UK’s Withdrawal from the EU

I thank my right hon. Friend, with whom I have been debating such matters for the best part of 30...

No. As my hon. Friend says, he and I have been debating European matters for about 30 years —time...

In recent days, a number of statements have been made by several different Ministers that have le...

The Government’s policy is what the Prime Minister set out in her statement yesterday and is summ...

On a more positive note, in order to get the withdrawal agreement through, which we should all wa...

I agree with my hon. Friend. We all wish my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General we...

I am immensely grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. Is he aware that the atmosphe...

The right hon. Gentleman accurately encapsulates the decision facing every hon. Member, from whic...

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way, because this may help us later in the debate. Ca...

This may not be the first or last time that the right hon. Gentleman has been confused, but he wi...

Will the right hon. Gentleman clarify something following the Prime Minister’s statement yesterda...

Whether a motion is capable of amendment and which amendments are in order is, of course, always ...

The Minister will be well aware that we are approaching the 21st anniversary of the signing of th...

The detail of any event to mark this anniversary would be a matter for my right hon. Friend the S...

Does the Minister agree that the phrase “Government policy” implies not just the offering of a ch...

The hon. Gentleman is asking me to speculate about hypothetical events. My energies and the Gover...

In relation to the Minister’s answer to the Chair of the Select Committee on Exiting the European...

I will come to that point when I address the amendment in the name of my right hon. Friend the Me...

Does my right hon. Friend agree, further to the point made by the hon. Member for North Down (Lad...

I agree that the question about the definition of “temporary” is important, particularly in the l...

If the House will forgive me, I have given way quite a lot and I want to move on to the substance...

My right hon. Friend is being very generous in giving way. Before he moves on to the question of ...

My right hon. Friend has been championing this approach for a long time. I am grateful to him and...

The right hon. Gentleman mentions a hard border and the backstop. Does he understand why the Iris...

It is for the Irish Government to explain their policy. We will also have to deal, as I am assumi...

I wish to pursue the question asked by the right hon. Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson). ...

Let me be clear that when the Attorney General has been talking to representatives of the Europea...

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for what he did yesterday with the publication of the summary of...

I thank the right hon. Lady for what she said about the papers published yesterday. I thought she...

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that because the political declaration is legally non-binding...

I place rather more faith in this House than the hon. Gentleman would appear to do, because I do ...

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I will give way to my hon. Friend, as he tried valiantly to persuade you to accept an amendment, ...

Unfortunately, amendment (j) was not selected, but I am sure my right hon. Friend will agree that...

I genuinely do not fear that, because what I am finding increasingly in my conversations with pol...

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I will give way to the right hon. Gentleman, for old times’ sake. Then I will come back to the ho...

The right hon. Gentleman is being typically generous in giving way to Members from all parts of t...

I agree with the right hon. Gentleman, and I do not think that what he has just said is any diffe...

Unfortunately, my amendment (g), which sought to end the whole charade by revoking article 50, ha...

The flaw in the hon. Gentleman’s logic is that it should be welcome to any Government or supranat...

I am glad that the Government have published at least the summary of the no-deal consequences, an...

I have not seen that particular paper but I will make sure that I look at it and draw it to the a...

I want to be a little bit helpful. In response to the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South E...

The hon. Lady does not characterise the Prime Minister’s words yesterday accurately at all. The P...

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If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will try to give way to him later, but I hope he will le...

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I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson) first, then to my hon....

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way; I think the whole House appreciates his gen...

I do not blame my hon. Friend for having a good try, but one thing I have learned in my years her...

I am sure my right hon. Friend will be aware that a lot of small businesses have not put in place...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. Our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International...

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I beg the right hon. Lady’s pardon. I shall give way to her, then I would like to address the var...

The question from the hon. Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson) is so important, because business...

The short answer is yes, but I will flesh that out when I respond in more detail to the selected ...

With the greatest respect, I think the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (...

My right hon. and learned Friend is asking me to comment on a hypothetical whipping decision on a...

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I will give way one last time to my hon. Friend, and then I will make some progress, otherwise I ...

I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend. Just before he moves on, I would like to ask one ques...

Instructions were given to draft that paper following the previous debate during which the right ...

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As I have referred to the right hon. Lady, I will give way to her and then I will make some progr...

The right hon. Gentleman is, as ever, being very generous. It is very important to make this clea...

I am very grateful to the right hon. Lady for that.

I will, if I may, move on to the variou...

Order. Just before the right hon. Gentleman starts on this important process of critical analysis...

I will try to restrain my appetite to take further interventions, Mr Speaker.

Yesterday, th...

May I say that I enormously welcome the fact that my right hon. Friend has reiterated all that fr...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that intervention.

If the Government were to bring forward legislation in accordance with a vote in Parliament, woul...

As the right hon. Lady knows, the Prime Minister said that an extension would be short and limite...

With the greatest respect, the Minister did not answer the other question from my right hon. Frie...

In the absence of either an agreement to extend article 50, to leave with a deal or to revoke art...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I am conscious of the concern about time that you expressed, Mr Speaker, but I will briefly give ...

I have listened very carefully to just every debate on this topic, and I understand that the Euro...

My hon. Friend is asking me to go deeper into the realms of hypothetical speculation. Tempting th...

Nobody has a better understanding of these issues than my right hon. Friend and there is nobody w...

The straight answer is yes, of course. Frankly, I just do not see any circumstance in which, if a...

I thought that that answer was extraordinarily helpful. I agree with my right hon. Friend entirel...

I am very grateful to my right hon. Friend for that intervention.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is extremely generous and I also take his word very seri...

I do not think that I can go into details on the legislation at this stage. It would depend a bit...

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Will my right hon. Friend give way?

No. I am conscious that I am disappointing a number of hon. Friends and other hon. Members, but o...

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Minister has now been on his feet for over an hour. Is there...

Well, it has been 63 minutes. The Minister for the Cabinet Office is known for the intellectual a...

It is the hon. Gentleman’s hon. Friends, as well other colleagues across the House, who have been...

I rise to support amendment (a) in my name and the name of the Leader of the Opposition. It is tw...

I am grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for allowing me to intervene. I thought he ...

I am grateful for that intervention. I will deal with it. I will come to the background and the a...

The right hon. and learned Gentleman has referred to spending a lot of his time standing at borde...

I was and I have. I have visited that border many times. I visited it with the Police Service of ...

It goes beyond that, does it not? The right hon. and learned Gentleman may share my anxiety that ...

I am grateful for that intervention and I agree with it.

This is really the heart of it: we...

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I will just make this point and then I will give way.

The Prime Minister has pretended that...

I listened with care to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s response to the five principle...

As has been alluded to, I am having discussions with Government Front Benchers, including the Min...

I will give way, but I want to finish answering this question. The point is that, unless and unti...

I am very grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for giving way. As he knows, I shall b...

I am grateful for that intervention. We are playing our part in those discussions with the Govern...

I must say that the right hon. and learned Gentleman is possibly generating more alarm than he re...

I am grateful for that intervention, because what it demonstrates is the point I was trying to ma...

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I am going to press on. I will just make some progress. I will give way in just a minute. I do no...

I have been listening with some interest to the right hon. and learned Gentleman’s explanation of...

I think I acknowledged earlier that these points go predominantly to the political declaration an...

But the Leader of the Opposition has said that he objects to the backstop because it will not be ...

I tried to deal with that question last time I was at the Dispatch Box, but I will have another g...

Given that Labour party policy on a second referendum was different a week ago from what it is to...

I understand the point and the force with which it is put. Given the conversations that have gone...

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I will deal with the earlier intervention. It was put to me earlier that we should not adopt that...

Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman agree that if a Parliament simply guessed what version ...

I am grateful for the right hon. Lady’s intervention for two reasons. First, I have been very har...

May I take up the point about social order? I have faced social disorder in my own constituency a...

I agree wholeheartedly with my right hon. Friend.

I too agree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy). Stoke-on-Trent was the...

It is important to appreciate that at the moment, I am pressing an amendment that favours a Brexi...

Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman give way?

I have not finished answering the question yet.

What I am putting before the House today is...

Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman give way?

I have not finished answering the question, and it is an important question.

If that cannot...

I welcome the Labour party’s movement towards a second referendum. Some people say a second Brexi...

Yes, and I think that was repeated by the first Brexit Secretary on a number of occasions, althou...

I am going to make some progress, as I have now been on my feet for 40 minutes.

We are putt...

Order. Before I call the right hon. Member for Meriden (Dame Caroline Spelman), I have now to ann...

Thank you, Mr Speaker. To be honest, I was not expecting to be called quite so early in the debat...

The Prime Minister has indeed repeated ad nauseam that the way to avoid no deal is to vote for he...

As an experienced former commercial negotiator—I know that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erding...

I would be delighted to hear the right hon. Lady encourage those on the Front Bench to confirm th...

I cannot commit the Government to that, but it is clear to the House that these are not normal po...

Order. The hon. Member for North East Fife (Stephen Gethins), who speaks for the Scottish Nationa...

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Here we are for yet another debate and yet more votes as the clock t...

I should have made it clear to the House that, having been reassured by what the Minister said to...

I thank the right hon. Lady for that clarification. The amendment standing in my name and that of...

The hon. Gentleman tends simply to ignore the fact that the British economy is doing well. We hav...

I find that this is the extraordinary thing. The hon. Gentleman knows I have huge respect for him...

And the Welsh Government.

The Welsh Government do it. A minority Government must speak to the other parties and engage with...

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I have taken some interventions from the Government side, so I shall take one from the Labour Ben...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the mess he refers to includes business confidence falling in ...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. We are seeing business confidence falling and investment ...

My hon. Friend is making a good point about democratic accountability. I have been serving on the...

It has been extraordinary. As usual, my hon. Friend makes an excellent point about how the Govern...

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I will give way if the hon. Gentleman can possibly justify it.

I honestly do not think that Slovenia has anything to do with today’s discussion of the withdrawa...

It is extraordinary: I have not even mentioned Slovenia yet, but the hon. Gentleman knows the ref...

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I will give way to the right hon. Lady as I have made reference to her.

The point that everybody in this House needs to understand is that, on Privy Council terms, I saw...

As usual, the right hon. Lady makes a powerful and valid point. As this is the first time I have ...

You might regret it.

The right hon. Lady is right, I might regret it. As so often, she makes a powerful point. That is...

A five-minute limit on Back-Bench speeches now applies, although I warn colleagues that that limi...

I will try to abide by your instructions, Mr Speaker; thank you for calling me so early.

It...

As the hon. Gentleman is busy lecturing Scots and Scotland, I hope he will reflect on this point—...

I actually think that is quite questionable given the SNP’s recent election results and how badly...

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Just wait a minute—sit down. I have taken one intervention. We should look at how badly the SNP i...

Two days ago, the hon. Gentleman told this House that the United Kingdom already trades on WTO te...

I am afraid the hon. Gentleman misheard me. I said that we trade with the majority of the world o...

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I am sorry, but I am going to finish because I do not think that a third intervention will add an...

We need to begin by acknowledging that we have made a little bit of progress. Yesterday the Prime...

On the point about the purpose of an extension, what does my right hon. Friend think of President...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. This is a challenge the House will face the moment it h...

I am sorry to bang on about this, but we are a rule-of-law state and it is an unlawful question t...

The right hon. and learned Gentleman very forcefully makes one of the arguments for why no deal i...

To reply immediately to the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), it is not actually...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. If we do not have control of our laws, we do not ha...

That is completely right. That is what we are here for. We are not here to voice our own opinions...

It is worse than that, because it would apply not only during the implementation period but durin...

I am so glad that my hon. Friend has made that point, because I was about to make it myself and n...

I wonder if the hon. Gentleman is aware of the utter irony of this situation. He moans and compla...

I do not concede what the hon. Gentleman says for one very good reason: it is part of the United ...

We are quite extraordinarily grateful to the Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee.

5.1 ...

As I follow the hon. Member for Stone (Sir William Cash), I would just point out to him that I am...

My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. In addition to that confirmation, which I, to...

That is hugely important. I will finish these quick points and then come on to that. I would like...

Let me ask the right hon. Lady a question, as she is taking such a prominent part in this debate....

We have to get some form of sensible agreement in place so that people can get on with their live...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette...

Can my hon. Friend, who is a fellow member of the European Scrutiny Committee, recall that very e...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who is immensely knowledgeable on all these matters.

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I shall not give way. I only have a very short time and I would like to continue, if I may.