I absolutely recognise that, which is why I chose my words extremely carefully in referencing the common market, rather than saying that we are absolutely the same. I accept that there are differences, but the overall benefit of the United Kingdom, and why I am a member of the Conservative and Unionist party, is that I see in the coming together of Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England something greater than the sum of its parts. I know that we will never agree on that; I recognise that the hon. Lady has profound differences with me, but I hope she will accept my view that the UK is greater than the sum of its parts.
More broadly, I do not agree with some of the sentiments expressed today or in previous discussions regarding the Government’s position towards the EU, as outlined by the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse.
It seems to me that the EU appears to have again successfully found our domestic fault-lines and pressure points, in this instance the internal market of the United Kingdom, and particularly Northern Ireland, to aid its own interests in the negotiations.
There is no doubt, as has been indicated by our exchange already, that the debate on the structuring of the Bill and the structure of our internal market is a challenging one in places, within this Chamber and beyond. To me, however, the Bill and its clauses seem only logical in supporting the key principles of mutual recognition of goods, recognition of qualifications and non-discrimination of goods and trading within the UK’s internal market, and from that follows a clear statement about the implications for our wider relationship with Europe as a consequence.
5.15 pm
I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Craig Williams) , who is no longer in his place, that some of the discussion sadly seems to fall back into an opportunity to replay the Brexit wars of 2016 to 2019, to return to our leave and remain tribes and to build up the usual rhetorical architecture that returns us all to our comfort zones. For some, 23 June 2016 will be an eternal Groundhog Day from which they can never escape, and nor, apparently, do they ever seem to want to. That kind of return to an unreconciled Brexit is, in my view, most unwise, and I could not have agreed more with my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) when he said yesterday that
“this is not a question of leave or remain.”—[Official Report, 21 September 2020; Vol. 680, c. 739.]
It should not be, and for many, it is not. It does not need to be, if we reject many of the amendments to our domestic legislation tonight and, more widely, if we accept the reality that we have a job to do in our negotiations with the European Union in the coming months, which we all hope will succeed, but that we must prepare for the worst if we need to.
There are many reasons why I am a Conservative, and one of them is a clear recognition that, unlike in some other traditions, we have to deal with the world as it is rather than the world as we wish it to be. That is not to be cynical or glib about the way in which we interact in our international relations, but simply to be realistic about the challenges that face us, the levers we have to resolve them and the way in which we legislate domestically to meet them, as we are doing in this Bill. There are many good elements in the Bill, but also some that have been brought forward by necessity. We should have no desire to use some of the powers conferred in the Bill, but we acknowledge that they are present if the European Union continues, based on the reports we have received, to act in bad faith.
I also want to pick up on some of the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill), who is no longer in his place. It behoves us in this place to recognise that the external negotiations—we are debating the domestic legislation that comes from them today—are not motherhood and apple pie. They do not come feting us with rose petals as we walk down the street to have those discussions. In all these negotiations there are hard choices to be made, whether they are those that have been made by a
supranational organisation such as the EU on our behalf for the past 40 years—for example, the EU is involved in many disagreements with other countries, none of which has ever really troubled many people in this area—or the difficult decisions we will have to make on our negotiating strategies with the EU when these powers come to the United Kingdom. Indeed, if some people in this Chamber got their way and the United Kingdom was broken up, those hard choices would still be devolved to the areas that had been broken up. Those difficult decisions would need to be taken none the less.
This is why I struggle with some of the amendments today and with some of the sentiments that have been expressed. The idea that there are no hard choices in trade is for the birds. The idea that the negotiations will not be difficult or choppy, when much will be on the table to be used as leverage—