My Lords, we are indeed fortunate to have had someone with the huge experience, not least internationally, of my noble friend Lord Hendy introducing the amendment, as reflected in the authoritative way in which he did so. I always applaud my noble friend Lord Hain, who said that he could not understand why the Government did not accept amendments. I am sorry to bring controversy to this discussion, but we must face the truth. I suggest to my noble friend that the explanation is quite clear. A bunch
of ideologues in Number 10, such as we have never been exposed to in my time in politics, are determined to drive their strategy through. Their strategy is for a free-for-all and a totally unregulated society. They are fundamentally opposed to regulation and, with that, accountability. Unless we face that reality, we are just tackling everything down river without going to the source of the problem.
My noble friend was right to underline the importance of the protection of labour and employment standards. I was glad to hear my noble friend Lady Blower speaking. She was absolutely right to emphasise the importance of the UN and UNCTAD in particular. UNCTAD has played an important role in bringing the nations together to find a workable and just system across the world. My noble friend Lady Chakrabarti also has considerable experience. She emphasised the fact that we are talking about the law and our need to be vigilant in protecting the environment and the NHS.
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In this process, in Committee and more generally, we are now learning just how much we have lost by coming out of the European Union. There was much maligning of the international court and the international administration of justice but, my goodness, I have served on Select Committees that have examined witnesses from a wide range of relevant professions and backgrounds who foresaw that we would quickly recognise the gap that we now face.
The message of the last election was to take back control. There is no answer to the issue of taking back control because you cannot have it both ways. If we are taking back control, that must mean that parliamentary authority is present in all that we do and that there is an effective means of scrutiny. Without that, we are not taking control; we are giving control to a group of unrepresentative people, bearing in mind the significant dynamics of the ideologues in Number 10. This is an important amendment and I am grateful to have had the opportunity of hearing first hand my noble friend Lord Hendy introduce it.