If the Government say, as they did on Monday night, in terms, that that amendment will not do because it is vital that the Government are not legally constrained in these discussions, that seems to imply that the Government might not pursue this point if the EU 27 decide to strike some sort of bargain with us which entails our not pursuing this point. If the statute book remained unamended—if the 2018 Act, which binds the Government only to seek to negotiate, remained in force—in what way would the Government be legally constrained unless they intended to negotiate in bad faith, which I do not think is the case, or to regard this as a lower priority, as a card that could be played? I find that very offensive.
European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard
(Crossbench)
in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 15 January 2020.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
801 c767 
Session
2019-21
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2024-04-26 20:52:01 +0100
URI
http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Lords/2020-01-15/20011533000003
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Lords/2020-01-15/20011533000003
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Lords/2020-01-15/20011533000003