are the Government, in terms of our post-club membership, on handing over a bill to the Eur...

I am afraid that I will not be drawn on numbers at the moment, but we are pretty close to alignme...

The Irish issue has never been about wandering cows or static cameras. It is about what is writte...

Let us start with the hon. Lady’s opening comments. She said that I did not mention the Northern ...

Despite the noise from many Opposition Members, is not it right that, at this stage of the talks,...

Yes, my hon. Friend is exactly right. That is pretty much what Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday...

Although I readily accept that there are 10 duly elected DUP Members in this House, nevertheless ...

The aim for the whole country, as the hon. Lady says, is to maximise the trade benefits of being ...

It is increasingly clear to anyone watching that the Government are incapable of focusing on anyt...

Is Horlicks a parliamentary word, Mr Speaker? I might use it in future. I am the Brexit Secretary...

The word is certainly not unparliamentary. It could be said to constitute a form of advertising, ...

Or a euphemism.

Or indeed a euphemism, as the right hon. Gentleman pertinently observes from a sedentary position...

When will we have a decision on the rights of EU nationals in the UK? The Secretary of State has ...

We recognise that duty. Indeed, I have said from the Dispatch Box that we view it as a moral impe...

The customs union was not on the ballot paper in the referendum. The Prime Minister was right yes...

Of course the referendum question was a short question, but it was a very long campaign. In that ...

Will the Secretary of State confirm today that Brexit is the

“easiest thing in human histor...

As the House can see, it is a complete cinch.

Of course the British people voted to leave the European Union, but the common market is extremel...

I say to the hon. Lady that if it was still just the common market I suspect the vote might have ...

The Secretary of State says a vote to leave was a vote to leave the single market and the customs...

Nobody wants a majority for a destructive Brexit. We want a majority for a constructive Brexit.