I rise to speak in support of the Government and against the Lords amendments. I do so as somebody who campaigned and voted in the referendum for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. I believe passionately that a close, positive relationship with our friends and allies is very important to us and very important to them for the future.
However, it seems to me that, in addressing these issues tonight, we need to be enormously pragmatic. Those of us on the Government Benches, when we fought an election and accepted that our plan was to acknowledge the decision of the British people and to put it into effect, accepted the responsibility to make the decisions that would enable that to happen. Taking the stand that the Government are on this matter this evening is, in my view, a crucial step on that journey.
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It is overwhelmingly in the mutual interest of all parties involved for us to reach a deal, and my constituents, who marginally voted to remain in the European Union, have the expectation that I will call for that in this House. It is possible that the leaders of the two parties have already reached such a deal in the negotiations that are taking place today. With such fundamentally different views of the facts on the two sides of this debate, it seems to me that, in the spirit of accepting that responsibility, we need to say, “We have made this decision, we have set this course, we will support our Government and we will achieve the outcome that we need to achieve.”
On so many issues, we have heard concerns passionately raised and articulated—concerns about the impact on refugees and migrants, something in which I have a personal interest; concerns about the impact on business; and concerns about the impact on people’s ability to access medicines and healthcare. I have listened carefully, because my constituents are asking those questions as well, to the responses that I have heard from Ministers with responsibility for each of those areas of Government activity, and I am assured that we have measures in place that are sufficient to meet this test: “Are we taking these steps in good faith as a country, in a negotiation that is being conducted in good faith, with all the perils and risks that negotiation inevitably and always involves, but in pursuit of a desirable outcome that both sides, in good faith, wish to achieve?”
It therefore seems to me that it serves no purpose for us to engage, as I accept Parliament previously did when there was a Government without a majority, in so much hand-to-hand fighting and negotiation, point by point, on so many of these issues. Let us draw a line under this matter. Let us make the decision.
I was struck by what my hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Katherine Fletcher) said about the practicalities of this. The United Kingdom needs to be ready for whatever the outcome of these negotiations is. We hope for, we expect and we are working towards achieving a deal that is in the mutual interest of all concerned. In the event that that breaks down—as many have commented, that would involve breaches of good faith and potentially of the law on both sides—we need to be ready to ensure, in exactly the way that our friends and allies in the European Union are, that we have the arrangements and powers in place to deal with whatever consequences might come our way. That is why I believe that the Government are taking the right course and I intend to support these measures and vote against the Lords amendments this evening.